Dallas Stars Need To Learn How To Start Hot Or Not Start At All
The Dallas Stars continue to dig themselves an early hole in games, and it’s leading them to a loss more often times than not. They have to find a way to start strong if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Digging a hole directly under where you are standing is typically not a good idea (unless you are trying to navigate to the center of the Earth). Once it’s dug, you find yourself below everyone else and needing a way out.
But sometimes, finding your way out can seem near impossible, depending on the depth of the hole. It gets worse when you realize that you probably don’t have anything to help you rise up, such as a ladder. All you probably have is a shovel to make things deeper.
The Dallas Stars need to stop making holes. They dig themselves a hole early on in most games, especially in the recent past, and usually cannot find their way out of it.
With the playoff push in full force and the Stars needing every point they can get right now, these early holes are holding them down and preventing them from making progress in the standings.
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At this point in the season, Dallas sits with a record of 19-20-10 with 48 points in 49 games. That puts them below .500 and has them three points out of the final wild card spot in the West. That’s a long fall from first place in the Western Conference, which is where they sat last year.
This trend of misfortune can be blamed on a lot of things: inconsistency on offense and defense, unbalanced goaltending efforts, weak special teams play, and just about anything else you would think to blame it on. That’s led to an overall inconsistent streak, which is why Dallas is currently sitting on the outside of the playoff bubble.
But one of the main things that has been killing Dallas all season is their inability to start games on a strong note. Sure there are some nights where the Stars give a strong effort out of the gate but still find themselves behind after the first frame, but more often than not they start the game at a flat pace.
That flat pace digs them a hole/grave that they always seem to have trouble getting out of. Sometimes they find a way to get it back to even after a strong rally in the middle frame, but most of the time they cannot get the one extra goal they need to get the two points.
The Dallas Stars are 15-6-3 (0.625) this season when they score the first goal. That’s an impressive record. If the Stars always scored the first goal and kept that pace, their record right now would be somewhere around 30-12-6 (66 points) instead of 19-20-10 (48 points). A record like that would be enough to put Dallas in second place in the Central Division, with only one point separating them from first.
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On the other hand, they are an ugly 4-14-7 (0.160) when they surrender the first goal. That means that when the opposition is on the board first, Dallas has secured 15 of a possible 50 points. Those aren’t playoff numbers.
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This all goes to show that the Dallas Stars need fast starts in games if they want to win them. Once they get that first goal out of the way, they are usually off and running. But when they give away the first score, they rarely ever find their way completely out of the hole.
Since the beginning of the 2017 calendar year, the Stars have scored the first goal in just three of eleven games. They are 2-1-0 in those three games. In the games where they don’t score first, they are a humbling 1-4-3.
And the blame isn’t just on the offense for not scoring. While they could learn to apply more pressure early on, the defense isn’t doing them any favors by allowing four or five quality scoring chances and 10-12 shots in the opening frame. It’s a dual effort.
The facts are there. Fast starts lead to more wins. It’s easier to stay ahead than claw from behind.
If the Dallas Stars cannot figure out how to start scoring early on and taking the reins in the game, they will quickly find themselves behind the eight ball in this season.
