Dallas Stars: What Exactly Is Going So Horribly Wrong?
Things aren’t going too smoothly for the 2016 regular season Western Conference champions so far. Their subpar performance poses a new question: what exactly is going wrong for the Dallas Stars?
It’s never easy to lose. But when you lose 3-0 on Hockey Fights Cancer night in front of a sold out crowd at home to the Columbus Blue Jackets, it’s downright heartbreaking.
The Dallas Stars are now 2-2-1 on the season and sit eighth in the Western Conference. While the standings do not mean a lot at the moment, they give a perspective of just how tough the Stars’ division and conference is and that average performances aren’t going to cut it.
But what is so wrong with the Dallas Stars performance so far this year? The 3-0 loss to the Blue Jackets was a major wake up call for both the Stars and their fans. Being that I was one of the many sitting in the crowd, it was evident that something is not right.
The Stars played a relaxed and somewhat effortless game on Saturday night, and it came back to bite them in the rear. The Blue Jackets, who had just secured their first win of the season on Friday night before traveling to Dallas for a back-to-back affair, had no trouble capitalizing on the rested Stars.
After an acceptable and applaudable first period effort, Dallas laid down and gave Columbus the reins. The Stars were sloppy to the point of being unable to capitalize on multiple power plays, put together quality scoring chances, or even complete a pass at mid-ice for the longest time. They ended in a 0-3 hole, leaving fans feeling dumbfounded and altogether lost.
After almost two days of thinking, I still cannot come up with a valid answer as to why all of these troubles are plaguing Dallas.
Maybe it’s the fact that they are missing Mattias Janmark, Cody Eakin, Jiri Hudler, and Patrick Sharp. The infirmary ward continues to grow in size for Dallas, and they cannot seem to catch a break. The only problem with this theory is that the Stars put together one of their most impressive performances in a long time last Tuesday against Nashville. None of these players (minus Sharp) were available for that game.
Could it be their offense? The Stars have only put more than 30 shots on net in two of their five contests this year. In two of their five games, they have only taken a total of 20 shots in the game. This is not the Stars offense we know from last year, and injuries could be playing a factor in this lackluster effort.
Maybe their defense is to blame. The five opponents this season have put up a total of 161 shots on the Stars. That’s an average of 32.2 shots per game. That’s outrageous. This young defense is definitely still experiencing some growing pains, but they can still shut down the zone when they need to.
It’s definitely not the goaltending. Kari Lehtonen has posted a .924 save percentage in the past 3 1/2 games, along with a 2.26 goals against average. He has definitely proven to be the Stars’ MVP this year. Antti Niemi led Dallas to victory in their season opener with a .943 save percentage.
What about their special teams? Dallas currently sits 17th in the NHL with a 15.8 percent success rate on the power play. They also sit 19th in the league on the penalty kill at 78.9 percent. With the arsenal of offensive talent they possess, it’s hard to believe that the Stars are struggling so much on special teams.
All of these different facets could be blamed in one way or another, but at the end of the day it comes down to inconsistency. The Dallas Stars cannot seem to string together two consistent performances. One night they are outdoing Nashville in every aspect of the game and two nights later the LA Kings are picking up their first win of the season by running the Stars into the ground.
After Saturday’s loss, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff called their effort “as flat as flat could be.” That’s a proper assessment. With the Winnipeg Jets on deck, will the Stars be able to step past their inconsistency and get back on track with their preseason expectations?
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