Too Little Too Late for the Dallas Stars
By Ben Davila
“Coulda.” “Woulda.” “Shoulda.”
In every facet of sports–and probably life–this is the loser’s lament: “We coulda done this.” “We woulda won if.” “We shoulda done that.”
This is why a team cannot leave themselves any margin for error. The Dallas Stars’ season got off to such a pitiful start with such a passel of coughed-up leads and overtime losses. This is why they left themselves no room to stumble.
And then we have what happened last night.
The Stars skated hard against the Blues. They dominated play for long stretches of the game. They had more shots. They were the more physical team.
They lost, 3-0.
This is why, even when they’ve won five of their last seven, you can’t feel good about this team. Just a scant two nights ago, they annihilated the Washington Capitals in what was probably their best sixty-minute effort of the season. Kari Lehtonen was just shy of great, save for the Caps’ last goal in garbage time. Under any normal circumstance, it would’ve been hard to fault Kari for giving up such a softy.
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Problem is, “normal circumstances” do not apply to the Dallas Stars and their net minder this season. It may be easy to slough off the number of goals allowed to the notion of a youthful and inexperienced corps of defensemen, but the fact remains that the main backstop has had a ghastly year.
Kari has simply been sub-par.
The question now remains whether Kari is worth holding on to through the 2017-2018 season as his contract is presently structured. Is Kari “the guy” moving forward? All signs point to “no”. To anyone sitting at their computer asking “Then where do we move him?!”, I can only reply that I don’t know. His contract may very well be immovable.
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There have been too many instances this season in which the Dallas Stars have needed “that save” and haven’t gotten it. If you’ve been a Stars fan for any stretch, you understand that the gold standard of goal tending is Ed Belfour. The Eagle laid a foundation that Andy Moog couldn’t. Belfour was singular in his contributions to the winning culture that got established in the late 1990’s. After that, even Marty Turco had his moment. Marty managed to help pilot the 2007-2008 squad to the Western Conference Finals, only to lose to the Detroit Red Wings in six. After that, a futile stretch of six seasons followed before the Stars reached the playoffs last spring. It was a wondrous reward that lasted all of six games. And it wasn’t Kari’s fault that the lead was given up in Game 6. Who knows what would’ve happened had Game 7 come to pass? We’ll never know.
Yet, for all the positive strides the Stars made last year, they’ve regressed twofold this season. Perhaps we should be thankful that the team is still even in the discussion for the postseason on March 16th, 2015, given that they can’t get out of their own way when it comes down to goals allowed.
Either way, when you are discussing–and disgusted with–your team’s methods and game plan, it warrants mentioning that the product on the ice has not lived up the expectations the squad set last season. There is supposed to be incremental improvement based on what was accomplished in the previous iteration. That has not happened. Ostensibly, we’d been told that this team was going to take the next step forward. Realistically, the opposite has occurred.
I’d feel better about winning five-of-seven if it meant the Stars were already in playoff contention. They have been playing pretty good hockey, yet they’re still six points off the playoff pace with twelve games to go. That’s a severe sign that wholesale changes are needed. Stars fans may love certain players and what they bring to the table, but the end results are not getting us where we want to go.
Honestly, if your name isn’t Seguin or Jamie Benn, then you should be ready to be traded. And even then, if the price is right, offers for Tyler or the captain have to be considered. It’d be great to have a Cup contender anchored by numbers 91 and 14, and even 90, but the general manager is going to have to take a long look at how this all went wrong if they fail to make the playoffs.