Dallas Stars: Hitting the Reset Button

The Dallas Stars look to hit the reset button during their five day break after playing a brutal nine games in 15 days.

The break couldn’t have come at a better time for the Dallas Stars. After playing nine games in 15 days, and losing four of the last five, the Stars were scheduled a much-needed “vacation” from game action this week.

Few will argue, the best team in the NHL ended the first portion of the season on a sour note. But the goods is the issues were obvious, the solutions are available, and Friday night they get the opportunity to turn their ship back into the right direction.

"“We need it. We need some time away and some time to rest,” Stars’ Jason Spezza said. “I think it’s a good time for us. We’ve lost some games here. We had a bad five game set. We’re all not happy about how we’re playing. We need to get some practices in and just kind of get our game back.”"

That “game” that Spezza mentions, is a game that requires high effort, high skill, and precision execution. One could say that holds true for all hockey teams, but that would be understating the difficulty (and beauty) of Lindy Ruff’s system.

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Lindy Ruff doesn’t have a lock-down defense or a top-end goaltender. What he has are highly talented puck handlers who are faster, more athletic, and more in-shape than their opposition. Watching the Dallas Stars move the puck hearkens back memories of the Detroit Red Wings dominance of yesteryear.

When the Stars are on, they’re are operating on a level above everyone else.

When they’re off… well, we see what happens when they’re off.

"“It’s pretty obvious our energy is down from where from where it usually is and where we started,” Alex Goligoski said. “So it’s nice to have these days, and get a couple days away from the rink mentally to try and recharge our batteries.”"

Whether or not the Stars take advantage of this five day rest remains to be seen, but if they can hit the reset button, they have a very attractive schedule ahead of them. Between Friday and the All-Star break, the Dallas Stars play only six games in 18 days. For a team that values practice and film review, that is much more manageable schedule than what they were forced to endure earlier this month.

"“We’ve got to use this month,” Spezza said of the upcoming stretch of games. “This is where having guys comes into play. It’s our advantage. We’ve got to try to win our games this month. We’re going to watch everybody come up behind us in the standings without us being able to do anything about it. We’ve got to just focus on winning our games and getting back to it.”"

Next: What's the Expectation for the Stars?

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We will know shortly whether the Dallas Stars have been able to successfully reset their system as they go on their California tour that has stops in Anaheim (Friday), San Jose (Saturday), and LA (Tuesday).