Dallas Stars: Not Exactly Ready For Prime Time

The Dallas Stars were thoroughly humiliated at home on Saturday night. The 5-1 loss to Chicago highlights the team’s shortcomings as the playoffs approach.

In all fairness, the Dallas Stars dominated their last match against the Blackhawks back on December 22nd. So it may have been a bit of an understatement to say that Chicago would be extra prepared for their latest tilt at American Airlines Center. What was disappointing was how the Stars went about their business. Penalty trouble, defensive lapses, and shaky goaltending contributed to a resounding beat down.

Worse yet, a large percentage of the crowd–clad in Blackhawk red and black–was on hand to see their team rub the Stars’ nose in their own mess. For a team that ostensibly harbors visions of a deep postseason run, the Stars certainly didn’t put their best skate forward.

Problems that presented themselves during a disastrous January were once again apparent in the opening minute on Saturday night. An early hooking penalty on defenseman John Klingberg resulted in a 1-0 deficit. From there, the tone was set. The Blackhawks stretched their lead to 2-0 before forward Tyler Seguin cut the lead in half. Unfortunately, Dallas surrendered the first of two shorthanded goals in the waning moments of the first period and took a 3-1 deficit to intermission.

From there, the Stars seemed very disinterested in putting up much of a fight. The 5-1 final was a foregone conclusion. While it is somewhat understandable to cut one’s losses and live to fight another day, it would’ve been better to see a bit more testicular fortitude from the home team. That they called themselves out afterwards is somewhat admirable, but it doesn’t lessen the sting of such a one-sided whipping.

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What’s especially troubling is this team’s inability to play defense. They’ve backslid into last year’s maddening habit of allowing goals by the bushel. Since the calendar turned to 2016, the Stars have dropped nine of fourteen games. In those nine losses, they’ve given up an average of four goals a game, and have allowed at least three goals in all but eight of them.

The reality of the situation is that the Stars are currently far closer to mediocre than they are to elite. Yes, they did buy themselves some margin for error with their scorching hot start. Recent returns, though, suggest that the rest of the league has figured them out to a large degree. A good sturdy forecheck seems to vex their offensive zone breakout and prevents the up-and-down track meets that peppered the October thru December schedule.

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Is everything lost? Of course not. The doom and gloom being espoused here does need to be taken with a grain of salt. The Stars still possess the second most points in the Western Conference. The roster is still littered with names like Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Patrick Sharp. There’s plenty of time to remedy the problems that are ailing this team. It is frustrating, though, to see them having issues we were told had been fixed. Time will tell, but a wary eye needs to be kept on this team in the interim.