This must improve for the Dallas Stars to make the postseason

With 33 games remaining in the season, the Dallas Stars have to capitalize on every game they can if they want any chance at seeing the postseason this year.

The clock is ticking on the Dallas Stars’ season this year, and the remaining span of games in their season could either make or break their hopes of competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2016.

We have talked a lot about the Stars’ “culture of mediocrity” throughout this season. For example, the team has won 15 out of 25 home games, nine of 24 away games, and four of their last ten.

Captain Jamie Benn and star winger Tyler Seguin, despite being in the top trio on the team in both goals and points, have underperformed, at least in the eyes of Stars’ management.

Benn, who has 18 goals and 34 points this season, is on track for 30 goals and 57 points by the time the regular season meets its maker. If he reaches 30 goals, it will be the fifth time in his career to do so and second season in a row.

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Seguin, on the other hand, has had a better statistical season than Benn. Seguin leads the team in points with 45 and is tied for first in goals with Jamie.

Although they are leading the Stars in scoring, their numbers against other players in the league aren’t as high as fans would like for them to be. Seguin is 48th in the league in points, tied with Vancouver rookie Elias Pettersson, San Jose’s Tomas Hertl, and Islanders forward and 2017-18 Calder winner Mathew Barzal.

Among players who were drafted in the top ten of their respective draft classes, Seguin is 30th. For players who were top-five draft picks, he is 24th.

The blame on Dallas’ so-far mediocre season doesn’t weigh entirely on Benn or Seguin’s shoulders. Depth scoring has been almost non-existent this season. Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov have a combined 50 goals on the season—which accounts for almost 40 percent of Dallas’ 126 goals scored. Making a playoff run is going to be difficult when four out of every ten goals come from only three of the 18 players on the roster.

Let’s look outside of the top trio. Rookie defenseman Miro Heiskanen is fourth on the team in goals with nine, and Radek Faksa follows with eight.

In terms of points, there are only five players on the roster that have scored more than 20 points this season: Seguin, Radulov, Benn, John Klingberg, and Jason Spezza. Both Heiskanen and Esa Lindell are on the cusp with exactly 20, and Faksa isn’t far behind with 17.

Although the core of the Stars’ roster is leading the team in scoring, the results are pretty low in respect to that of other teams.

The Stars rank 3rd to last in the league in goals scored, beating out only the Anaheim Ducks (120) and Los Angeles Kings (114).

Among goals allowed, however, they are tied with the Boston Bruins for the 2nd best team in the NHL, having only allowed 128 goals. Only the New York Islanders beat out Dallas and Boston.

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However, if you look at the top eight teams in the NHL in goals allowed, Dallas is the only one with a negative goal differential. And, among the Central Division, Dallas can keep pucks out of their net, but can’t put it in the opponent’s net.

The goaltending has been there for the Stars and that is thanks to the mid-season heroics of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin.

Although Bishop and Khudobin have kept the Stars in contention, good goaltending alone is not enough to push any team into the playoffs. For the Stars, depth scoring needs to show up in the back half of this season if the team wants any taste of the postseason.

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What do you think, Stars fans? Will the Dallas Stars see an uptick in scoring? Will the depth fill out? Let us know in the comment section below!

Published on 01/29/2019 at 13:01 PM
Last updated at 01/29/2019 at 12:14 PM

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