Dallas Stars’ New Years To Do List

With a hot start to the season in the books at the close of the year, here are four things the Dallas Stars should keep on their list of resolutions for 2016.

There’s a saying that goes, don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life. Kind of chilling, right? That’s one of the main reasons people clamor to draw up their list of resolutions at the dawning of each and every new year: they want to experience a year different and better from the ones behind them.

When you look at the way the Dallas Stars have approached their season so far, it’s obvious that they are after the same thing, and may very well achieve it.

But (and there’s always a but, isn’t there?), it’s also clear that the Stars cannot coast through the remainder of their season and still arrive at their intended destination. With the Stars recently dropping their first consecutive games this season, there are a few issues that they should consider adding to their list of New Years’ resolutions.

Resolution 1: Keep turnovers on plates, where they belong, and off the ice.

Turnovers, especially in the neutral zone, seem to have become an unfortunate weakness for the Stars and have, in multiple cases, cost them games.  Take Saturday’s tilt against New Jersey, for instance, when it was all the Stars could do to keep possession in the neutral zone. Besides looking downright sluggish (from one too many turnovers, perhaps), the Stars’ mortal sin was lack of focus which resulted in a constant loss of the puck.

And, you know, teams that lose the puck tend to lose another really important thing: games.

Resolution 2: Begin each first period pretending that it’s the beginning of the third and the other team has a two goal lead.

Because, really, this is when the Stars seem to play their best hockey. It’s just that by the time they finally start clicking, they might’ve dug their hole a little too deep to climb out of fully.

Again, they learned this lesson the hard way on both Saturday night and Sunday against the Islanders. In the past, Lindy Ruff has praised the team’s ability to come back from multiple goal deficits and win games, but I think we can all agree that there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Speaking of which…

Resolution 3: Sometimes trendy is just trendy, but the element of surprise never goes out of style.

Captain Jamie Benn said it in a postgame interview about losing consecutive games, but it applies to coming back from behind too: it shouldn’t become a trend. And we’ve seen this team perhaps resorting to familiar methods when they’re down a few points.

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You know the drill- Ruff does some line-juggling between periods, and either Benn, Seguin, Sharp, or Spezza come up with a goal. None of these are inherently bad (especially when goals are involved), but when it’s up to the usual suspects to pick up the pieces every time the Stars fall behind, well, they’re not always going to provide that miraculous jump-start the Stars are looking for.

Some of the most energizing comebacks from the Stars have come from, well, some unexpected places. For instance, Colton Sceviour against the Devils, or Valeri Nichushkin against the Islanders.

Although both of these games did end in losses, you can’t tell me it didn’t feel good to see goals coming from more or less unexpected sources. I’ll preach it until I die: utilization of line depth will be the thing that keeps this team on the up and up. Janmark my words.

Resolution 4: Be more careful with penalties. Or learn how to play the refs better. Or something.

It’s not a secret that the Stars seem to be racking up penalty minutes as of late, and that not all of the calls seem completely and totally fair (well, especially not to us Stars fans).

Over the last two games, Jamie Benn took an uncharacteristic amount of penalties, which really put the Stars in the hole. Against the Devils, the power play game-winning goal came while the captain seethed in the box, and the Islanders scored on the man advantage from one of Benn’s two trips to the sin bin within the first ten minutes of the game.

The Islanders scored on the power play again when Jason Demers got sent off for a boarding call. Ruff openly disagreed with the verdict, attributing most of the cause for the call on Cal Clutterbuck’s acting ability. Maybe the Stars should be taking notes?

Now, just because there are flaws to be found doesn’t mean the Dallas Stars are on a downward spiral or that I’m trying to sell you doom and gloom. Quite the opposite. The closer something is to perfection, the easier it becomes to point out the remaining deficiencies.

Next: Dallas Stars Road Trips In The Past Month Have Not Been Pretty

And that’s what a list of New Years resolutions is for, right? To figure out what’s left to be fixed and to make a plan to fix it. So here’s to hoping that the Stars, unlike many of us, will continue to work on these resolutions once January has faded into February and beyond.

What other resolutions would you add to the list?