Dallas Stars’ Playoff Teams Have Sharp Contrast
By Josh Clark
The last time the Dallas Stars were in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they fell out in the first round. This year, their team looks much more poised for a run.
On June 4, 2013, the Dallas Stars made a memorable turn in their franchise history by changing their logo and jerseys by going with an entirely new color scheme not yet explored by any other NHL team.
It was a one-year long process, with the Stars, Reebok, and the NHL collaborating for 236 variations of logo, uniform, and striping. Victory green eventually became the color that rose from the compilation and is now one of the most influential and explicit shades throughout the league.
With the new jerseys came what seemed like an entirely new team. After Jim Nill took over as general manager on April 29, 2013, he called for a complete overhaul within the club, both on the bench and on the ice. Hiring Lindy Ruff as the head coach and making some blockbuster deals in that following offseason made the club into something it had not been for five years prior: playoff bound.
The Stars clinched the final wild card spot in game 81 of their regular season campaign against the St. Louis Blues and finished the season with a record of 40-31-11 for 91 total points. Their performance had surprised many throughout the year, and securing the playoff spot put the cherry on top.
The 2013-2014 Dallas Stars were by no means a Cup-ready team. Sure at the time people were hopeful that the Stars could do some damage because, well, every fan is hopeful of their team before the playoffs actually start.
Once the postseason began, it was clear that Dallas may not have been ready for the rough and tough expeditions that came along with the hockey postseason. They were squared up against the best team in the Western Conference, the Anaheim Ducks. It showed for the most part in the matchup.
The Stars fell flat after strong pursuits in games one and two, and traveled back to DFW in an 0-2 hole. They surged back to tie the series at 2-2 after two dominant wins at home, but it was to no avail. The Ducks secured victories in games five and six to win the series and knock the Stars out of the postseason race.
It was a massive improvement from the season before, but there were clearly some deficiencies in the Dallas Stars’ club.
For starters, Lindy Ruff was enduring his first season in Dallas. Just as any other player has to do, the transition took some time for Ruff to become entirely comfortable after a long career behind the bench in Buffalo.
Secondly, the Stars offense was improving but nowhere near where it is now. At the end of the regular season, the Stars were averaging 2.82 goals per game. That was good enough for tenth place throughout the league.
Tyler Seguin (37-47-84) and Jamie Benn (34-45-79) were the only Stars’ forwards that truly helped carry the scoring. Names like Alex Chiasson (13-22-35) and Cody Eakin (16-19-35) contributed as well, but their efforts were less than what was required to make the team an overall offensive powerhouse.
On the blue line, the Stars surprisingly boasted six left-handed defensemen. Alex Goligoski and Trevor Daley were the top defensive pair, while Sergei Gonchar, Jordie Benn, Brenden Dillon, and Patrik Nemeth rounded out the bottom two pairings. The goals against average was at 2.72 (17th in the league), which surprisingly enough was not horrible, especially considering the core they were using.
Finally, the goaltending crease was quite the debacle. Kari Lehtonen had a rather successful year, playing the most games of any goalie in the regular season and posting a .919 save percentage and 2.41 GAA. But going into the playoffs, Lehtonen choked and skid into a frenzy. To aid his troubles, the Stars called upon on an old (possibly too old) and weary Tim Thomas to backstop for them. All in all, it was quite the difficult situation.
Throughout the entire roster, a mere eight of the 19 players had ever participated in an NHL playoff game once the first round kicked off. Nerves and uncertainties filled the Stars’ locker room, as even their captain, who surprisingly played well in the six-game series, had never played in an NHL playoff atmosphere before.
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Looking back on it two years later, it was clear that the Dallas Stars had some internal problems when they tried to face the magnificent beast that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If anything, the Stars can chop it up as a trial-and-error process. It needed to happen, similarly to how last year needed to happen as the Stars needed a rebuild year to truly understand their weaknesses while giving new rookies time to adjust.
But two years have passed, and the Dallas Stars are back and better than ever. This time, they are in the Western Conference driver seat and have shown no intentions of easing up anytime soon.
The Stars will enter this year’s playoff race with a lot of momentum and preparation. They ended the 2015-2016 season as the highest scoring team in the NHL (3.23 goals average). Adding Johnny Oduya, Stephen Johns, and Kris Russell to the blue line have helped greatly. And the new two-starter tandem in net the Stars are using has proved to be rather efficient. Things are looking much brighter for this newly-formed playoff squad.
16 of the 19 projected Dallas Stars’ starters will go into this year’s postseason with playoff experience, including multiple players who have already raised a Stanley Cup in their career.
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All in all, the Dallas Stars have come a long way in a mere two seasons. A lot has transpired, some bad but mostly good in getting the Stars to where they are now. Their high-flying squad has a lot of promise, and has turned many heads now with the postseason on the horizon. Now what matters is putting this enforcing group into action. If they can do that, there is no telling how dangerous this team will be.