Dallas Stars Should Tap Into 14-15 Selves To Salvage Season
The Dallas Stars have had luck on the road in seasons past, and need to tap into that ability again to salvage their season.
This most recent homestand is following on the heels of a decisive one for the Dallas Stars. We heard about it from Lindy Ruff and the players themselves leading up to it, and their words have been proven as the games to close out the old year and open up the new have unfolded.
Ruff claimed that the five-game homestand starting December 13th would be a telling one for the rest of the Stars’ season, which still seemed to him to be salvageable in a major way. Turning it around in those five games was crucial to turning it around for the rest of the hockey year.
The homestand itself turned out to be a little dicey. The Stars opened it up with a blistering 6-2 defeat of the Ducks but followed that up with a shutout loss against the Rangers. They won two days later against the Flyers to put an end to the Flyers’ impressive win streak, and then lost to St. Louis in overtime. The closed the homestand with a 3-2 overtime win over the Kings.
Fast-forward back to the present, with the homestand the Stars have freshly completed.
While the Stars opened up this three-game home stretch with a 4-2 win against the Avalanche, they fell 3-1 to the Panthers two nights later to end their first winning streak since the beginning of November. To add insult to injury, the Dallas Stars then suffered another defeat at the hands of the Canadiens, this time in a 4-3 overtime bid to open up 2017.
Alright, let’s rewind again. Looking back on those three consecutive wins, the arrangement of those games in the Stars’ schedule was advantageous. That first win came against the Kings, the 3-2 win at home at the tail end of that five game homestand. They’d had two days since their last game; some time to rest and reflect on that overtime loss they’d suffered in the previous game.
Directly following that win, the Stars had another two days’ respite before taking on Arizona on the road in a 3-2 win. Then, with only a day in between, the Stars won yet again in their homestand opener against Colorado, but the buck stopped there in that 4-2 win.
So what was different there? What kept that win streak alive? Ruff has preached the importance of homestands, and we can’t really deny the truth of the critical nature of that five game homestand.
Back during the 14-15 season, though, the Stars practically survived off road wins. Toward the end of their season, they created a hot streak that ultimately did not prove enough for a playoff push, but started with confident wins in their opponent’s domain. So it seems that road games can be equally as important in breathing life back into the Stars’ play.
In that three game win streak, they were still unable to win back to back home games; it took going out on the road in that short one game trip to Arizona to keep them in the win column. In fact, the Stars haven’t been able to pull off consecutive wins in the AAC all season long. Any back to back wins have come on the road, or in a combo of road and home wins.
So with a three game road trip coming up, what are the Stars to do? Coming off the overtime momentum from last night, the Dallas Stars should allow their road magic to work. Although they will be facing St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Anaheim, some opponents that they have had good games and good results against thus far, it will not be all smooth sailing from here. The Stars will have some obstacles to face.
As with all their roadtrips to California, the Stars will be playing at later times than they are used to, and will face these two teams back to back. The late start times will be an adjustment that could hinder the Stars, no doubt, but they can use the back to back scheduling to their advantage if they secure a win against the Kings first that can snowball into higher energy to secure a second win against the Ducks.
But the key here is to start off the road trip well. Winning against St. Louis will hopefully be within their grasp. With a two day break before taking on the Blues, the Stars will have an extended rest, which has seemed historically to often increase their chances of bouncing back on the road.
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So with a critical homestand behind them, the Dallas Stars will look ahead to this roadtrip, hopefully with the understanding that with the advent of this new year, every game has become a critical one. With each homestand and roadtrip that pass, the remaining ones become ever more valuable to the Stars in their pursuit of a reversed season.