Dallas Stars Preview: Analyzing A Tough Road Out Of Bye Week

Everybody likes vacations. But the Dallas Stars will be welcomed back from theirs with a test whose results will say a lot about the fate of the rest of their season.

Spring break is the best. With the weather how it’s been lately, it kind of feels like spring break is right around the corner. For the Dallas Stars this week, it certainly was. While some of our favorite hockey players jetted off to places like Cabo to put their feet up for a few days, we’ve been thinking (or been trying not to think) about what will happen upon their return.

Whatever happens then, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves first that they departed in style. For Dave Strader’s first game back in the broadcasting box, the Stars proved that they still knew how to win in overtime and took the game 4-3 against the Lightning. That win seemed almost like a miracle and made a big statement about what the Stars wanted to do with the season that’s left.

But how the Stars return from bye week will say even more than how they entered it. Unlike the Lightning, the Arizona Coyotes, who the Stars are set to face at home on Friday, are conference foes who are also scraping the bottom of the barrel in the West.

Imagine there was some kind of a mix between midterms and final exams. And pretend that you were bombarded with them the day you returned to school after spring break. Well, that’s pretty much what the Stars will be facing in their matchup with the Coyotes.

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With two games left to play to catch up with the Stars, the Coyotes are 7 points down from the Stars. And since, whenever the Stars are 7 points down from a playoff spot, we don’t count that as too far out, it’s only fair to say that the Coyotes aren’t too far out from catching up, either.

We also know historically that the Stars can have a harder time against teams worse than they are than they have against better teams. So basically taking on the Coyotes after this week of rest could be the twisted up, strange and contorted version of David versus Goliath.

Obviously, the Stars do have a few things going for them. Strader’s presence in the first game of their five game homestand really seemed to pull a heartstring and light a proverbial fire under the Stars. His continued involvement with the Stars over the next five games will undoubtedly provide similar motivation to work for the win.

But just remember, too, that the Stars beat the Lightning in the first game back from their bye week; i.e., the Lightning team was more or less dazed and confused. The Stars could possibly come back with visions of Cabo dancing in their heads and hockey might take a game or two to settle back into its place on the forefront of their minds.

Next: Stars Fans' Ultimate Survival Guide To Bye Week

Of course, the Stars don’t have that kind of time to play with, and they won’t again for the remainder of this season. So basically the decision in Friday’s game will say a lot about where Dallas’s heads are, what they think is possible for the rest of their season, and what level of focus they are willing to maintain to get there.

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