Dallas Stars: Five Reasons They Make The 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs

It’s do-or-die time in Dallas. After an incredible offseason expedition, the Dallas Stars now look ready to hang with the best in the NHL. Here are five reasons why they break free from last year’s funk and make the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It’s not often that an amazing chance like this comes along, which is exactly why the Dallas Stars should be thankful for what they have to look forward to this coming season.

At the beginning of each NHL season, 30 (now 31) teams assemble for six months of rigorous regular season battle, all while sharing a common goal: the Stanley Cup. And before the season begins, it seems as though just about every team (besides those in rebuild mode) has a way of twisting the fates in order to make it look like they are one of the top contenders.

It doesn’t matter who does the spinning or how much they spin. All that matters is that on opening night, around 20-25 teams have some sort of realistic belief that they will be lifting the Cup come June. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on where you stand), that number thins out a bit as the season rolls on.

Some teams prove to be stronger than expected and quickly ascend up the standings, while others flop heavily and fall far from their preseason expectations (insert 2016-17 Dallas Stars here). Everything balances out within the first few months and leaves a clearer picture of the league, at least until the playoffs start and then everything seems to refresh.

Dallas Stars

But, as we all know, only 16 teams make the playoffs and have an actual shot at winning the Cup. And of those 16, only one gets to walk away with the Cup on their shoulders. It’s like Ricky Bobby said: If you ain’t first, you’re last.

A lot of how this situation pans out each year has to do with how each team does in the previous offseason. Did they upgrade their roster? Are there any gaping holes that were made without being filled? Are they a better team than they were the season before, at least on paper? Are they already considered a good team? If not, did they do enough to change their description?

If all of the questions check out with the correct answers, then said team at least make it to the postseason more often than not. For example, the Dallas Stars answered all of the questions correctly in the 2015 offseason and made it to the second round of playoffs as a result. In the 2016 offseason, they answered a couple of the questions wrong and experienced a rude awakening in the 2016-17 season.

So what did they do in the 2017 offseason? They answered all of those questions correctly and passed with flying colors. Now they just have to make sure the success follows them onto the ice.

But the big question is whether the Dallas Stars are going to be able to dig into a stacked Western Conference and hop some teams from last season to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So we’re going to look at a few factors for each side of that question.

First off, here are five reasons why the Stars will have no trouble qualifying for the postseason and may even be in store for a deep run.