A Look At The Dallas Stars Disappointing Power Play
The Dallas Stars, now winless in their last four matchups (0-2-2), continue to search for answers in order to salvage their once promising season before they are too far back and cannot surmount the standings in enough time.
A major reason why the Stars are losing these close games comes down to their special teams performance.
Firstly, their penalty kill is nowhere near where it needs to be. The Dallas Stars have given up 29 power play goals through 139 times on the kill. This puts them at 79.1%, tied for twentieth place in the league. Their kill has been sloppy, but in spurts. Saturday against the Avalanche, the Stars faced off against one of the league’s worst power plays, and ended up going 3/3 on the kill. This past week, the Stars went 8/10 on the PK against the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators combined. But it is not the penalty kill that they should be worried about.
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The Dallas Stars power play has turned out to be their “win or lose” decision-maker. The decision over the last few games has turned out to be to “lose.” The Stars currently sit in 22nd place in the NHL in power play percentage at 15.9%. Through 41 games, they have scored 22 goals on 144 attempts. That is an atrocious statistic to begin with, but the significance of the power play is becoming more and more relevant as each game passes by. The Stars started off 2015 with an exceptional win against the Minnesota Wild, winning 7-1 and went 1/5 on the power play, which all in all is not that awful considering the lead they had built that caused them to sit back a little.
Since the Minnesota game, the Stars have gone 0-14 on the power play, and have yet to win. The linking between the Stars ability to win and ability to convert on the power play is astounding, but they have yet to figure it out. After five chances on the man-advantage Tuesday night against the Blue Jackets, they lost by a mere two goals. After three chances on the power play Thursday night against the Predators, they lost in overtime by one. Lindy Ruff decided to spend the majority of Friday’s practice in Colorado working on the power play and beefing it up, but it was to no avail. The Stars put on their worst performance of the season on the power play Saturday, going 0 for 6 against an Avalanche team that ended up beating them in a 4-3 nail biter. All of these one and two goal deficits that could have all been changed by a conversion or two on the man-advantage.
Unfortunately, the Dallas Stars have suffered for their lacking skill on the PP, and there seems to be no end in sight. The Stars will need to focus and become more consistent on the power play if they want to succeed in the future. With one half of the season gone and the team still on the outside looking in, time is slipping away and cannot be wasted. Maybe a shakeup is needed in the lines, or even substitutions. The Stars also need to learn how to keep the puck in the zone and take every chance they have to get the puck on net.
Leave your comments and questions below, and as always, thanks for reading! Go Stars.