Dallas Stars: Their Deal With Defensemen

For the first time in a long time, the Dallas Stars were playing with an injury-free squad and were making headway.

Key word there being were. About having an injury-free roster, not the making headway part.

As ever, the Stars are still in good fighting form and proving a tough match for any opponent they face (except for, perhaps, the Toron- the team that shall not be named).

Anyway, the point is that the Stars have pulled through valiantly despite multiple injured players and were starting to get back into the groove of running on all cylinders. All the boys were back in town, reunited and it felt so good, all of that.

Maybe it was the calm before the storm? Or the calm sandwiched between two storms. Albeit very skillfully weathered storms, on the Stars’ part.

What on earth am I talking about? Well, the fact that the Dallas Stars defensemen are dropping like flies.

Maybe that’s a bit dramatic. After all, we knew that a somewhat serious case of the flu was what kept Jordie Benn out of the matchup against the Sabres last night. Lindy Ruff mentioned that several guys were trying to ward off the illness, and it seemed like maybe they were all succeeding at it a little better than Jordie. Some luck he has, right?

But Jamie Oleksiak was called in to fill the extra defensive spot and, well, he was apparently a big hit.

But all was not quite well. After playing 2:55 in the second period, Jason Demers left the Buffalo game with a lower body injury and did not return, leaving the Stars to battle through with five defensemen. The absence must not have thrown them too much off, as they shut out the Sabres 3-0.

For those of us not quite yet used to this rejuvenated, dynamo team we’re now cheering for, it may seem strange that the loss of such a key player- a defenseman, at that- wasn’t enough to rattle the Stars into one of their patented third-period collapses.

Looking forward, though, Lindy Ruff let slip that Demers could be out and on the mend for a while. It’s not only ironic but also a shame that on his one-year anniversary of becoming a Dallas Star and after a such a great season start, that one of the Stars’ better defensemen sustained a possibly serious injury.

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That could’ve done some equally serious damage collectively to the Stars, or at least last season’s Stars. This season’s team has proven that they can handle the temporary loss of key players and can use the depth they’ve developed to sustain them.

Now that you’re wondering, no, the Stars haven’t lost a key scoring player like Benn or Seguin this season (knock on wood). Eaves, Moen, and McKenzie were the biggest losses to injury that the Stars have had to face this season.

But we can’t forget that Demers served a two-game suspension earlier this season (October 22, to be precise) for what some people decided to call elbowing against the Penguins’ Nick Bonino. How did his absence play out for the Stars then?

Well, their rebound was less than ideal, as they fell to the Panthers 6-2 in their first game back in the AAC after a four-game road trip. So do we chalk that one up to the Stars falling apart from the loss of one key player, or call it an ugly trap game and move on?

The Dallas Stars decided to do the latter. They won their next game, at home against Anaheim, 4-3 and then proceeded to beat the Canucks in overtime with the same score in Demers’ return game.

So is it quite realistic to call the current defenseman situation a storm? For last years’ Stars, the answer to that question would have been absolutely, and if panic ensued, it would have been perfectly justifiable and appropriate.

Next: Dallas Stars Trades: One Year Later With Jason Demers

But for the Stars that are rising from the ashes, the Stars that are on top of the NHL with 34 points and a 17-4-0 record in the first quarter of their season, this isn’t really a storm. But they will weather it all the same and come out on the other end stronger for it.

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