Dallas Stars Christmas Wish List Rather Slim This Year

On Saturday night, the Dallas Stars ravaged the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 6-2. With the Christmas season right around the corner, it looks like the Stars have a very slim Christmas list for Santa this year.

The Dallas Stars entered Saturday night’s game with a bit of pressure on their shoulders. It was the first time this season that the Stars truly experienced any sort of threat or challenge to their status.

The Stars experienced their seventh loss of the season on Thursday when they dropped 3-1 to the Calgary Flames. This was the second game of a three game home-stand and the Stars just could not get it done. They ran into a hot goaltender and missed two defensive assignments and the game was a lost cause from there.

This worried Stars fans. After what had been such an unexpected and beautiful beginning to the season that ended with the Stars sitting atop the NHL, their performance in December just did not seem like them. After Thursday, the Stars sat with a record of 4-2-2 since the beginning of December. While most teams would respect this record, it was not like this shining team to struggle as much as they were.

But the ship was righted, and just in time. The Stars faced off with the Montreal Canadiens, who came in as the second best team in the Eastern Conference, and sparks were expected to fly. Instead, the Stars gave the Canadiens no room to work and laid down the law through their play. The final score was 6-2, and the Dallas Stars became the first team to 50 points in the NHL. They have 49 games to go.

This is quite the turnaround from last season. After much preseason hype in the summer of 2014, the Dallas Stars just could not get the job done. Though their season from December on was not entirely disappointing, the early months ended up burying them, including a skid in early November where they took on an 0-5-2 record.

The play just was not up to par to take on the big, bad Central Division and, to a lesser extent, the Western Conference as a whole. The Stars lacked a consistent starting goaltender as well as a solid and reliable backup. Their defense was composed of primarily inexperienced rookies and suffered to a near horrific degree. They ended the season 26th in goals scored against, while they finished second in goals scored.

But the second was not powerful enough to outweigh the first. They attempted to spark a miracle run in March, but it was too little, too late. As a result, the Stars finished sixth in the Central Division with 92 points. They were seven points out of the final wild card spot.

Considering their deficiencies, the Dallas Stars Christmas list was a little excessive last season. By excessive, I mean that Santa Claus might have clenched his chest in despair and agony when he saw it.

Around this point last year, the Stars were seven points out of a playoff spot and it looked as though they would never close the deficit. They had started to quietly rally and string some wins together, but the gap never seemed to get any narrower.

But at the top of the Dallas Stars Christmas list was the blatantly obvious: some veteran experience on defense. The Stars had two defensemen on their roster above the age of 28, being Alex Goligoski and Trevor Daley. The rest were younglings still getting acclimated as regulars in the NHL. Heck, even two of them were in the midst of their first year of NHL-level competition. Some veteran help was necessary, especially to help get the goals against down while the rookies continued to search for defensive consistency.

Next on the list was of course the goaltending. Kari Lehtonen was messily piecing together the worst year of his career and could not find the consistency that starting goaltenders need in order to succeed. He finished the season with a .903 save percentage and a 2.94 goals against average.

Meanwhile, the Stars were also struggling to find a reliable and competent backup goaltender. They started the year with Anders Lindback, but he ended up not finding his first win of the season until December 21, 2014. The AHL did not prove to be of any help either, as the Stars called up G Jussi Rynnas for a quick two games before sending him back down.

Not to mention their special teams. Kris Kringle himself might not have been able to help the Stars power play and penalty kill. Though both improved towards the end of the year, the beginning was definitely an eyesore to behold. So many penalties left without being converted upon, as well as plenty of power play goals being given away. Heck, even murmurs and wishes for a new coaching staff were in the works.

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The only thing that wasn’t on the Dallas Stars Christmas wish list was help on offense. The offense turned out to be the only reason why the Stars did not finish at the bottom of the pile in the Western Conference.

The crowds and attendance began to die along with the hype, and by the end of the season it was a disappointing sight to behold inside the American Airlines Center.

But Santa must have passed through Dallas during his summer vacation and left a couple of gifts during a supposed three-week layover. In that duration, the Stars added on veteran goaltender Antti Niemi, defenseman Johnny Oduya, and forward Patrick Sharp. The trifecta seems to have been all that separated last year’s Stars from ultimate success.

So this year, St. Nick will get the opportunity to bask in the thank you’s from Dallas Stars fans instead of going to hunt for more additions to the team overall. Though a little more help on the power play and penalty kill wouldn’t hurt…

Next: Stars Prove Against Canadiens That They Still Reign Supreme In NHL

But the Stars are in an excellent position right now, and Saturday night they proved that they do not plan to evacuate their spot atop the NHL anytime soon. During this joyous season, we should all be very thankful for that (and Jim Nill, because he’s kind of the reason this is all here in the first place. Kudos, Mr. GM).

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