Dallas Stars Need To Focus On Sleeping In Today
The Dallas Stars have been going nonstop since Christmas, and their play is becoming a bit threadbare as a result. However, it’s nothing a little five day break can’t fix.
So if the Dallas Stars started the new season amped up and ready to go, they started the new year a bit fizzled out and needing to recharge. They’ve been keeping themselves busy, playing nine games since Christmas. And it’s taken an obvious toll on them, as they’ve dropped six of those nine.
Before this, the Stars were rolling right along and had yet to lose consecutive games. But during this after-Christmas stretch, it’s clear that something is throwing a wrench in things. This most cruel of adversaries, my friends, is called fatigue, and it’s been rearing its ugly head in many different aspects of the Dallas Stars’ play.
In recent games, the Stars have been getting to know the inside of the penalty box much better than they have before. Even players who are normally penalty-conservative, like Jamie Benn, have been picking up increasing amounts of penalty minutes.
The Stars have also seen a breakdown in their composition in neutral ice. Between turnovers and incomplete passes, the Stars have been increasingly outskated by their opponents as of late and have thus played in to their own demise on multiple occasions.
The clumsy unintended penalties and clunky neutral zone performances prove a level of physical weariness that is to be understood, and can easily be remedied with the five-day break the Dallas Stars will enjoy before taking on the Anaheim Ducks.
The other side of the coin, however, may be less of an easy fix.
The constant line switching and slacking production of some of the Dallas Stars’ most prominent players is indicative not only of physical exhaustion, but mental weariness as well. And as we’re all aware, sometimes the hardest battle is the one we fight in our heads.
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While Jamie Benn did score the Stars’ lone (standing) goal in last night’s game against the Wild, he and his compadre, Seguin, have become a bit quieter in recent games. Others have stepped up to help the Stars forge ahead, but in Dallas where everyone ropes and everyone rides, the estrangement of the dynamic duo from the scoreboard is owing to some tiredness for sure.
And though Ruff’s line-dancing has gotten the Dallas Stars out of tight spots many a time before due to the fresh perspective it can provide, it wasn’t up to the task against the Wild. Although the Stars started off the game creating quality chances, John Klingberg’s disallowed goal early in the first took the wind right out of their sails.
The Stars’ failure to recover from this and to overcome the goal deficit in the third, as they’ve proven capable of doing before, are telltale signs that this group is in need of a breather. With a nice, long break ahead of them, the Dallas Stars will recover from their physical fatigue for sure.
Hopefully, the mentality that has pushed the Stars to consistently steal games in the third period and has kept them from dropping consecutive games until this point in the season will get some rejuvenation as well in the upcoming week.
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So never fear. The Dallas Stars should start to look more like their normal selves with a little R & R. And hey, after all the winning they’ve done this season, they most definitely deserve it.