Dallas Stars’ Defensive Calamities Could Cause Click
Although the Dallas Stars’ current situation may seem a little scary, some fresh defensive blood could be just what the doctor ordered to snap them out of their slump.
When I was growing up, there was this great picture book called That’s Good! That’s Bad!. Despite the deeply indecisive vibes this gives off, it was one of my absolute favorites. In it, this hapless kid manages to get separated from his parents and floats off into the depths of the jungle hanging on for dear life to the string of a big red balloon (I’m going to land this plane, I promise. Just stay with me).
At every turn, something fortuitous happens to him- for example, he is lucky enough to grab hold of a vine to stop his descent even further into the heart of darkness- only to be countered each time by a stroke of even worse luck- i.e., said vine turns out to be a nasty hissing snake.
It’s a great story, and don’t worry; after a long chain of lucky-turned-unlucky-turned-lucky events, the kid makes it back to his parents, ultimately thanks to a rather unrealistically maternal elephant.
Granted, the whole story is extremely unlikely. I mean, wild elephants have better things to do with their time than running around reuniting lost little boys with their safari-ing parents. But as a kid, and even now, I tend to go for the whole up and down, emotional yo-yo, will our hero ever overcome the insurmountable odds kind of stories.
Which, to play psychologist for a second, is probably why I ended up a Dallas Stars fan.
If you minus the big red balloon, the elephants, and the jungle from the equation, the story is pretty similar to what the Stars are starting to experience with their season. They were doing well, enjoying an upswing that was pretty timely for both the team and for fans jaded by last season.
But you know what they say about what goes up. It must come down. If you’d argue that the Stars haven’t embarked on a bit of a descent, I’d encourage you to go get your equilibrium checked. January’s been somewhat of a bust so far, and it seems like all the Stars’ usual outs aren’t helping them. Josh Bogorad goes so far as to say that such an outcome was inevitable.
He goes on in a recent article to crunch the numbers and prove that, while the Dallas Stars do need to work on getting their act together, their current slump isn’t the end of the line for what was and still can be a very promising season.
But let’s focus on the first part: the Stars getting their act together. The tough thing with that is, how do you fix what’s wrong without knowing, well, specifically what’s wrong? There have been multiple little cracks in a foundation that started off very strong at the dawn of this season.
Nearly every aspect of the Stars’ play can be critiqued in some way. Goaltending obviously has been inconsistent when it counted, defense has been spotty and equally as unreliable, and even the offense has seemed somewhat lackluster and erratic. The largest holistic problem the Stars seem to face is falling into the pattern of falling behind early on.
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And the first thing this concerns is the defense- the part of the team, for those of us who may have forgotten, traditionally tasked with keeping the other team from scoring goals. Now I know what you’re thinking. Goaltending factors in here, too, right? Well of course it does. But several recent losses have ended with comments from Lindy Ruff that seem to indicate the blame is not squarely on just the goalie’s shoulders.
So, what can the defense do? It’s been shaken on a regular basis this season. It lost Jason Demers multiple times (and the whole team seemed like it was falling apart, remember?), has suffered from other teams catching onto and therefore in many cases shutting down John Klingberg, and now Jordie Benn has been put on IR for some period of time.
The good news here is that the Dallas Stars have a lot of young talent ready and waiting in the wings. This time, namely, Esa Lindell. So far in this season with the Texas Stars, he’s the fourth overall highest scoring defenseman in the AHL, with 26 points in his 42 games. Can anyone say potential baby Klinger in the making?
Whether or not Lindell will see his first NHL game today against the Kings is still to be seen, but the fact that the Stars have fresh options for defense is, well, refreshing. Ruff has proven that sometimes the most effective thing you can do to incite change is to shake things up. Adding Lindell to the lineup could be the defensive stirring that the Stars need.
Not to say, of course, that something as simple as adding a new defenseman will fix the Stars’ problems. But it could be a domino in the Stars’ own chain of lucky-turned-unlucky-turned-lucky events that puts them back on the winning path.
Next: Dallas Stars January Skid May Be Key To Success
Thankfully, they’re not stranded in the jungle, stuck in a pile of quicksand with angry baboons encroaching upon them. They’re just fighting to get back to the top of the Central Division. Which, now that I say it, may draw some valid parallels.
But in reality, the Dallas Stars do have the determination and willpower to keep this season alive, and some fresh defensive blood might just help them remember it.