Dallas Stars Try It All, But Nothing Works Against Colorado
The Dallas Stars transitioned back to the losing column last night after losing to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs seem to be the one opponent the Stars can never beat, no matter what they do.
Last night, the Dallas Stars had the opportunity to go on their first winning streak of the season. After winning a gritty matchup on Thursday against the Edmonton Oilers, the Stars remained at home awaiting the Colorado Avalanche.
On a side note, the month of January has not been kind to the Stars. Going into Saturday night, the Stars were limping along with a record of 2-5-2 with just six points. It’s by far been the worst month in a season filled with predominant success and enjoyability. But after Thursday, the Stars seemed like they were finally determined enough to cut their mid-season woes and hop back on track.
That’s not what happened. The only problem is that if you watched the game and looked at the statistics, you might think it utterly impossible that the Avalanche walked away with a 3-1 win. That’s how much the Stars deserved to win the game.
Now of course the Stars had some deficiencies (like allowing two shorthanded goals) that Colorado capitalized perfectly upon. But they have some of those every game, just as every other team does. After three straight years of this, it’s sort of becoming clear that the Stars may never be able to find a successful antidote that pushes them past the Avs in a given game.
Since the beginning of the 2013-2014 season, the Dallas Stars are an ugly 1-8-3 against Colorado. They have been outscored 48-28 by the Avalanche in this 12-game span. That means that the Avs are averaging 4.00 goals per game against the Stars since the start of the “New Star Rising” era.
The Stars are a decent 34/40 on the penalty kill over those 12 games, and a gruesome 6/46 on the power play. The biggest pain to look at has to be the shot totals. In the 12 game span, the Stars have outshot the Avs 408-348. The biggest embarrassment might have been last night when Dallas outshot Colorado 43-15. You read that right. 43-15. The final score was 3-1 in favor of the Avalanche.
Semyon Varlamov is the prime reason that the best offense in the league can never get going against the Avs. His save percentage is only .918 this year, but that did not stop him from logging a .977 last night. Out of the 12 games mentioned above, Varlamov only started in one game where his save percentage was lower than .909. All the others were up close and flirting with 1.00.
It’s still unclear of why he always heats up against the Dallas Stars, but there’s no way to solve it besides scoring. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, who have both gone cold this month, could really use a goal or two each here before the All-Star Break.
More stars: Stars Have Defensive Future
The Colorado Avalanche just always seem to have the Stars number. Even if their defense is at it’s worst and their offense cannot put up a respectable number of shots, their goaltender is always there to take on the likeness of a brick wall. Or maybe their goaltender is struggling? No problem, their offense is ready to accept the challenge.
The Dallas Stars chances of ever beating the Avalanche again seem bleak. Of course this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s becoming repetitive at this point.
Next: Stars News: Is A Trade In The Works?
The Stars need to fix things, and quick. There are plenty of areas for improvement, but nothing is getting done. If they don’t hurry up, they will quickly find themselves towards the bottom of the pile. As scary as that may sound, it is entirely too true.