Dallas Stars Keep Taking Sick Days During Finals Week
By Josh Clark
Things are looking as they always do in Dallas Stars hockey: stressful as can be. This unrest is not good for the team nor the fans trying to trust the team in its current state.
School. It’s one of those things that everyone has to do growing up if they are looking to be successful in life. Even if it is a 17-year burden or some of the greatest 17 years of your life, it will always be a critical part of people’s pasts.
Who remembers going to school or is in school right now? It’s more than likely that the majority of people reading this have been through some sort of formal education. While kindergarten through eighth grade is a fun and enjoyable time for kids to make new friends and get a baseline education, high school and college are when things turn dark.
By dark, I mean difficult. The upper-level years of school are where students finally have to start listening and taking information in on a routine basis. If they don’t, they are almost assuredly going to close in on the “F” zone once finals week comes around.
Yes, finals week. Whether sleep depravity, excessive study hours, mountains of notes, or all of the above come to mind, everyone can agree on one thing: it is one tough week.
Unless, of course, you skip out. While all of your friends are stressing out, trying to salvage their GPA, you decide to take a chill pill and pull the “sick card.” Sometimes teachers or professors won’t allow students to retake the exam, a sick note from a doctor usually gets the trick done.
While you still have to take the exam, an extra day could be the difference between you getting an A+ and a D-.
It’s not the brightest or most efficient strategy to use, but the Dallas Stars seem to be using it to their complete advantage right now. The Stars are struggling along in crunch time, and it needs to be nipped in the bud if they are looking to truly contend this year.
The Dallas Stars have been in a rather intense battle for the past couple of months. Around this time last year, the Stars were fighting to wiggle their way into a wild card spot before time ran out. They ended up falling seven points short and missed out on the playoff dream that so many fans had believed in at the beginning of the season.
This year, the Stars have already clarified that they will be playing past April 9th in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The battle they are taking on this season is in regards to seeding. The Stars are currently in the midst of not only a battle for the top of the Central Division, but the Western Conference as a whole.
The Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues are the three teams duking it out for the top three spots in the Central. In terms of the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks are mixed into this group as well.
Things are as tight as they can be. There are six points separating these top five teams, and the ones near the bottom have games in hand.
The Stars spent this past weekend asserting their dominance against the Blues and Hawks. A win and overtime loss helped them clench control of first place in the division. Both of these teams lost Monday night, giving the Stars a golden opportunity to create separation in the race with a win against the Kings Tuesday.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, the Kings took control and made the Stars look simply discombobulated. Dallas ended up losing the game 5-2, and took a sick day as a result.
This sick day seems to be a recurring theme in primetime games. Though the Stars show up sometimes when we don’t expect them to, these golden opportunities are growing slimmer and slimmer. They just cannot seem to cash in on each chance they have to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
This is unnerving Dallas Stars fans that are still trying to convince themselves that this team is ready to make a run this coming postseason. If they cannot win the big games with no harmful effects right now, why would fans believe that they can be victorious in “win-or-go-home” scenarios?
More stars: Niemi Slumping At Wrong Time, Needs To Clean Up
It’s definitely a difficult situation to be in the middle of, and the Stars are tangled. Sure the Stars can take a couple of sick days here and there, but it comes back to hurt them in more than one way. Not only will they have to retake the final in a form of a playoff matchup that they potentially aren’t ready for, but it could also move them down the standings and set them up for a tougher round one opponent.
Things are tough. The Dallas Stars have done a pretty good job of dealing with unforeseen pitfalls so far this season. But they continue to struggle with the games that they know the scenario of ahead of time.
Next: Stars Being Hunted By More Than One Division
This race is one of the most entertaining NHL events in a while, and we should treat it as such. On the bright side, the Stars are already locked in for the postseason. But there are other parameters that need to be sorted out. That’s where the sick days cannot occur. If the Stars want faith in themselves and faith from their fans, they have to stay “healthy” and keep pushing forward. Otherwise, it may be an early exit kind of year.