Dallas Stars’ Defensive Game is Restricting Offense
The Dallas Stars entered the 2016-17 season banking on a young defensive group. After the first few games, is it possible that they made a mistake?
The Dallas Stars have not yet shown they are capable of playing up to expectations. For a team that is meant to be taking the league by storm, a 3-2-1 record is less than impressive.
Dallas needs to diagnose the issue at hand and make changes quickly if they want to avoid fighting for their postseason lives later on down the line. One of those is their philosophy change in regards to defense.
Five-on-Five
The Stars are a good team five-on-five normally. They can mange to help out their goaltender and harness their offensive skills with speed. All of that is great. All of that needs to continue and, based on recent game, improve.
For starters, Dallas seems almost unable to get the puck out of their zone cleanly. A number of seemingly easy clears have resulted in extended periods of time in the defensive zone for no reason other than a mental mistake. That allows the other team to pepper Dallas’ net with shots and establish their offensive game far too early, which builds their confidence and hurts the Stars’.
More from Editorials
- Dallas Stars hockey is about to be the main attraction in Dallas this year
- Age Before Beauty: The impact of Benn’s new role on his Dallas legacy
- Dallas Stars hockey is the light at the end of the tunnel
- Dallas Stars coverage is lacking and it’s very concerning to be honest
- Sit back, relax and watch Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars draft scouts cook
In their own zone the Stars are often chasing the puck. That leaves wide open areas of the ice, which gives the advantage to their opposition. It also cranks up the pressure on either Kari Lehtonen or Antti Niemi in net because they have to make some difficult stops.
Making your goaltender work harder than necessary is an issue, especially when it results in goals against. Dallas should evaluate this area of their game accordingly.
Special Teams
Even more of an issue than even strength play is the Stars’ approach to special teams. For a team predominantly known for their skating ability and scoring touch, Dallas hasn’t lived up to their reputation of late.
Dallas has been struggling to get the puck in the zone when on the man advantage and it’s leading to bigger, more concerning issues.
Having an unsuccessful power play happens. Having a power play that leads to one or more breakaways for the opposing team is unacceptable. You send any of a number of players on a breakaway shorthanded and it changes the entire dynamic of the game.
More from Editorials
- Dallas Stars hockey is about to be the main attraction in Dallas this year
- Age Before Beauty: The impact of Benn’s new role on his Dallas legacy
- Dallas Stars hockey is the light at the end of the tunnel
- Dallas Stars coverage is lacking and it’s very concerning to be honest
- Sit back, relax and watch Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars draft scouts cook
That goal not only boosts the confidence of the opposing team, but destroys that of the Stars. They begin to doubt all of their passes where a player from the other team is in reasonable distance. Dallas starts to question if they can even score on the power play to make up for the mistake. It’s a mess.
If clearing the puck with five players on the ice is challenging, it is only more difficult with four. The Stars have been consistently fanning on simple passes and they seem to be guessing where their teammate will be on the ice. While this could be summed up as a simple early season issue, it’s not something other teams seemed to be dealing with to the extent Dallas is.
The Fix
Now that the issues have been outlined in rather plain language, the question begs: what can the Stars do about it? Most of their issues deal with familiarity, both with their system and their teammates.
That isn’t what Stars fans want to hear because it’s something that takes time, a limited commodity in the NHL. Dallas will have to find some type of consistency in practices and improve their communication throughout the locker room if they wish to improve.
Last night’s 3-2 victory on home ice was a step in the right direction, but because consistency has been Dallas’ achilles heel of late it’s influence will be more evident in a few days. They seem to be taking steps in the right direction, though.
If not, we could be sitting around in April wondering just what happened to the Dallas Stars’ season.