Dallas Stars Could Still Be Dangerous Playoff Team

The Dallas Stars haven’t had the greatest start to the 2016-17 season, but they finally seem to be finding their groove. People seem to already be counting them out, though. That’s not the smartest idea.

On December 25, 2015, the Dallas Stars community was able to celebrate an extra gift on top of all of the material goods they received. That gift was the fact that their favorite NHL team sat first place in the league.

Fast forward to one year later, and sadly the outlook is significantly different. Times change, teams change, and sadly results change as well.

The Stars currently sit tied with the Nashville Predators for fourth place in the Central Division. They are 14-14-7 with 35 points in 35 games. But here’s the real kicker: they currently sit three points out of the final wild card spot and six points out of third place in the Central.

As the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues try and run away with the top three positions in the division, people are slowly beginning to form predictions and claims to where each team may fall once the Stanley Cup Playoffs come around.

First off, let me just remind all of you that each NHL team still has somewhere between 46-50 games remaining in their schedule. That means there are still 92-100 points that could be accumulated. So making playoff predictions this early is a rather pointless affair. The season isn’t even halfway over yet.

But now is the right time to survey each team and analyze their qualities to get a feel for whether they may turn a corner, experience a drop, or remain relatively stable throughout the rest of the season in time for the postseason.

And for those who are already counting the Dallas Stars out or assuming that it’s time to pack up this season and start planning for next year, you might not want to jump to conclusions. This Dallas Stars team could not only begin to excel in the second part of this journey, but could also become one of the dangerous teams in the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs.

No, seriously. Just hear me out on this one.

There are a few different reasons that support the theory that Dallas turns on the jets and begins their conquest towards a playoff berth and then the hunt for the Stanley Cup. It’s all primarily centered around the recent turnaround that the team as a whole has gone through.

It seems as though the Stars are a more complete team now than they were at the beginning of the year. This progression is leading to an increase in success and effectiveness. In other words, the Stars are beginning to win games in a more dominant fashion instead of just squeaking by, and even when they lose it’s in a hard-fought battle where Dallas had just as good a chance as the opposition.

The Stars are 3-1-1 in their last five games. They snagged seven out of ten points in the most recent five-game homestand. All three areas of the team are starting to produce on a consistent basis as well.

The offense is now averaging 2.54 goals per game. That number has slowly been increasing over the past few weeks. Dallas scored three or more goals in three of their five most recent games. Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, and Jamie Benn have all scored in the past two games. And once Patrick Sharp returns from injury, Dallas will have all of their “best players” back in the lineup, with all hopefully still producing at their expected rate.

Dallas is also receiving significant scoring support from players not named Benn, Seguin, or Spezza. Radek Faksa and Adam Cracknell have been leading the charge for the Stars’ bottom ranks, as well as Antoine Roussel, Curtis McKenzie, and Devin Shore. And how could we forget about the bearded Patrick Eaves?

The defense continues to chip away at the goals against average, which now sits at 3.03. The Dallas Stars defense has not let up more than two goals in regulation in any of the past five games. They only gave up 10 on the homestand as a whole (2.00 GAA).

The Stars are finally beginning to find consistency on the blue line as well. Esa Lindell and John Klingberg are developing solid chemistry as the team’s top pairing. Dan Hamhuis and Johnny Oduya are helping lead the bottom two pairings, with Jordie Benn and Stephen Johns doing their fair share. Patrik Nemeth and Jamie Oleksiak are also proving to be competent substitutes and go-to players in critical times.

The defense as a whole is finally starting to mesh. The effort we have seen over the past two weeks has handled the five-game test well.

And finally, the goaltending. Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi continue to silence any critics that berate the tandem. How did they do it? By simply not giving anyone a reason to blame them. Funny how that works.

Both Stars’ goaltenders have helped keep Dallas in the majority of games this year and have always given them a shot at winning. The Stars are rolling in the backend as a result.