Dallas Stars Loss To Islanders Puts Team’s Problems In Spotlight
By Josh Clark
Thursday night served as yet another clear reminder that the Dallas Stars are not a playoff-bound team and that they truly aren’t ready for it anyways. While they are still mathematically involved, their play just isn’t deserving enough.
It seems to be the same story every night. The Dallas Stars lost their game versus [insert opponent here] because, though they played a strong and respectable game, one or two mistakes buried them entirely.
That story held true yet again on Thursday night when the Stars crumpled on home ice at the hands of the New York Islanders, leaving only rage and anger to be felt by their fans.
The game started out on a near perfect note. The Islanders tallied an early goal on the breakaway after an unfortunate breakdown of the Stars’ defense. But Dallas was quick to respond with a Jamie Benn power play goal with only seconds remaining in the first period.
The second period was where things got out of hand. Radek Faksa pulled an insane move along the boards on his way to scoring the goal that gave Dallas the 2-1 lead. Moments later, Jason Spezza scored off of a beautiful pass from John Klingberg.
Dallas Stars
Just like that, the Dallas Stars had a 3-1 lead and looked like a whole new team. They were making it look easy against a potential playoff team.
Then they sank back into the defensive zone and gave up a goal. Luckily, they were still ahead 3-2 at the end of the second period.
When the third began, the Islanders wasted no time. After a lucky bounce off the end boards led to a tying goal, New York received two more quick ones to all of a sudden shift the momentum. Though Jamie Benn would score shorthanded, the Dallas Stars still found a way to monumentally cough up the lead and lose the game 5-4.
Take a moment to sigh heavily and get out all of your frustration before continuing. No matter how you put it, that game sucked. Plain and simple.
But the Stars showed a couple of things in the loss. They showed that it’s apparently now easier for them to come from behind and win in the third period than it is for them to already have the lead. They also showed that their same problems are the reason for their continued demise.
Overall, the Dallas Stars proved once again that they are not yet ready to be a playoff team again. Playoff teams don’t let last night happen. Playoff teams finish the game off with a dominant performance and take the two points. Dallas has been on the opposite side of that too many times this year.
The defense is egregious. The goaltending is a hit-or-miss. The special teams is just now coming around. And to top it all off, the offense is a major step back from where it was last year.
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Their play this season continues to ride the inconsistent trail, and that kind of play is not playoff-worthy.
You can hope all you want that the Dallas Stars somehow pull off a miracle this month and do something that they have not done all year: concoct multiple three and four-game in streaks. That kind of play would probably get them into the postseason.
But would it do them any good? With the way they are playing, it’s highly unlikely that they even come close to a playoff spot. If they do make it, they’re likely going up against the Minnesota Wild in the first round. That would be maybe a five-game series at best.
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Last night’s game simply proved that the Dallas Stars are not playoff-bound or playoff-ready this season. This team has some major kinks that need to be fixed up before they can think about another postseason berth.
As painful as that may be to accept, that’s just the way it is.