Dallas Stars Must Avoid Lounging On New Win Streak

Only 16 games remain in the Dallas Stars’ season, and they will need just about every one of them if they want this playoff dream to become a reality. That means that they have to keep their foot on the gas.

It feels good to win, everyone knows that. When you win on a consistent basis, life itself just seems better and brighter.

The Dallas Stars used to be strong advocates of winning. In the 2015-16 season, they put up an impressive record of 50-23-9. They had the second most wins in the league and won both the Central Division and Western Conference regular season titles. They also won their first round matchup in the playoffs and fell one win short of advancing to the Western Conference Finals. All in all, they simply adored winning.

This season, however, is a different story. Due to a number of unforeseen circumstances and overall disarray, the Stars have fallen far from the graceful position that they inhabited last season.

Now, the Stars sit with a record of 27-29-10 with only 16 games to go. They sit seven points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference and have a small chance (1.2 percent to be exact) of qualifying and playing past April 8.

Dallas Stars /

Dallas Stars

After trading away a handful of valuable assets at the trade deadline, almost everyone expected the Stars to tank. They were nine points out and sat at the bottom of teams still in contention.

But since then, a new spark has been ignited. All of a sudden, the Dallas Stars are playing quality hockey and getting the job done. They seem to have forgotten all about the grueling month of February that saw them go 4-8-0 and now seem prepared to make a run at the final spot.

Since the day before the trade deadline, the Stars are 3-1-0. They have beaten the Pittsburgh Penguins, Florida Panthers, and Washington Capitals (who are currently in first place in the NHL). They are 5-2-0 in their last seven and have accumulated 10 of a possible 14 points over the span.

Dallas now owns just their fifth win streak of the season at two games. After fending off the Panthers on Saturday and the Capitals on Monday, the Stars wrapped up a successful two-game road trip and moved within five points of the playoffs.

Then last night happened. The Stars received very little help in terms of handling the teams intertwined with them in the standings. The St. Louis Blues, who own the final wild card spot at the moment, defeated the Minnesota Wild to regain a seven-point lead on the Stars. The Vancouver Canucks lost in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens, giving them one point and pushing them into a tie for eleventh with the Stars.

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These were two of the best teams in the league that the Stars’ competitors hung around with until the very end. These results paint a clear picture for the Stars: things aren’t going to be easy and one loss could very well be fatal at this point.

With all of the teams around Dallas keeping up with them and matching their wins, the Stars can only worry about their own play right now.

“You can’t get ten points in one night,” Devin Shore said back on Feb. 18. “There’s a lot of things that are out of our control right now, so we can only worry about the things that are in our control.”

And what’s in their control is how they play. Too many times this season has Dallas rested on either one or two wins and expected things to simply come to them. Take last Thursday for example. After rallying on Tuesday night and knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions in a thrilling game, the Stars played a sloppy 60-minute effort to the New York Islanders and practically handed them the two points.

It’s hurt them dearly this season, and at this point it very well may hold them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Tonight, the Stars welcome the Ottawa Senators to Big D for their second and final meeting of the season. Due to a horrific own goal and third period meltdown, Dallas lost to the Senators 3-2 back in early February. That loss put the Stars on a four-game skid.

They already have a two game win streak, and they will need to build on it substantially over the next few games. They need to avoid watching the standings (though they are quickly becoming a factor) and focus solely on their play. If they begin to get lazy with the way they’ve been playing, it will most assuredly prove fatal to their chances.

Next: Stars Beat Capitals, Revive Faint Playoff Hopes

If the Stars can finally figure out how to do that, they might have a shot at turning the heat up and turing things around. The worst part about this situation is that Dallas has to rely on other teams at this point in the year. That’s never a good thing.

But if these Dallas Stars are truly ready to make a run at a postseason berth, they won’t rest on their recent success and will continue to fight on. It’s all up to them.

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