The Dallas Stars’ season has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster. The immediate future is looking grim for the team, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t take away a few valuable lessons from their current situation.
It hasn’t been an easy road for the Dallas Stars (27-30-10) this season. Obviously, the high expectations for the Stars’ 2016-2017 season were extinguished a few losses ago. Having faith in the Stars hasn’t been the easiest either, but perhaps this season is just a stepping stone towards bigger and better things.
Dallas signed forwards Adam Cracknell and Curtis McKenzie for the upcoming season. It was an interesting notification to receive, looking at the return of McKenzie.
Dallas Stars
McKenzie’s played in 43 games this season, most of his absences being injury related or assignment to a healthy scratch. However, he does deserve some credit: McKenzie’s got some talent. There’s not too much to say about him, take that how you will, but at this point maybe it’s a chance to turn things around.
This season has been about resilience.
The team was dealt a plethora of injuries this year, but they continue to fight for a strong finish to their season. I mean, come on, it’s gotta be pretty hard on them, too.
Their goal of snagging a playoff spot is looking slim to none at this point. We had a little hope after the defeat of the Capitals but were quickly shot back to reality at with the next loss.
It’s pretty hard to move up in the standings without stringing together wins. Dallas has struggled immensely this season to do so, which explains their statistical decline. The team knows it, too.
"“I don’t have an answer for you,” Stars forward Jason Spezza said. “We haven’t been able to go on a streak and that’s why we are where we are. You have to ride the wave when you’re winning games and you have to try to string five or six games together to make up ground in the standings and we haven’t been able to do that and that was something we were able to do last year and it’s been incredibly frustrating.”"
Looking forward seems to be the best option for Dallas now. They’ve got a young team, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For this season, it’s not ideal, as the many injury-related absences have caused Dallas to bring up players from Cedar Park.
Players ripen at their own pace and eventually make it up to the Dallas ice when they are ready, but the situation this year may have caused the Stars to call players up that may have needed just a little more time to get ready.
Looking forward, there are some things that the Stars can be proud of.
- They’ve got some pretty talented players.
There’s no doubt that Dallas has some promising Stars in their future. Regardless of the circumstance in which they got to the Dallas ice, each of the players was hand-selected. They’ve got to be incredibly strong, mentally and physically in order to contribute to the team. Take Patrick Sharp, for instance. He’s been playing with an injury that will require season-ending surgery. He wanted to be there for his team, so he placed their needs over his own. That’s pretty admirable.
- They’ve overcome a lot of stressful situations.
It’s not easy to look at this season and be proud of it. There are plenty of things that went wrong, but sometimes it takes a humbling experience to really appreciate the good things that they have going for them.
- They’ve managed to continue playing strong.
Their playoff goal is slipping away, which is just as hard, if not harder, for the team than it is for the fans; yet they lace up their skates every day and give all that they can.
- They’ve got themselves a pretty amazing support system.
Next: Examining the Tough Pill That is the 2016-17 Stars
The Stars will travel to California for a matchup against the San José Sharks. It’ll be an interesting feat to see how the rest of the 2016-17 season goes, but as always, there is a silver lining to a bad situation.
In this case, it’d be that there’s always next year.