Only 11 games remain in the Dallas Stars’ regular season campaign, and the end cannot seem to get here fast enough for them. On the bright side, at least they are setting up to claim some titles.
Friday night marked the end of a four-game road trip for the Dallas Stars, and it probably ended how you expected it to: with a loss.
Since Wednesday, March 8, the Stars have endured a painful 1-4-0 drought. They have surrendered 22 goals to their opponents while only scoring nine. All in all, it was another depressing performance and outing from Dallas.
And these performances leave Dallas Stars fans searching not for answers, but simply for the end of the season. The Stars sit with a record of 28-33-10 and 66 points with only 11 games to go in the schedule. Considering they are 13 points out of the final wild card spot, the only thing left to play for in this season is pride. Even then, the Stars still seem to be having some trouble.
This hasn’t been the Stars’ year by any means. It’s not typical for a team to go from first place in the conference to being bottom three in such a short period of time, but that is what has happened.
Dallas Stars
After claiming the title of 2015-16 Central Division champions with a shocking 50-23-9 record and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Dallas Stars’ organization had plenty of hope to go around. Now in less than an entire season, all of that hope has quickly been converted to anxiety and uncertainty.
Last year, the Stars were breaking records left and right. Their record was the third most impressive in franchise history (since the move to Dallas), Jamie Benn hit the 40-goal mark, the Stars won their first Central title, and the offense led the NHL in goals for per game (3.23) by a large margin (next closest was 3.02).
But Dallas hasn’t come close to breaking any exciting records or claiming any impressive titles this year. Instead, they are on the brink of breaking a lot of records for the wrong reasons and being granted the titles that no team wants.
For example, if the Stars play .500 hockey the rest of the way out, they will finish the season with 77 points. That will prove to be the worst season in Dallas franchise history since 1995-96. To give you some additional perspective, that was the year that the Stars fired Bob Gainey mid-season and hired Ken Hitchcock. It also might help if I tell you that I hadn’t even been born yet.
And that’s only if they play .500 hockey, which they have struggled greatly to do this season. So stay tuned, because they might even fall lower than that.
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In on-the-ice news, the Dallas Stars are quickly approaching the title for worst defense in the NHL. The Stars have sacrificed the most goals in the NHL at 232, which averages out to 3.27 per game. To give you some perspective, in 2014-15 when everyone thought that the defense was the Stars’ main achilles heel and the reason that Dallas didn’t make the playoffs, they gave up an average of 3.13 GPG.
In second for that title is the Colorado Avalanche with 227 goals against. With the way things are going, the final game of the year may determine which team takes the cake.
Then we have the penalty kill. In this race, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to catch Dallas. The Stars sit at a penalty kill success rate of 73.8 percent. In second is the Buffalo Sabres with a 76.4 percent rate. No NHL team has finished with that poor of a percentage in over a decade.
All in all, the Dallas Stars have hit the ultimate 180. Last year, they had a serious claim for the title of “best team in the NHL.” This year, they have reason to be called the worst team in the league, though it might be difficult to defend them over Colorado.
Next: The Stars' Fate Lies In Jamie Benn's Hands
It just hasn’t been their year. But that’s what the offseason is for, right? It’s a time to find those one or two pieces that will help you turn all of your misfortunes around practically overnight and get you back on the winning path in time for 2017-18.
But until then, the Dallas Stars have 11 games left to be played. Let’s hope they can scrap out some sort of positivity in them.