Dallas Stars Not Alone In The Shocking Category Of Non-Playoff Teams
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars have practically gone from the top of the NHL to the bottom in the span of one season. While the fact that they are not making the playoffs this year is surprising, they aren’t alone in this rare categorization.
Imagine that you are a fan of another NHL team. It doesn’t matter which team you pick, just as long as it’s not the Dallas Stars.
Now look at the Stars. Think about what has happened to them over the past 365 days. It’s not a pretty sight, is it?
In one season, the Dallas Stars have gone from the top team in the Western Conference to the fourth worst. They have fallen from 109 points to potentially not even hitting 80 (they sit at 75 with three games to go). That’s a 17 win difference.
The biggest disappointment is that there is no clear cut answer to point to that has caused all of their problems. Coaching, goaltending, defense, injuries and special teams are all viable areas to blame, but no one has been more detrimental than the other.
Dallas Stars
After investigating it all and seeing just how sharp of a drop-off they have experienced, you can’t help but feel sorry for them, can you?
Now come back to reality.
It’s weird looking at them from another perspective. Sure you know the pain and suffering that the Stars have probably caused you this season, but when you look at it from a different angle, it can bring an entirely new view into the frame.
This season has simply been a disaster for Dallas. There’s always something that goes wrong. Even when it has seemed as though there was a slight glimmer of hope and that maybe they had turned a corner, they found a way to immediately recede.
One week ago, the Stars were officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoff race. It had been on the horizon for a little while, but the math did not settle in until Monday night. Since then, the Dallas Stars have primarily been on the downhill slope, as most would expect from a team playing solely for pride and kicks.
They are 1-3-0 in their last four games. They were shutout against the Boston Bruins and their only win came against the Carolina Hurricanes. While the final score was 3-0, they only scored one goal that did not come via an empty net.
A team that was once so powerful has fallen so far. The Stars will not even be able to end the season at a .500 average. If they win out, they will hit 81 points, their second lowest total in franchise history and their lowest total since 1996. It’s hard to put into words just how low they have dipped.
But they aren’t the only team that has fallen well short of expectations this season. In fact, they aren’t even the only team in the West.
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While the Stars’ story might be hard to beat in terms of ugliness, the Los Angeles Kings are close behind.
For the past seven years, the Kings have finished with at least 95 points at the end of the season. They have qualified for the postseason in six of the past eight years and won two Stanley Cups in the span.
Their roster has remained primarily intact in terms of big-name players over the past few years and head coach Darryl Sutter has kept the ship headed in the right direction.
But this year, the Kings are in a similar hole as the Stars. After qualifying for the postseason last year, both teams entered this year with high hopes. As we have already seen, the Stars didn’t meet those aspirations.
For the Kings, their aspirations actually grew during the middle of the year. After goaltender Jonathan Quick was injured in the first game of the season and sidelined for four months, LA was in jeopardy.
They not only weathered the storm, but came out a stronger team. Within a week of Quick’s return, the Kings were still in the thick of the playoff hunt and picture. On February 26, the Kings traded for Tampa Bay starting goaltender Ben Bishop. That move gave them two proven and elite starting goaltenders in their crease for the remainder of the year.
And where are they now? Well, last night they were officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoff race. They are 37-34-7 with 81 points and will enter an early offseason with a stacked lineup.
Both of these teams have experienced an ugly fallout this year and both are likely to see some significant changes in the offseason. The Kings and Stars are in a decent position to win now, but they did not have the direction this year to make it happen.
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Maybe that will come up for one or both of them next season. But one thing is for sure: the Dallas Stars are not the only team that has been stuck in a 2016-17 nightmare this year. It’s nice to not be alone.