Dallas Stars: Five Reasons They Miss The 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Dallas Stars did a lot of good things in the 2017 offseason and seem to be ready to go against the best in the league. But here are a few reasons why this seemingly perfect offseason could leave Dallas in a similar boat to last year.

Have you ever planned a party before? You go about your business, putting in all the necessary energy and work and forming what seems to be the perfect shindig.

All of the food is ready, the events are planned, the decorations are set, and the guest list is confirmed. And then, it happens.

An uninvited person shows up and ruins all of the fun. Half of the guest list is allergic to one of the key ingredients in the meals. Someone spills all of the drinks. The power goes out. Half of the group doesn’t even show up.

It could be any number of things. The point is, something goes terribly wrong and seems to ruin all of the hard work you put into it. The party doesn’t go as planned and it’s an absolute letdown.

Dallas Stars

This feeling can be felt in a number of ways, including with your favorite hockey team. Take the Dallas Stars for example.

The 2017 offseason has been the Stars’ best offseason in a long time for a number of reasons. Following a catastrophic 2016-17 campaign in which Dallas finished sixth in the Central Division and 11th in the Western Conference, Jim Nill made a massive overhaul on his team’s structure.

He hired a new head coach Ken Hitchcock, acquired a new starting goaltender in Ben Bishop, added defensive stability by trading for defenseman Marc Methot, and brought in offensive firepower with the additions of Martin Hanzal and Alexander Radulov. In short, the Stars arguably had the best offseason of any team in the NHL and skipped over the thought of a rebuild and back into contention talks.

But before any talks of a Stanley Cup run can happen, the Dallas Stars have to do something that has stymied them in two of the past four seasons: make the postseason.

On Tuesday, I put up an article listing some potential reasons that the Stars will make the playoffs with relative ease. But there are two sides to every potential story.

With that being said, it’s time to play devil’s advocate. Here are a few reasons why the Dallas Stars making the playoffs this season might be a little more difficult than expected.

1. Players Don’t Buy In To Ken Hitchcock

The hiring of Ken Hitchcock will likely prove to be the Dallas Stars’ biggest gain or mistake this season, and there really isn’t much middle ground on the subject.

When the Stars parted ways with Lindy Ruff the day after the 2016-17 regular season finale, GM Jim Nill made it clear that Dallas wanted to be quick in their hunt for a replacement. That replaced came just four days later when they announced the hiring of Ken Hitchcock.

Broad Street Buzz

With the hiring, Hitchcock will start his second tour of duty with the Dallas Stars organization, and it may be tough for him to top the successes that he saw in his first term.

He served as head coach for Dallas from the middle of the 1995-96 season to the middle of the 2001-02 season and enjoyed a plethora of success. In every full season that he coached Dallas, the team finished first in their division. They made the playoffs every year and won the Stanley Cup in 1999, just two seasons after Hitchcock began his term. They went back to the Final in 2000, but fell to the New Jersey Devils.

In this go around, Hitchcock has plenty of talent to work with, similar to his situation in the late 1990’s. But the real question is whether or not the talent will want to work with him.

A standout feature in Hitchcock’s coaching style is his aggressive desire for results. He gets them more often than not, but his style can be seen as a tad overreaching.

For example, Stars legend Mike Modano told 1310 The Ticket about Hitchcock’s coaching strategy just after Hitchcock’s hiring in April. He mentioned how intense Hitch can be and about how Hitchcock would call him each night before a game to ask him how he was planning on contributing the next night.

Luckily, the team in the 1990’s bought into the style for long enough to win a Cup. But his style burnt out in 2001 and the players became disinterested, signaling Hitchcock’s exit.

This is a similar team to the one in 1996 in terms of makeup and skill. But it will be interesting to see whether all of the roster buys in.

Hitchcock has never been a long-term fix in his tenure in the NHL because of his style. If the current Stars don’t buy in and give him all of their attention and effort, this season could be just as disastrous as last year.

2. The Goaltending Tandem Falters

When the 2016-17 season ended, there were plenty of things to fix on the Dallas Stars’ offseason to-do list. Near the top of the list was the goaltending setup.

After a failed year with the tandem of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi, it was clear that Dallas had avoided making any massive changes for long enough. It was time to make a drastic, franchise-altering move. And that’s what Dallas did by trading for and signing elite goaltender Ben Bishop.

With the addition of Bishop and buyout of Antti Niemi, the Stars revamped their crease. Not only is Bishop younger, but it is obvious that his skills are far more polished and relevant. He was a Vezina finalist in 2016, led the Tampa Bay Lightning to two straight Eastern Conference Finals, along with a Stanley Cup appearance in 2015.

At the age of 30, he has yet to lift the Cup. But with a powerful offense and capable defense in front of him along with a reliable backup in Kari Lehtonen, he may have a good shot at lifting it in the near future.

But what if it doesn’t go as planned?

SenShot

There are a few potential pitfalls with the Stars’ new plan for the crease.

The biggest one most likely lies in whether Bishop’s style will be able to mesh with a young defense. In Tampa Bay (where Bishop has spent the majority of his career so far), he played behind an experienced and veteran defensive group, giving him plenty of confidence and added potential.

In Dallas, he won’t necessarily have that. Besides Marc Methot and Dan Hamhuis, the rest of the projected starters for the Stars this season are 27 years or younger. And while the Stars’ blue line should be considerably better with a new scheme and more experience, there may be some kinks, especially early on.

If Bishop isn’t ready to potentially take on an increased load, the goaltending tandem could see a struggle.

The other potential pitfall will be Kari Lehtonen as the full-time backup. It’s been eight years since the 33-year-old Finn played this role, and it could take some time to adjust. He has played in over 50 percent of Stars’ games since 2010, including a 69-game season in 2010-11 and 65-game seasons in 2013-14 and 2014-15. To immediately drop down to 25-30 games might require some getting used to.

Lehtonen has already seen a slight decrease over the past two years with the presence of Niemi, but becoming a full-time backup at the age of 33 and trying to manage his time and patience could prove to be a challenge.

4. Setting The Bar Too High

It’s common for a team like the Chicago Blackhawks to have their expectations set high in the preseason. Whether you respect them or absolutely despise them (or both), they always get results. That’s why the bar is always so high for them.

And that’s why the Hawks being swept in the first round of the 2017 playoffs was such a shock and brought about great change in the organization. With great power comes great expectations (it’s close enough to the actual saying).

Setting the bar high can be fun, but it can also be very dangerous at times. The Dallas Stars seem to have the bar set relatively high for them at the end of every offseason since the Jim Nill era began.

Nill and the Stars have a knack for bringing in the best talent on the market in each offseason. Names like Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp, and Johnny Oduya have come to Dallas over the past few seasons.

But with their arrivals comes heightened expectations. And as we’ve seen from the recent past with the Stars, these expectations can come back to haunt them and their fan base.

After breaking a five year playoff drought in 2014, the Stars were expected to do well in the 2014-15 season. Instead, they fell seven points short of a playoff spot. And after winning the Central Division in the 2015-16 season, there were rumors of a Stanley Cup run potentially happening in Dallas. Instead, the Stars followed 2015-16 up with the second worst season in franchise history.

Giving a team an unrealistic bar before they even hit the ice can be a drastic mistake. While the Stars do look good on paper after an excellent 2017 offseason campaign, there’s no certainty that they are going to take the cake this season (or even make the playoffs for that matter).

Qualifying for the playoffs is a special event, and it takes plenty of grit and consistency along the way.

If the Dallas Stars cannot find that consistency and answer the bell that their fans and the league have set for them, the playoffs may not be such a realistic possibility after all.

5. The Western Conference Is Still Deep

With the addition of the Vegas Golden Knights this past offseason, the Western Conference now has 15 teams. Seven of them are in the Central Division and eight are in the Pacific Division.

Of those 15 teams, only eight will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And while it looks as though the Dallas Stars have a realistic shot at being one of those eight teams, you can never be too sure. After all, the Western Conference is still stocked with plenty of talent.

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Take the Central Division for example. The St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild have been productive powerhouses within the division for the past few years, and have consecutively made the playoffs. Neither got substantially weaker in the offseason and kept their prime group around, so you should expect to see them challenging for postseason spots this year.

While the Blackhawks did lose a good amount during this offseason due to another cap crisis, they  have an impressive postseason streak going and always seem to find a way to make things work and stay in contention. With that being said, it might not be the best idea to bet on them missing the postseason this year.

Then we have the Nashville Predators, who entered the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the “last team in” but put together one of the most dominant and unthinkable runs. Though they lost in the Cup Final to the Penguins, their postseason performance and offseason endeavors made them the early favorite to not only win the Central Division, but also make another run at the Cup.

More From Blackout Dallas: 5 Reasons The Stars Make The Stanley Cup Playoffs

That’s four of the eight spots taken up. On the Pacific Division side, the San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, and Calgary Flames all have a strong shot at contending for a playoff spot just as they did last year.

If the Stars are going to make the playoffs, they likely have four available spots (assuming that the Pacific Division will take up the other four). With teams like Nashville, Chicago, St. Louis, and Minnesota in their way from last year, they’re going to need some extra power.

All in all, the Western Conference is still going to be tough to fight through. If the Stars can pull another 2015-16 run and take the division and conference by surprise, then they should be alright. But can they do it? It will all depend on how it plays out once they hit the ice.

Next: Stars Set To Strengthen Division Rivalries In 2017-18

This season is definitely going to be an interesting one. While the Dallas Stars likely won the offseason, they will have to keep the victory rolling come October 6. There’s reasons to be hopeful and reasons to be fearful. But in the end, that’s what being a sports fan is all about.