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.