Dallas Stars: Three Takeaways From The 2017 Preseason
The preseason is in the rearview mirror and the regular season is rolling in for the Dallas Stars. How exactly did the team as a whole fare during the preseason? Let’s take a quick look.
It’s finally here. The week leading up to the regular season opener has arrived, and for the Dallas Stars, that means excitement.
It may be Monday morning and there may be a long work week ahead, but remember that there is a pot of gold waiting at the end. That pot of gold is the beginning of the Dallas Stars’ 2017-18 regular season.
This regular season will be one of immense curiosity for the Stars. After hitting rock bottom in the 2016-17 season, Dallas aimed for a strong rebound in the offseason.
And rebound they did. GM Jim Nill went out and secured assets to fill in every weak area the team had. The Stars’ offense, defense, goaltending, and special teams all received a boost from the moves made this summer.
Dallas Stars
The big question leading into the regular season is whether these boosts will pay off. Are the Dallas Stars in for another impressive and exciting season like they had in 2015-16? Or are they set up for a season filled with lofty expectations and significant disappointments?
This is the answer we’ve been waiting on for months. The Expansion Draft, free agency frenzy, development camp, and training camp have all led up to Friday night. It’s been quite the six month span of patiently waiting.
Another recent factor leading up to the big show on Friday was the 2017 preseason slate. The Stars played a total of six preseason games this year, and the results were rather diverse and scattered.
Dallas finished their preseason campaign with a 3-3-0 record. They swept the St. Louis Blues, went 0-2 against the Colorado Avalanche, and split the series against the Minnesota Wild.
But you cannot read too much into these results. That’s because the Stars used the 2017 preseason as a grounds for tryouts instead of competition.
Still, there were plenty of positives and negatives that popped up through the 11-day span. The results of the preseason only make opening night and the 2017-18 season that much more intriguing.
Let’s take a look at three significant takeaways from the Dallas Stars’ preseason campaign.
1. Mattias Janmark Is Back And Better Than Ever
It’s hard not to be in Mattias Janmark’s corner.
Just a little over a year ago, Janmark’s sophomore season at the NHL level was cut off at the knees (literally). Due to a rare but complex knee issue that was discovered during the preseason, the 24-year-old was forced to sit out for the entire duration of the 2016-17 regular season.
In addition to that, there was a chance that the rehab would not work well enough and Janmark would have to hang up his skates for good. That is quite the hurdle for a rookie coming off of a surprisingly impressive first year in the league.
Fast forward to one year later and things are looking up. Not only are they looking up, but they are looking really, really good.
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Oil On Whyte
After the ugly 2016-17 season ended, one of Nill’s first offseason moves involved re-signing Janmark, who was set to be an RFA on July 1. That was surprising, considering Janmark’s future was still uncertain and there were plenty of other players in need of contracts.
But Nill obviously knew what he was doing. And now, it seems like it could pay off big time for the Dallas Stars.
Throughout the summer, Janmark was the lone lingering question mark within the franchise. Was rehab still on track? Were things looking up? Would he ever play professional hockey again?
Luckily, the answer to all three of those turned out to be yes. Janmark returned to the ice for a few skating sessions with teammates in early September before heading to training camp. No. 13 had a solid showing at camp and showed no signs of hindrance or fragility.
Then the preseason began, and that’s when Janmark hit the gas. In three preseason games started, Janmark managed to score two goals and tally an assist. In addition to those stellar numbers, he also posted a +4 on-ice rating, the highest of any player on the Stars’ roster.
His performance was impressive and encouraging, and that’s just what the Dallas Stars were looking for.
The only question is whether he will be able to keep it up and continue to play at a fast and healthy rate. He is playing at a high level right now, but will he be able to keep it up? As long as his knee plays along, this could be a potentially huge year for Janmark.
In his first season in 2015-16, he scored 15 goals and tallied 29 points while playing primarily third line minutes. If Janmark is slotted on the second line like he is projected to be this year, his impact could be overwhelming.
All in all, it was an impressive camp and preseason for the young Swede. Not bad for a guy who had a 20 percent chance of never playing hockey again just one year ago.
2. The Defense Is (Still) Confusing
On June 26 of this past summer, the Dallas Stars acquired defenseman Marc Methot from the Vegas Golden Knights. From that point on, the Stars had a perfect problem to deal with. That perfect problem has to deal with the team’s defensive overstocking.
You probably already know about this if you’re a Stars fan. Heck, this has probably been the one storyline you’ve been waiting closely for developments on since it came up in June.
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Instead of going into the long lecture (which you can read about here) yet again, let’s just put it in simple terms. The Dallas Stars have nine NHL-ready defensemen in their system but can only carry a maximum of eight on the team. Eight is still pushing it, but it seems as though it is the way the Stars will be going.
So which eight defenders will make the roster for opening night? That’s a loaded question and you’re bound to get a few different results if you ask a few different people. Everyone had their own clever idea on how the Stars’ defensive lineup would shape out.
Going into training camp, it seemed as though the Dallas Stars had a set defensive group. Methot, John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, Stephen Johns, Dan Hamhuis, and Julius Honka were the six members of the presumed group. With this in mind, it seemed as though Jamie Oleksiak, Greg Pateryn, and Patrik Nemeth would battle it out for the final spot or two on the blue line.
Now that the Stars are through preseason play, this prediction is all but out the window. New head coach Ken Hitchcock has taken a strong liking to Oleksiak’s play, Lindell is on the top pairing with Klingberg, and Honka might be on his way back to the AHL.
The Stars pulled a complete reversal and proved that nothing is ever set in stone, no matter what the majority of analysts and writers say.
So, in essence, the Dallas Stars exited the preseason more confused about the status of their blue line than they did going into the preseason. Funny how that works.
The coaching staff likely has an idea on where they want the blue line to go and could reveal it as soon as today. But for now, we’re still confused. All we know is that Hitchcock likes Oleksiak and that Hamhuis, Honka, and Pateryn all had stellar preseason performances.
Who will be in the starting lineup on opening night? After the strong showings this preseason from the majority of the defenders, this question is anyone’s guess.
Let’s just hope that they end all of this confusion before October 6. If not, the Stars might be in for another year of defensive uncertainty, which leads to inconsistency more often than not. That’s the last thing this team needs.
3. Where Is The High-Caliber Goaltending?
The Dallas Stars entered the summer of 2017 with one specific thing at the top of their list of needs. That was a starting goaltender.
Jim Nill hit the ground running and traded for goaltender Ben Bishop in the first month of the offseason.
Upon Bishop’s arrival, it seemed as though the Stars’ goaltending problems had been solved. After years of incompetent backups and inconsistent starters, it was time for a significant change.
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SenShot
Bishop is known around the league as an elite goaltender. He’s a two-time Vezina finalist, led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and constantly turns in impressive stats on a seasonal basis. So those characteristics are obviously going to translate over to his time as starter for the Dallas Stars, right?
Well, it’s too early to tell. But if the preseason is any indication of what’s to come, the Stars might be in trouble.
Over the course of the preseason, Ben Bishop posted a .823 save percentage and 4.15 GAA in three starts. He also posted a record of 0-2-0. Those numbers are less than stellar, but luckily it’s only the preseason.
Even though none of these games count for much, it’s still a slight cause for worry. It is absolutely crucial that Dallas has a solid presence in net this year. The struggles of the last seven years can largely be blamed on goaltending, and the Stars need a confident no. 1 if they are truly ready to take the next step.
While Bishop struggled throughout the preseason, Kari Lehtonen seemed to respond well in his own playing time. In 159 minutes of play (the same amount of time Bishop played) this preseason, Lehtonen posted a 2-1-0 record along with a .932 save percentage and 1.89 GAA. This three-game stretch also included a shutout.
The goaltending looked to be on lockdown going into the preseason. Now, there’s cause for questioning.
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Was the preseason just a hiccup for Bishop that he can quickly get over? Will Bishop end up paying off like Dallas is hoping for? Is Kari Lehtonen still in the running for at least a dual-starter role instead of being the full-time backup? Should Lehtonen get the start on opening night?
Ken Hitchcock is known for being unpredictable with his lineup construction, and that leaves plenty to wonder about.
The Dallas Stars’ crease is set for the 2017-18 year in terms of talent. But how will that talent be used and positioned? The play of Bishop and Lehtonen in the preseason only further fogs up the answer to that question.
All in all, a 3-3-0 record isn’t great, but it isn’t bad, either. We’ll go ahead and call it an average preseason. A lot of decisions were made and a lot of new developments arose.
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These three points are just a few of the many new storylines that arose through the 11-day span. Now all that is left to do is see how they factor into opening night.
Just four more days.