Dallas Stars Should Be Excited And Worried For Goalies Stealing Games

The Dallas Stars finally have the goaltending stability needed for stealing games. At the same time, however, their goalies shouldn’t necessarily need to steal them.

“Stealing games” is a concept widely accepted and evident in the National Hockey League. One team can play horribly, get dominated in every facet of the game, and allow – often times – twice the shots they generate, and still win the matchup because their goaltender was in another universe.

This hypothetical team wins the hypothetical hockey game thanks to nothing else but their netminder playing lights out in the blue paint. Their hypothetical goalie “stole the game.”

Stealing games is a terminology long used, even before the popularity boom of shot counts and advanced shot generation metrics. With one looked of the eye, you can tell which team deserves to win any particular game – but the goalie can strip it right out of their hands by playing the game of their life.

It’s something we, as fans of the Dallas Stars, have long sought after. Since the days of the unbeatable Marty Turco/Mike Smith goalie tandem, the Stars haven’t had a goaltender routinely steal games. Kari Lehtonen had been spotty in that aspect, and backup goaltending over the Lehtonen era has been a swirling vortex of notoriety in the dependability aisle.

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This, of course, wasn’t all bad. In most of the Kari period, the Dallas Stars didn’t have a goalie frequently steal games away from the opposition because they didn’t need to; the Stars won it themselves. Speed and effective skater play meant goaltending just had to be borderline decent, nothing too impressive or overwhelming.

Which, as you might have guessed, brings me to the main juncture of this article. The Stars should probably be very worried about their recent play, despite marvelous games by Lehtonen and Dallas starter Ben Bishop. Having a goaltender or two that possesses the the talent and mental resilience to win games that are otherwise easy, deserved losses is great, playing yourself into that position is not.

In two consecutive Dallas Stars games – Friday against the Calgary Flames, and Monday versus the Vancouver Canucks – the Stars have been handily outplayed. Kari Lehtonen and Ben Bishop have straight up burglarized them two wins, but there are zero ways to sugarcoat this: they have been baaaaaaad.

Dallas Stars

Lehtonen stopped 29 of 30 at Calgary on Friday, a game in which the Stars scored two power play goals and couldn’t do much at 5-on-5. Yes, power play profiecency is a requirement for good teams in the world of hockey today, but even strength excellence has heavily eluded the Dallas Stars this season. Lehtonen said “yeah, no big deal, guys,” and made due with the two goals on the board, turning some high-danger shots aside and stealing the game.

Bishop stoned 38 of 39 at Vancouver on Monday, including some pivotal stops on big odd man rushes and deflections. The Dallas Stars had just one player with an above 50 Corsi For % (Dan Hamhuis), while the Canucks had just one player under that same mark (Erik Gudbranson). How did the Stars, who once again didn’t score at 5v5, win the game? You do the math.

To have goaltenders capable of this is something that should make us all elated, but we must be weary. The Stars can’t let the score of these games dictate the way they play, as in: Dallas cannot pat themselves on their collective backs for what their goalie singlehandedly did. Aside from the special teams and the top line, this club has been dreadfully average outside of the crease.

Next: Stars Special Teams Becoming League's Best

The Dallas Stars will have to adjust and play the right way from the top to the bottom, not just relying on their netminder to win the hockey game for them. Stealing games is awesome, fun, and genuinely relieving for fans. However, there should be no games to steal at all if the Stars begin to play to their potential.

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