Dallas Stars: Loss To Jets Shows Consequences For Unpreparedness

It was another sad night for the Dallas Stars on Thursday in Winnipeg as the team dropped another contest. All of these losses can be contributed to one thing: the team taking their foot off the gas too soon or not pushing the pedal at all.

“Slow and steady wins the race.” Whoever said this was obviously not a hockey player, but that hasn’t stopped the Dallas Stars from testing the theory out.

In fact, they have tested it out in various forms over three of the past four seasons. And in every case, it fails horribly.

Thursday night was the most recent example of this as the Stars dropped a 5-2 decision to the Winnipeg Jets. It may look like a blowout from the final score, but the truth is that it was a much closer game than you might think. So why didn’t Dallas come out with the win?

Well, a lot of it has to do with how the Stars started the first period. Dallas coughed up three quick goals in a span of 4:18 and gave Winnipeg a decisive edge. The 3-0 hole seemed to provide a wakeup call for the Stars, and they fought hard from then on out. But it was too steep a climb in the end.

Dallas Stars

And now the Dallas Stars are facing the consequences. They are 7-6-0 on the season, are two points away from the bottom of the Central Division standings, and are a humbling 1-4-0 in divisional play. They have given up 4+ goals in three of their last five games and look burnt out in most performances.

That’s not good considering it is early November. A team trying to avenge their subpar performance last year cannot be fatigued one month into the new season. Those don’t mix.

There are a lot of things that the Dallas Stars need to learn, work on, and apply to their game. It’s a constant learning cycle when you have a significantly different lineup than from the year before.

Perhaps the biggest lesson they need to learn has to do with starting fast. And this doesn’t only apply to starting games quickly; it also applies to the season as a whole.

This is likely the lesson that the Dallas Stars have struggled the most with over the past few years. Last season, the Stars started on a 3-4-1 note. By the end of November, they were sitting at a 9-9-5 mark. While that isn’t bad, it’s not ideal. The Stars’ slow start eventually caught up to them and buried them. As the season rolled along, it became more and more difficult for Dallas to catch up.

Fast forward to three years ago (it almost feels like an eternity) and you see that they had the same problem. After starting 4-2-4 in October, Dallas endured a three-game and four-game losing streak in November and finished the month at a 5-8-1 mark. These slow starts pile up and can quickly knock a “fragile” team out of the playoff picture.