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.
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This season, Dallas seems to be struggling with both aspects (which is a little discomforting). In games where the other team scores first, the Stars are 2-3-0. When Dallas gets on the board first, they are 5-3-0.
Either way you look at it, there’s a glaring problem. It seems that the Stars either start quickly and jump out to an early lead and then try to coast or simply come out unprepared and let the opponent take advantage.
But their effort is undoubtedly apparent. The 2017-18 Dallas Stars have more grit and determination than any Stars’ team we’ve seen in a while. They may not have it all together, but they make sure to fight until the end. We saw that last night when the Stars turned a 3-0 game into a 3-2 game. It’s just sad that they have to be prompted to fight back by being thrown into a hole.
The Stars have learned about all of the negative results that come from a slow start over the years. But for some reason, it still does not seem to stick.
Dallas is now sitting just a shade above .500 and is in danger of falling down the standings. It’s up to them to figure out their mistakes and avoid them in the foreseeable future.
Next: The Ups, Downs, And In-Betweens Of October 2017
The Stars need a spark, and starting strong in every game (and, as a result, the entire season) could provide just that.