Dallas Stars Seem Unable To Fix Glaring Problems Within Team

It’s the middle of November and the Dallas Stars are still just an average an inconsistent hockey team. Considering they are almost 1/4 of the way through the 2017-18 season, the time for leeway is over. Now is the time to start asking questions.

The Dallas Stars are 9-9-1 after the first 19 games of the 2017-18 regular season. Chances are you probably never expected that you would read a sentence like that at this point in the year.

Yet, here we are. It’s been a rocky road to navigate so far, and the Stars are stuck in mediocrity. The most recent letdown came on Thursday night when Dallas was roughed up and blasted 6-1 by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was a showing and telling game for many reasons. For one, the Stars couldn’t seem to keep up with arguably the best team in the NHL. At another point, they went 0-2-1 on the road trip as a whole, keeping their road woes rolling even further. And finally, the loss helped sink Dallas into the middle of the standings even further.

It’s been an average year for the Stars. One night they will win in a 5-0 rout against a solid team, but will fall two nights later to a mediocre team in a 5-1 smacking. They will show flashes of brilliance and dominance at times, but will quickly resort back to flashes of last year’s struggles.

Dallas Stars

And it seems as though all of these struggles can be chopped up into a few obvious categories. These categories include a lack of scoring from depth players, a frayed and messy balance in the crease, and inconsistent efforts from the defense. Overall, it all seems to depend on if the Stars “show up” and bring 100 percent effort or not.

Stars fans and analysts have been quick to point out these flaws in articles, broadcasts, videos, and social media posts. The team’s problems seem so obvious and so easily fixable.

Yet nothing is working. The team has been facing these demons for 8-10 games now. After a four-game win streak carried them through games 6-9, the Stars hit the bump they are currently stuck on. And for some reason, they just won’t get over it.

Maybe it’s that they are unable to. After all, we are simply the audience in these analytical situations. We don’t know what goes on in the locker room or between the team. There could be something holding them back from greatness that they have not identified yet. The team brings subpar efforts to most games, and there seem to be easy fixes. But maybe there is a reason that they have not found those fixes yet.

It could also be that they are unwilling. Maybe they just have not found the motivation to right the ship just yet. As crazy as it may seem, sometimes it takes a strong dose of humility to wake up a team. There’s a possibility that they found that last night in Tampa. They seemed ready to beat the Bolts through their effort, but stupid mistakes and missed assignments combined with facing a stronger and sharper team did them in quickly.

The Dallas Stars are in an evident bind and it’s all because of a lack of committing to change. They lose, talk about why they lost, and then seem to do the same thing over again in the next game.

Something needs to change. They know that just as much as everyone watching knows. It takes a lot to bring a whole team to committing to change. But once that is accomplished, things turn around quick.

The Stars are not in the gutter by any means. At this point last season, they were 7-7-5 with 19 points. That may sound scary considering we’re talking about last season, but remember that the wheels didn’t start coming off the bus completely until after the New Year.

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But it is still a cause for worry. The Dallas Stars could very well be heading down that same road if they don’t make some changes. The problem with that is that this year’s roster is a significant upgrade from last year’s in all three areas. There’s not an excuse to fail this time around.

It’s time to shape up or ship out in Dallas. Will they figure that out and commit? Or is this season in for a long and dreary finish?