Dallas Stars Proving That They Can Triumph Over Adversity

The 2017-18 regular season has been a fairly confusing and rollercoaster-esque one for the Dallas Stars. But one thing has shone through all of the confusion: this Stars group is resilient as heck.

There’s a lot that you can say about the Dallas Stars through the first 23 games of the regular season. You could talk about their fluctuating defense, their offense which seems to bring a different approach (and contributors) to each game, or their goaltending which is all sorts of confusing.

All in all, the Stars are a confusing team this year. They are a team that has not met their high preseason expectations (yet), but they have not crumpled altogether (yet), either. Dallas is still in the thick of the race and has a lot left to prove. It’s not the place Stars fans wanted to or expected to be in, but it could be worse.

It’s been both entertaining and sickening to watch the team at times. Some nights everything will click and the Stars will dominate the game. On other nights, they look discombobulated and out of focus overall and will take a beating from the opposition as a result.

The hot-cold-hot-cold pattern is the true cause of all of this confusion. No one can put a precise label on Dallas yet because of how many different sides they are showing in each game. The Stars are a good (dare I say great) hockey team when they put their minds to it. It all depends on how often they decide to play in that frame of mind.

Dallas Stars /

Dallas Stars

But there’s one thing that they have shown throughout multiple games this season that leads to plenty of promise. That one facet is their resiliency and determination.

There’s an old saying that goes like this: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

The Dallas Stars have figured out how to be that tough caliber this year. The team has been faced with plenty of tough situations, but they have very rarely folded in times of trouble.

Dallas currently sits with a record of 12-10-1 with 25 points. In five of those 12 wins, the Stars have had to come back from a deficit of some sort. They also had to rally from a 2-0 deficit to get a point in what eventually became the team’s only overtime loss of the season.

Though they cannot seem to keep their performances going on a consistent basis, their determination when facing adversity is almost always present.

It was not entirely present at the beginning of the season, but instead has grown just like the Stars as a whole. The first real example came in the Stars’ first matchup with the Edmonton Oilers in late October. Dallas went down by deficits of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 and fought back every time to knot the game up. They eventually fell 5-4 off of a deflection goal, but their determination was imminent. When the going got tough, the Stars got going.

All five of the Stars’ comeback victories came after that Edmonton game. In the past week, Dallas has come back to win in three of their four games. They rallied from a 3-2 deficit against the Oilers by scoring four unanswered goals on Saturday. On Tuesday, they scored three unanswered after falling into a 1-0 hole against the Canadiens.

And then we have Friday night as our most recent example. The night started with a memorable retirement ceremony for Jere Lehtinen’s no. 26 and ended with a Dallas Stars victory.