Dallas Stars: Depth Scoring Could Save Their Season
We’ve seen the Dallas Stars go up and down and exhibit troubling inconsistencies, but depth has been a constant fall-back that has kept the Stars afloat so far this season.
Nobody doesn’t like watching Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin score goals. And when they do, you feel a bit of a surge of relief and excitement and pride. But so far in this quarter and a change-worth of season, Benn and Seguin have added to a very determined offense, but haven’t formed it alone.
The Dallas Stars owe a lot, really, to the depth scoring that they worked so hard to cultivate over the off-season. Of course, Benn and Seguin lead the team in goals, but we all know that’s not always the full story. Rearrange the team by points and you start seeing a different narrative come together.
What you end up with is a stat sheet that shows a second, third, and fourth line that are remaining engaged. Seguin, Alexander Radulov, and Benn are, respectively tops in points as well. But Mattias Janmark, Devin Shore, Radek Faksa, and Esa Lindell form the list from there, all clocking in above Jason Spezza.
Even if you haven’t tuned into many games this season, you’ll know that these players have been instrumental in the offense night after night, because it’s often their names cited as credit for goals, and even more often, for assists- and sometimes multiple ones a night.
Although the Dallas Stars have clearly had a penchant for depth scoring all season long, the key to really unlocking its usefulness has been Hitch’s shifting of lines. Seguin’s separation from Benn and Radulov on the first line seems to have finally paid off against the Flames, and the chemistry is developing well on the other lines as well.
Antoine Roussel, Faksa, and Tyler Pitlick showed up in a big way against Calgary as well, which can also be said of fourth-liners Gemel Smith, Martin Hanzal, and Brett Ritchie. It seems in these lines, the Stars have good combos that have clicked and exhibited teamwork time after time to get the job done.
Next: Dallas Stars' Offense Is Heating Up At The Right Time
Like I mentioned before, we all still love to see goals from those first-liners. The great thing now is that we don’t have to depend on them to win. But the real test, of course, comes not at home but on the road. We’ll get to see on Tuesday whether or not the Dallas Stars’ confident depth scoring has become strong enough to lean on outside the AAC.