Dallas Stars: Playing With A Playoff Mindset Will Help Team
By Josh Clark
Over the past week, the Dallas Stars participated in a number of “playoff-caliber” games. Though it’s only November, using a playoff mindset could be good for the team going forward.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs offer one of the most exciting postseason experiences in all of professional sports. It offers two months of unparalleled action between the top 16 teams in the NHL. There are always surprise stories, upsets, and a decent dose of unpredictability.
Take last year’s playoffs for example. The Nashville Predators were the sixteenth and final team to qualify for the postseason and ended up dominating every team they faced on their way to the Cup. Though they fell in the Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins, their run was impressive and unpredictable to say the least.
It’s an exciting time in the NHL world. But sadly, the playoffs are still over four months away. There is a lot of regular season hockey left to be played and positions that must be determined.
That’s a good thing for the Dallas Stars, who currently sit one point out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. The Stars (12-10-1) have 25 points in 23 games this season and are playing just above .500 hockey. They have won three of their last four games, though, and are keeping up with the rest of the conference.
Dallas Stars
But they will need to keep up the pace. Dallas currently sits tenth in the West and fifth in the Central Division. They are one point from last place in the Central and ten points from the top spot. In other words, there is a lot of ground to make up if the Stars want to be the best. But in the NHL, being the best in the regular season doesn’t matter. All that matters is getting into the dance and playing past game 82.
Each playoff game brings a different level of competition and energy to the teams playing in it. There is a new level that teams must meet if they want to succeed in the postseason. Not all teams are able to meet it and end up falling short of the ultimate goal, like the 2015-16 Dallas Stars.
But this year’s team is taking a different approach. Instead of waiting for the postseason, they have begun playing each regular season game with a playoff mindset.
It was a trend that started on last Tuesday night against the Montreal Canadiens. The Dallas Stars welcomed the Habs to the AAC for their first meeting of the season. After going down 1-0, the Stars took on a new perspective and finished the game on a 3-0 scoring run to take the 3-1 victory.
“I thought the game was great,” Hitchcock said following the game. “It was a playoff game between two desperate teams. They had a little momentum at the start and had us checking them. Then we took over for a lot of the second and then they pushed hard in the third. That’s playoff hockey and a playoff game. That’s just the way it is. It’s a battle and there’s no room and no space. Every puck battle matters and if you make a mistake, it’s usually pretty critical. Overall, this is the way we’re going to have to play to win.”
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Hitchcock said it, plain and simple. And on Friday night, the Stars put themselves in another situation where they were forced to reach another level in order to win. In a game against the Calgary Flames, Dallas fell behind on three different occasions but clawed their way back in an eventual 6-4 victory.
“That felt like a playoff game from the first shift,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “Obviously, they are a good team and you know how we’ve been against the West. We were ready to come out and compete. Now we just have to figure out how we can play like this at home and why we can’t play like it on the road.”
The Dallas Stars have viewed the last few games as playoff-caliber competitions. And for those watching, this playoff theme is pretty relevant. The Stars are digging in and taking each game with a grain of salt. When the going gets tough, they are making every shift count. When a team’s season comes down to the wire, they get desperate. And that desperation often turns into good results.
The Stars play like a completely different team when they are put in a bind, especially at home. They are treating every game like their season relies on it, just as teams do in the playoffs. And so far, it’s working pretty well.
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If Dallas continues to view each game as a playoff contest and put an extra level of effort in against each opponent, the team is bound to see positive results.
After all, like in the playoffs, each game comes down to a matter of who wants it most. The last two home games were “playoff games” for the team. Will the ones ahead offer similar emotions?