Dallas Stars Facing Toughest Challenge On Road So Far In Vegas
By Josh Clark
It wasn’t long ago that the Dallas Stars home opener was spoiled by the newest team in the NHL. Tonight, they have a chance to turn the tide against the surging Golden Knights. But it won’t be easy by any means.
The Dallas Stars are a struggling team this season. There’s no other way to put it. They aren’t a bad team, but they aren’t necessarily a great team, either. They are simply struggling but keeping themselves afloat in the process.
What is causing them to struggle? Well, there are a few things. Finding consistency in multiple aspects of the game is one. The Stars seem to struggle on various nights with finding a mixture of offensive pressure, depth scoring, defensive structure, special teams success, and confident goaltending.
What is even worse is the fact that they cannot seem to replicate their good performances when going from game to game. They win one and then they lose one. The consistency just isn’t there.
That is not good news for a team that was expected to do great things back in the 2017 preseason. After a summer that included adding top talent across the board, the Dallas Stars were expected to hit the ground running in the 2017-18 season. The 2016-17 season was one filled with misery and disappointment, but things were expected to take a turn for the better.
Dallas Stars
So far, they have, but only by a little bit. Dallas is still suffering sizable losses on some nights and sits at a record of 12-10-1. What happened that has them starting the season on such an average note?
Well, it could be linked back to not starting off the season on the right foot in game one. On October 6, the Dallas Stars dropped their first game of the year at home to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Stars lost to the league’s newest team in what happened to be the Knights’ NHL debut game.
People began labeling it as “the Stars lost to a team filled with players that weren’t wanted by their old teams.” The loss killed the Stars’ home opener win streak and caught the team and its fan base off guard.
But now that we are over a month into the season, it’s clear that the game was not a fluke. The Golden Knights are flying high and look like the real deal. The Knights are an impressive 15-6-1 with 31 points and sit first in the Pacific Division with games in hand. They quickly transformed from a team that was expected to endure a significant building stage into a team that looks to be a significant competitor come April.
Tonight, the Dallas Stars will take on this high-flying group with hopes of securing their fourth win in the last five games. But it’s not going to be easy by any means. In fact, this could be the Stars’ most trying matchup so far this season.
For one, the Stars have struggled significantly on the road this year. Dallas owns a 3-8-1 record away from the American Airlines Center, with their last road win coming on October 30 in Vancouver. Whatever the problem is, it’s holding the Stars back from breaking through on their season.
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That record becomes even more frightening when it is mixed with Vegas’s home record. The Golden Knights are an astounding 9-1-0 at T-Mobile Arena this season. Their only loss on home ice came back on October 13 against the Detroit Red Wings. Other than that, it’s been a clean slate.
The Knights are also still an underrated team. Sure it seems obvious that they are succeeding wholeheartedly in their 2017-18 campaign, but they still have the tagline of the “new team on the block.”
If the Stars want to win tonight’s game, they cannot take Vegas lightly. They did not take the Knights lightly in game one and arguably deserved to win game one. But deserving isn’t always the deciding factor, especially in hockey.
Dallas needs to bring a similar level of effort to tonight’s game. They must pressure on offense, be alert and focused on defense, and hammer away at all of their opportunities on special teams.
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Ben Bishop was a dominant factor in the Stars’ strong performance in the season opener before leaving the game with an injury. He stopped shots cleanly, erased any consistent offensive pressure, and looked calm and composed. His chance at a shutout and win fell short in the third period when his mask was hit by the puck, causing a cut on his eyebrow.
Bishop’s numbers on the road are unpleasant to say the least. He owns a record of 2-6-0 with a .872 save percentage and 4.04 goals against average. He will start for the Stars tonight and have a second swing at Vegas.
The Golden Knights are taking the NHL by storm right now and look like a team that could compete for the Cup. So it’s the perfect time for Dallas to strike hard and take another step in the right direction.
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The Stars and Knights have reversed expectations this season, and that doesn’t bode well for Dallas. Let’s see if they can start up a win streak against the team that no one saw coming. Puck drop is at 9:00 p.m.