There were some highs and there were some lows, but November 2017 was a good one for the Dallas Stars. Here are three things in particular that we learned about the team over the past 30 days.
November is a time for many things. The leaves begin falling off the trees, the temperature slowly begins to drop (even if it doesn’t seem like it), and the Thanksgiving holiday comes into play. Oh, and Dallas Stars hockey gets into full swing.
This time of year can bring plenty of stress, excitement, and craziness to your personal life. But how do you make it peaceful? Well, it all depends on how you manage it. If you can find a way to balance it all out, the results will be bearable and even enjoyable.
The Dallas Stars are trying to balance out all of the craziness right now. The month of November was their first full month of regular season play. After starting the season on October 6, the Stars are now 25 games into their 2017-18 campaign.
Dallas sits at a record of 14-10-1 with 29 points. They sit in sole control of the first wild card spot and are applying pressure to force their way into the top three in the Central Division. This image is a far cry from what the Stars looked like one month ago.
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At the end of October, Dallas sat at a mark of 7-5-0. They were playing inconsistent hockey, were struggling to find their identity, and followed a “win-loss” pattern that was keeping them buried in the Western Conference standings.
There were plenty of glaring problems within the team. The Stars had almost no production from their depth players, could not get their goaltenders to play at a consistent rate, and their defensive lineup was a mess. The wins would come in ones and would be by a large, dominating deficit. The only problem is that the losses followed the same pattern.
No one knew what to think of the Dallas Stars after October. They had not lived up to their preseason expectations, but they also were not failing like they had in 2016-17. They were just, well, average.
Though the Stars posted a 7-5-1 record in November, their play at the tail end of the month is encouraging for what might lie ahead as they close out 2017. They are starting to come together and learn just what it takes to win and be consistent in doing so. As a result, they showed some good things in the month of November as well as some things that they can still improve upon.
Here are a few things that we learned about the Dallas Stars as the eleventh month of 2017 progressed.