Dallas Stars: Five Things We Learned In November 2017

The Depth Scoring Is Coming Around

One of the Dallas Stars’ biggest problems in the first month of the season was getting someone not on their top line to score. For the longest while, it seemed as though every Stars’ goal was scored by someone named Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, or Alexander Radulov.

It was getting to be a problem for the Stars. If their first line didn’t show up on the offensive side of the puck on a given night, the chances of winning seemed slim to none.

Dallas Stars

This issue even carried over into the first part of the month of November. Dallas was lacking an offensive presence from lines 2-4 and, as a result, their offense was becoming predictable. While the top three were cashing in at even strength and on the power play, when they went up against a capable defense, the production stalled altogether.

At the 11-game mark in the season, 16 of the 24 goals scored by Dallas forwards had been tallied by either 14, 91, or 47.

But throughout a good majority of November, that was not the case. The Dallas offense had a changed approach and finally started clicking on all four lines.

Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock was forced to juggle his lines a few times and even broke the top line apart at one point during the month. That lasted for a few weeks and ended up having a positive effect on the team as a whole.

Names like Devin Shore, Mattias Janmark, Gemel Smith, and Antoine Roussel began finding their way onto the scoresheet more often. But perhaps the largest performance of the month from a depth player was Radek Faksa’s showing. Faksa tallied seven goals and nine points throughout the November, including a hat trick against Vegas on Tuesday night.

The Stars had multiple games where each line tallied at least one goal. Those games would turn into offensive assaults for Dallas, giving them a rather hefty goal total.

All in all, the Dallas offense began playing as a complete unit. They included more than just three players in the scoring and were more dangerous as a result.

The Dallas Stars are by no means a team lacking depth. They have the capability to put together four competent and effective lines with the tools they currently have.

If the depth scoring can continue for Dallas both at home and on the road, the Stars should be in good shape moving forward, especially on offense.