The Dallas Stars have suffered lately in a big way from taking penalties that they are failing to kill. It’s already starting to hurt them in a big way.
As we grow older and mature, one lesson we all seem to learn is the concept choices and their consequences, and how to avoid them.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Don’t write checks that you can’t cash. Even the idea of Chaos Theory, which explains that the smallest action may have large and unanticipated consequences- all these sayings teach us that when we do things (or fail to do things), that other things (and often unpleasant ones) will happen as a result.
The intuitive person (or the one who just wants to avoid the misery that comes with, say, writing checks he or she can’t cash) will take these lessons and from them learn ways to avoid the consequences of unwise actions.
Its something most of us learn at a relatively young age. But to be honest, some of us are still working on it. And for the Dallas Stars, it’s a learning curve, too.
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After two games dropped as a consequence (however direct or indirect you might want to describe it) of issues with penalties. First, being called for them in the first place, and then being unable to kill them successfully.
Sometimes you don’t have control over all the variables in a situation, but with their penalties, the Stars could do better. Their loss to Philly featured several unwise and poorly timed penalties that definitively sunk the Stars.
In first New Jersey and then Philadelphia, the Dallas Stars were not up to par in their penalty kill. We’ve seen lagging in both special teams efforts for a while now, and their penalty killing sluggishness is catching up with the Stars in a big way.
This road trip has been a stark, black-and-white reminder of how important penalties can be in turning the tide of a game. The Stars kept it clean against the Rangers and Islanders, using that lack of penalty-killing time to keep them ahead.
However, the second half of the trip has been the contrast proving that the Stars can fall back into penalty-taking and PPG-allowing just as easily as the next guys. And it costs them dearly when they do.
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At the end of the day, the Dallas Stars need to remember not to take penalties they can’t kill. And at this point in the season, they should just be cautious and do all they can to avoid taking them altogether.