Tonight, the Dallas Stars will play their 41st game of the 2017-18 season. As they approach the halfway mark, let’s take a look at a few of the things we have learned about the team so far.
The Dallas Stars will play their first game of the 2018 calendar year tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both teams currently boast a record of 22-15-3 and are catching fire as of late, which should make the game even more entertaining.
The Stars closed out 2017 on an incredibly high note, throttling the San Jose Sharks 6-0. The victory gave Dallas wins in four of their past five games and put them within three points of their place in the Central Division. As their play heats up, they are quickly making an impression on the Western Conference standings.
But the game also marked the Stars’ 40th game of the season. That’s 40 games in 82 days of the NHL being in function, meaning Dallas has played a game just about every other day since October 6. That’s a lot of hockey in a short period of time.
For the most part, though, the Dallas Stars have handled it well.
Dallas Stars
It’s been an interesting year as a whole. At the start of 2017, the Stars were struggling to stay alive in the playoff race and eventually fell out entirely. When the 2017-18 season started in October, it looked as though uncertainty and inconsistency still reigned supreme within the team.
But the Stars are clawing their way back into the fight. After a hot finish to November and impressive performance against some of the league’s best competition in December, the Dallas Stars finished 2017 in the first wild card spot and plenty of hope and potential.
This team is substantially different than the one that ended the 2016-17 season, though. With a new coaching staff and new styles of play, new superstars, and a new starting goaltender, the Stars underwent a lot of change in the summer of 2017.
It was those changes, however, that helped boost Dallas to the 22-15-3 record that they now own. The Stars are making a push back to the top of the Central Division, and there are plenty of storylines to follow as 2018 gets underway.
But what exactly have we learned from the 2017-18 Dallas Stars so far this season? The team has shown plenty of strengths and a few weaknesses, along with a few things that they have improved greatly upon since opening night.
That being said, they look like a brand new team going into 2018 and have made quite the impression. Let’s take a look back at everything we’ve learned in the first half.