Dallas Stars: Success Being Continually Halted By Backup Goaltenders

It seems as though it’s always been a common thread, but it’s gained significant traction this season. The Dallas Stars just cannot seem to beat opposing backup goaltenders.

Opposing goaltending can be one of hockey’s most stressful and enraging components. The Dallas Stars know this all too well.

It seems like it’s a common thread for the Stars to always run into a hot goaltender. Maybe it’s the fact that Dallas went for so many years without a reliable and shutdown “one-two” punch in their own crease. Or maybe it’s simply an unlucky trend.

Either way, there is very rarely a night where the Dallas Stars play an opposing team and run into a weak goaltender. As the NHL continues to grow stronger and more talented with the new athletes added each year, the goaltenders are more skilled and poised than ever before in NHL history. That  means that the skaters have to be that much better in order to keep the offensive flow alive.

In today’s NHL, it’s hard to pick out an NHL team that doesn’t have at least one solid goaltender on their roster. Even some of the weaker teams of the league have at least one goalie that is at the very least considered “good.”

Dallas Stars

Goaltending is the key to success in hockey. After all, a team could have a high-powered offense that puts up 10 goals a game, but if their goaltender lets up 11, their chances at success are slim to none. It’s common sense.

Some teams may struggle in finding an “elite” goaltender for their crease, but it all averages out eventually. If you take a look back through history, every NHL team has had at least one terrific goaltender throughout the years.

And then there’s the backup. Serving as a safety net to clean up the mess when the starter either hits a bump in his performance or endures an injury, the backup is simply there to keep the ship steady. He may falter here and there, but he’s not supposed to be a long-term solution. However, some NHL teams are lucky enough to have a backup that could very well serve in a starting role as well. At least, that’s probably what the Dallas Stars think.

It’s been a pretty crazy ride for the Stars this season. They fought through a span of initial inconsistency at the beginning of the year and created an identity for themselves in a tight Western Conference. And now that they have their identity, the success is beginning to sprout.

Dallas sits at a record of 26-17-4 right now and is in sole control of the first wild card spot in the West. They are three points out of third place in the Central and four points out of first. But they are also six points from the bottom of the division. That’s how close things are.

So it really doesn’t help the Stars in the standings race when they blow a chance at winning a game against a Columbus Blue Jackets team that just got off of their bye week. Yet, that’s what happened on Thursday night.

The Stars got out to a slow start and couldn’t keep up with a Blue Jackets team that had just returned from vacation. But due to a late Alexander Radulov goal in regulation, the Stars forced overtime and eventually a shootout and earned a point.

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A large part in getting that one point was the stellar play of Ben Bishop for Dallas in the crease. He played the part of that “solid starter” that we mentioned earlier and gave the Stars confidence.

But a primary reason in the Stars not getting that second point was the play of Columbus backup Joonas Korpisalo.

Though Dallas started slow, they heated up as the game went along and were firing shots at the net repeatedly. But nothing was getting through due to the superb goaltending of Korpisalo. He ended up stopping 35 of 36 shots tonight, including all three that he faced in the shootout. He was awarded first star honors for his efforts and his .972 save percentage.

Wait, what? But how? How did a guy with an ugly 3.10 GAA stone one of the league’s most prolific offenses? And how did he make it look so easy after a week off and going up against a team that had won two in a row? By now, you have probably stopped asking these questions.

It’s just a curse that the Dallas Stars bear this season. The curse of the skilled backup is all too real. And you thought it was bad last year when the Stars were a mere shell of what they are now.

Here is just a small sampling size in list form of the great success that backups have had against the Stars this season:

Adin Hill (ARI), October 17: .939 SV%, 2 GA

Charlie Lindgren (MTL), November 21: .929 SV%, 2 GA

Jonathan Bernier (COL), November 22: 1.00 SV%, 0 GA

Anton Forsberg (CHI), December 2: .943 SV%, 2 GA

Juuse Saros (NSH), December 5: .956 SV%, 2 GA

Maxime Lagace (VGK), December 9: .923 SV%, 3 GA

Ondrej Pavelec (NYR), December 11: .978 SV%, 1 GA

Alex Stalock (MIN), December 27: .923 SV%, 2 GA

Jonathan Bernier (COL), January 13: .964 SV%, 1 GA

Anton Khudobin (BOS), January 15: .906 SV%, 3 GA

Joonas Korpisalo (CBJ), January 18: .972 SV%, 1 GA

It’s an absurd amount of games to go up against a red-hot backup goaltender, that’s for sure. It’s absolutely baffling that the Stars own a 5-5-1 record in the 11 games listed above against these backups. That just shouldn’t happen, should it?

Sure, some teams have two solid goaltenders that they can lean on. But it’s not a common thread. There is also always the chance that a backup catches a lucky break and reaches a new level of skill for one game. But why does it always seem like that level is reached when the goalie is going up against Dallas?

Next: Stars Beginning To Take Advantage Of Their Opportunities

It’s getting a little crazy at this point, and only seems to be getting crazier. After only having one of these occurrences during the first month of the season, they have experienced 10 over the last two months.

The Dallas Stars just cannot seem to catch a break against backups. What else is there to say?