Though All-Star weekend in Tampa was a temporary escape from reality, it can also help predict what we might see from the Dallas Stars and the Central Division moving forward in the playoff race.
The NHL’s all-star weekend is kind of like licorice jellybeans. You either love them or hate them, without any real viable options in between. While we often love to see our favorite players in more laid-back situations that don’t affect their team standing, sometimes a break from reality can feel a bit tedious when reality is shaping up to be pretty important.
The Dallas Stars have formed a pretty important reality around themselves lately, and chances are the playoff race is only going to get tighter from here on out. But the best thing about the All-Star weekend and the break from the everlasting push for points is that it shed a new light on some things we already knew, and illuminated a few we might have missed before.
One of those things we already knew was, of course, how awesome John Klingberg is. Talk about his worthiness of the Norris Trophy started out as just whispers, but now it’s way out there in the open as he’s made himself a serious contender in front of the whole league. He’s way at the top of NHL defensemen in points, and he didn’t let anyone forget that his power is in two-way play with his scorching 97.6 mph contribution to the Hardest Shot contest.
Other than Klingberg’s slapshot, the Stars players weren’t at the forefront of the weekend in Tampa, aside from some downright adorable press videos involving pets who like our Dallas All-Stars as much as we do. But, now that we’re back to the real world, the Stars’ performance during All-Star weekend fits into their mentality this season and helps predict where they’re headed.
Dallas Stars
As a whole, the Stars haven’t been a super-showy team this year. While they’ve earned some great wins and some by impressive margins, the Stars have been more interested in developing solid foundation play. More often than not this season, the performances of defensemen were praised after the fact with the notation that not talking about a defenseman’s play is really the best compliment. It seems like the Stars have been aspiring to that same idea.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the Stars haven’t been stirring up talk at all this season. But if we’re comparing them to animals, the Stars seem to be aiming more for the strong and steady tortoise than the sprinting hare that spends all his endurance too early.
Speaking of spending endurance, I think that was on our All-Stars’ minds over the weekend as well. It wasn’t Tyler Seguin‘s first rodeo like it was for Klingberg, but both of them were composed and calm and more or less not phased by the whole ordeal. Nobody wants to go to All-Stars and get hurt or fatigued trying to put on a good show, but further than that, these two seemed to have their sights on a higher prize.
As, of course, all of the Dallas Stars must. They’re continually inching closer and closer to the top of the standings, surpassing teams stealthily, little by little. And there’s too much at stake this time to not take it all seriously enough. You don’t come out of All-Star weekend without even the smallest impression of the talent contained in the league. Of the abilities of your enemies.
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The Central Division has always been a ruthless place, but the standings and point values at this point in this season really reflect how tight things are. And the performance of the Central Division as a whole in the All-Star games, not departing from tradition, has reflected a bit of an absent-minded attitude. Everyone is keeping their eyes on the prize.
It’s like spending all of Thanksgiving Break with the dread of finals looming over your shoulder. Well, the Dallas Stars are high-school seniors who’ve had ups and downs enough to know that what lays ahead is too serious to bumble through and will either cause the realization or the crushing of their playoff dreams for this year.
The Stars still have their first wildcard spot, and are so close to overtaking even that. But they know as well as anyone that the dogs outside the door are often hungrier than those inside it, and they’ll have to be watching over their shoulder for good teams making desperate bids for any spot they can.
Next: Seguin and Klingberg Finish Up All-Star Weekend
So coming out of All-Star weekend, the fun and games are over and it’s time to put seriousness and drive back at the forefront. The Dallas Stars are lacing up their boots, strapping on their holsters, and putting their game faces on because from here on out, it’s going to be war.