There’s nothing worse than failing to meet expectations. The Dallas Stars have now come back from yet another break and put up an underwhelming performance. They, however, shouldn’t panic.
There are plenty of situations in the NHL that merit relatively chaotic responses. The Dallas Stars, however, aren’t at that point yet. While they haven’t been playing the typical Stars hockey we’ve come to know and love, their inability to win of late isn’t means for panic — yet.
Ebbs and Flows
It’s inevitable to have times of success and others of failure during an 82-game season. No team can maintain a high level of play throughout that many games, so it’s expected that the Stars are the same.
While it’s not great to see them play ineffective, unentertaining hockey, it isn’t time to wave the white flag. There’s still a lot of hockey left to be played.
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They’re still in a playoff position right now and they’ll be in the mix as long as they don’t completely falter. Now, if it becomes a significant losing streak in which the players are checked out and unable to do anything remotely right, that’s a different story.
However, the inconsistency following yet another break is almost expected. Of course, it’d be great if Dallas could’ve avoided this let down; but it’s not unheard of for even the best teams to have slumps.
Fall Back on Leadership
The Stars are a team fraught with leaders. They have veterans and rookies with the skills and abilities necessary to turn this ship around.
All it takes is one game for the best players to show up and perform for worries to begin to fade to the darkness. If Dallas continues to lose, though, it will be even more important that the Stars’ leadership say and do the right things to get things moving in the right direction.
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Those who have experienced the tumultuous times of an NHL season will be able to guide those who haven’t. They’ll grow as a team because of this type of adversity and it will ultimately make them better. It just takes time.