Dallas Stars Could Miss Stanley Cup Playoffs Because Of Tiebreaker

It’s never easy missing being a team on the outside of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But it’s even worse if the reason you miss is because of a tiebreaker. That may very well happen to the Dallas Stars this year.

The last thing the Dallas Stars need is more salt in the wound. And yet, they still might get it.

This past Sunday night, the Stars were officially eliminated from the race to the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Though they had won two of their past three games, mathematics did them in as the teams around them picked up points and further spread the gap to a fatal distance.

Now, we all know exactly why Dallas missed the playoffs. An abysmal campaign in the month of March after three solid months of quality hockey is one way to get a team knocked out of the race. That’s what the Stars did.

From December through February, the Stars looked like an elite team. They were drawing comparisons to their 2015-16 “mega-team” that won the Central Division, had the most points in the Western Conference at the end of the year, and owned the league’s best offense.

Though this year’s team wasn’t as high-powered, they were strategic and bounced back significantly from an average start. They were winning the majority of their games and picking up points in others. The offense was clicking, the defense was proving to be a top-five unit, and the crease had two capable goaltenders to clean up the back end. Everything was great.

And then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. The Stars began losing games, couldn’t score, lost their starting goaltender, and could not pick up points in the final stretch. What was worse was that head coach Ken Hitchcock seemed to have no answers for fixing the collapse.

Dallas turned in a 4-8-4 record in the month of March, and that was enough to do it. The Western Conference playoff race had been tight all year, leaving the Stars never feeling truly comfortable. Even after gaining sole control of third place in the Central Division in the early part of March, there was still an uneasy feeling. We now know why. While the Stars flopped, the rest of the conference forged ahead. That’s why Dallas only has two games sitting between them and another long offseason.

But they are fighting to go out with a bang. The Stars posted a surprising 4-2 comeback win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday to give them two wins in a row for the first time since Feb. 8-9. They showed a lot of poise and character in the win as Jamie Benn scored a hat trick and third-string goaltender Mike McKenna relieved Kari Lehtonen with a brilliant 17-save shutout performance.

They are showing signs of hope down the stretch, and that’s important. Though it may be too late to save this season, there is still hope that next year will be a promising one.

But their confident stretch to end the season could very well leave them with an extra kick in the butt before the year officially closes out. That’s because at the moment, the Dallas Stars sit three points out of the final wild card spot in the West.

The Dallas Stars currently boast 90 points on the season with two games left. In other words, they could get to 94 points to finish the year if they defeat the Ducks on Friday and the Kings on Saturday. But their path is still blocked by the St. Louis Blues, who sit just outside the picture with 92 points and the Colorado Avalanche, who possess the final spot with 93 points. Both teams also have two games remaining in their respective seasons.

Now there would typically be a chance for Dallas to save themselves when you do the math. If the Stars win out and the Avalanche and Blues lose out, the Stars make the playoffs, right?

That would be true, except for the fact Colorado and St. Louis close out their regular season campaigns with a game against each other. Considering one team has to walk away with two points, the path becomes impossible to navigate successfully. But there is a chance that the Stars could tie for the final playoff spot.

If the Blues and Avalanche were to both lose their 81st games of the season and the Stars were to win, Dallas would be tied with St. Louis at 92 points with Colorado just ahead at 93. And then, if the Blues beat the Avs on Saturday night and the Stars defeat the Kings, both teams would jump over Colorado with 94 points.

But here’s where things get rough for Dallas.

Let’s say that all of this happens and the Blues end up beating the Avalanche in a shootout on Saturday. That would put all three teams in a tie at 94 points.

That’s when the ROWs (regulation or overtime wins) would come into play as the tiebreaker. The Blues and Avalanche would each have 40, while the Stars would sit at 39 (assuming they beat Anaheim and LA in regulation or overtime). In other words, they would miss the postseason because of one less win outside of a shootout.

This is definitely a stretch and may very well not happen, but what if it does? Sure, the Dallas Stars missed the playoffs on their own accord after an ugly home stretch. But what if, just to make things a little more painful, they miss the postseason because of a tiebreaker? If they could have just scored one or two more goals in wins that went to a shootout, things could be different.

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Not saying it’s going to happen. But if it somehow does, it’ll be another dose of salt in the wound that will stick to this year’s team like super glue. Ouch.