Dallas Stars End Season With Impressive Win, Give Hope For Future

And just like that, it’s all over. The Dallas Stars downed the Los Angeles Kings last night and are now headed for the offseason. But, as they always seem to do, they found a way to leave some undefined hope lingering for next year.

After 185 days in the trenches, it’s all over. The Dallas Stars are heading for the 2018 offseason after closing out regular season action last night. It wasn’t entirely in vain, though, as Dallas pulled off a commanding 4-2 win over the Kings on the road.

The Stars entered LA on Saturday night with a pretty beaten spirit. They had been eliminated from the playoff race six days prior and had lost to the Anaheim Ducks the night before. Meanwhile, their opponent was playoff bound and looking to close out their home slate with a win.

And yet, Dallas found a way to not only knock them down, but pulverize them (specifically in the first period). Devin Shore got things going a few moments into the first frame and Jamie Benn followed it up with a natural hat trick to close out the period. After the first 20, the Stars were up 4-0 and keeping the Staples Center dead quiet.

They basically shifted into neutral in the final two periods, but it all worked out as they held on for the 4-2 victory.

Dallas Stars

Just like that, the 2017-18 regular season is a thing of the past. It seems to have disappeared almost as quickly as it started up. The Dallas Stars officially closed out their season with a record of 42-32-8 and 92 points. They missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs by three points (so two extra wins would have done it) and are sitting out early for the eighth time in ten years.

And now the countdown to 2018-19 can officially start up. But there’s a lot of action that has to happen between now and then. Decisions have to be made, both easy and difficult.

Will Kari Lehtonen get a new contract with Dallas? Are Antoine Roussel, Jason Spezza, or Dan Hamhuis coming back next year? Will Ken Hitchcock still be manning the bench in October? And how will the draft and free agency frenzy pan out? There’s a lot to keep up with and it promises to be another adventurous and action-packed summer.

But let’s not think about that right now. Let’s wait at least until after exit interviews to start digging into offseason discussions. Right now, let’s just focus on last night’s game and what it means for the Dallas Stars.

The Stars once again found a way to cap off a disappointing season with a ray of light and hope. In 2014-15, Jamie Benn won the Art Ross Trophy in game 82 before the team embarked on a long offseason. Last year, they defeated the Colorado Avalanche in a shootout to pick up one last thrilling win on home ice.

And this year, they beat a playoff team behind a stellar first period performance and a solid team effort all around. It was something that we’ve seen very little of over the last six weeks, but it was definitely present last night.