The NHL is not a league that forgives unprepared or inconsistent teams. The Dallas Stars learned that the hard way in both 2016-17 and in 2017-18. But this past season, the Stars watched their division and conference get stronger. That makes the challenge to bounce back next year even more pressing.
I’m going to put on my NBA hat for a moment. The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals last night. With the victory, LeBron James will now make an eighth straight appearance in the NBA Finals.
And on Monday night, the Golden State Warriors face a game seven of their own to try and punch their ticket back to the Finals. If they make it happen, it will mark the fourth year in a row that we are treated to a Cavaliers-Warriors bout for the NBA championship.
Although you may find it exciting, you also have to admit that it’s a predictable outcome. For the past four years, it’s been the same story. The Warriors have a super team that is just too tough to outlast and the Cavaliers have the best player in the NBA. Though other teams may get better and stronger with each passing season, there’s just little hope in changing the flow of things.
If the Houston Rockets can pull off a win against the Warriors tonight, I’m prepared to bite my tongue. But if the Warriors win, don’t be shocked. It’s become about as normal as the sun rising in the sky each morning at this point.
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But in the NHL, this level of predictability is almost never found. You want to see a “super team” qualify for the Stanley Cup Final four years in a row? Good luck.
Or how about the team with arguably the best player in the NHL on their roster? Connor McDavid is a name in the conversation, but he’s only qualified for the playoffs in one of his three seasons in the NHL. Sidney Crosby is another name up there. And while he does have back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 2016 and 2017, he’s already on vacation this year.
That’s because the NHL is unpredictable. A team at the top of the standings in one season might crash and burn in the next. On the flip side, a team in the cellar during one season might emerge from the rubble as a contender one year later.
The Dallas Stars are a good example of the first scenario. In 2015-16, the Stars finished the regular season as the second best team in the NHL. They won the Central Division and Western Conference with 109 points and advanced to the second round of the postseason. The Stars fell one win short of a berth in the Western Conference Finals.
Just one year before that, Dallas missed the playoffs by seven points while boasting the fourth-worst defense in the NHL. It was a quick turnaround that helped Dallas reappear in the contender conversation.
But in the 2016-17 season, all of that promise disappeared. One year removed from winning their division, the Stars finished in second-to-last. Their team consisted of a historically bad penalty kill and an ailing defense. As a result, they finished with the second-worst record in franchise history. Had it not been for the truly terrible Colorado Avalanche, Dallas would have completed the “first to last” skid in a span of one season.
Pucks and Pitchforks
It was a painful, lasting reminder that nothing is given in the NHL and everything is earned. A team can go from great in one season to terrible in the next. It all depends on their effort and readiness.
But this past season was a bit different. While the Dallas Stars missed the playoffs for the second straight season, it wasn’t because they were a terrible team.
Yes, they did piece together a catastrophic month of March by going 4-8-4. And yes, their lack of depth scoring and the loss of starting goaltender Ben Bishop put the team in a hole. But Dallas still finished with a 42-32-8 record (10 games above .500) and 92 points. That’s 13 more points than they had in 2016-17. And to top it all off, they looked like a good, solid hockey club from late November to late February.
If there was any external cause to the Stars missing the playoffs, it was the depth of competition that they were up against. While the Stars floundered through the final month of the season, the ten other teams in the Western Conference race did not. Those other teams continued their own respective pushes to the playoffs by building on late-season surges and clawing through the fight.
And that’s the painful lesson that that the Stars learned this season. Simply put, the rest of the NHL got stronger this season. Not just the NHL, but the Central Division and Western Conference in general.
The Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets went from non-playoff teams in 2016-17 to legitimate contenders this year. The Nashville Predators continued to build on their success and won a President’s Trophy. Vegas came out of nowhere and looks to be a powerhouse for at least the next three years. And finally, San Jose, Minnesota, LA, Anaheim, and even St. Louis all showed impressive flashes as well.
While these teams were showing off and building hope for their own respective futures, the Dallas Stars sat and watched. And while there is still potential for Dallas next year, it’s going to be quite the trek.
Next: This Offseason Can Help Stars Move Towards Youth
The West got stronger this past season and looks to be an even tougher conference to go through next year. Will the Dallas Stars be prepared for the fight?