The 2018-19 regular season schedule offers a handful of difficult stretches and runs for the Dallas Stars. But it also offers them a chance to get acquainted and performing on the same page in the early part of the year.
Of all the problems that have plagued the Dallas Stars over the past few seasons, mediocre play in the Central division is near the top.
Since the NHL realigned divisions prior to the 2013-14 season, the Stars own a 61-61-20 record in the Central. In other words, they’re right at the .500 mark. If you know anything about sports or even general mathematics, you know that a .500 mark isn’t bad, but it also isn’t good. And when 31.7 percent of your schedule pins you against divisional foes, it’s important to stay competitive.
For the Stars to build success and a consistent style, they have to be good within their division. Their playoff lives literally depend on divisional play.
That’s a bit of a scary thought when you mix the Stars’ recent struggles in the division with the fact that the Central is the most loaded division in the NHL.
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In the five years since realignment, the Central is the only division where every team has qualified for the postseason at least once. The top three looks dramatically different at the end of each season, each team has an argument to be in the playoff race, and the amount of talent within the group is almost too good to be true.
The competition is scary good, which poses a serious threat to the 2018-19 Dallas Stars.
Why is that, you might ask? Well, because the Stars will once again front a brand new look and game plan in the season ahead.
After missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season in 2017-18, Dallas defaulted to another change of pace. Ken Hitchcock announced his retirement from coaching hockey and the Stars abandoned the flat-footed, defensive style that had hindered them from advancing to the postseason.
In his retirement, the Stars announced the hiring of Jim Montgomery. Though he has no prior NHL coaching experience, he owns a solid resume of winning and plays an up-tempo and relentless style that should suit the Dallas roster well.
With the hiring, Dallas has now gone through three head coaches since April 2017. This dangerous cycle of change comes with new styles, new schemes, and a need to adapt. Different coaches have different philosophies and Jim Montgomery is no different. He has a vision on how the Dallas Stars will reach success and it varies from the vision the team is currently stuck in. So a transition is required.
It won’t be a seamless transition either. Whenever a system changes, there’s always a period of growing pains. It happens to any and every team. And with that being said, the Dallas Stars will likely need some time to get on the same page and adapt to the new system before they can really break out. It’s only natural.
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So, that spells trouble, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, the Stars are in a pretty good spot schedule-wise to take on a learning curve early and still be ready to compete in the bulk of their season.
We’ve already pointed out the significance of Central division matchups and noted that the Stars have struggled in those contests over the past few seasons. And if Dallas is already stuck trying to get their feet off of the ground, those matchups might be significantly one-sided.
But for the Stars, they won’t necessarily be thrown into the fire right away. In the first two months of the season, Dallas plays 26 games. Nine of those are against teams that didn’t make the postseason last season. Of the other 17, 10 didn’t make it past the first round.
Those are pretty good numbers to stack up against. If you look at the start of the Stars’ 2017-18 season and their transition period, they began the season 9-9-1 before kickstarting a streak that saw them win seven of eight games and truly get their year into motion.
Montgomery might only take 5-10 games to get the Dallas Stars where he wants them to be. Or, it might take 20-30 games. Either way, the transition period will be an important time. The last thing the Stars can afford to do is wholeheartedly stumble out of the gate and fall behind early. As we saw in last season’s debacle, the Central wastes no time. If a team hits a slump, it becomes almost impossible to dig back into the race.
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So a lot is riding on the first two months for Dallas, and it looks as though the level of their competition should give them a good chance, especially against the Central.
In the first two months of the season, the Stars only have four scheduled games against their division (Winnipeg, Minnesota, Nashville, and Colorado). On the other hand, they will face 14 divisional foes from December through February. The bulk of Central showdowns will come in the middle part of the season, giving Dallas a chance to gain valuable points when they should be near their maximum level of potential. And if they still aren’t in contending condition, it’s their own funeral.
The Dallas Stars 2018-19 regular season schedule is laid out rather nicely for a team in need of a growth period to start the year. Jim Montgomery seems to have a ready and dedicated mindset and this could end up being a special year for a Stars team in desperate need of one. But it will likely take some amount of time to get the entire team rolling and firing on all cylinders.
Lucky for them, their schedule looks ready to help the transition move along.