Dallas Stars: Analyzing Week One Of The 2018-19 Regular Season
By Josh Clark
Dallas vs. Arizona
Dallas opened their new season at home last Thursday night against the Arizona Coyotes. The Stars were setting up to begin a new era of Dallas hockey under the direction of new head coach Jim Montgomery along with his brand new coaching staff. For the third season in a row, there was a different mindset, game plan, and focus going into the year for the team.
And on the first night of the year, they made that new mindset count. The Stars defeated the Coyotes by a decisive 3-0 tally and partially put to bed any doubts of the team’s chances at success in a new system. They received goals from Devin Shore (third line), Alexander Radulov (first line), and John Klingberg (first pairing). And to top it all off, the defense gave up few high-danger chances and Ben Bishop stopped everything he faced for his sixth shutout as a Star.
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But Arizona is a team stuck in the middle of a rebuild and overhaul. While they presented a challenge, it wasn’t necessarily a strong or deep one by any means. The real test came on Saturday night.
Dallas vs. Winnipeg
The Stars welcomed the Winnipeg Jets into town on Saturday night for their first divisional contest of the season. Winnipeg was 1-0-0 on the year after an impressive opening night win over the St. Louis Blues. They were also 8-0-0 in their last eight contests against the Stars, dating back to the early portion of the 2016-17 season.
Dallas needed to make a statement, break a slump, and prove themselves to be contenders in a Central division where they have finished sixth in each of the past two seasons.
They certainly got the message. The Dallas Stars came out swinging, outshooting 16-9 in the first frame and outscoring the Jets 2-0. The second period came with more domination, as Jamie Benn tacked on a goal to negate Kyle Connor‘s early tally and keep it at a 3-1 score. In the third, Benn and Tyler Seguin teamed up as each player found the back of the net for their second goal of the game to finish off the 5-1 routing.
Bishop was phenomenal yet again, the Stars power play went 3/5 while their penalty kill went 3/3, and the team looked to be on a new level early on. That came with a newfound sense of hype and momentum.
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Dallas vs. Toronto
But that hype and momentum dimmed slightly on Tuesday night when the Stars welcomed the Toronto Maple Leafs to the AAC. Like Winnipeg, the Leafs are considered a Stanley Cup contender after significant offseason moves helped strengthen an already dominant core.
Their arrival in Dallas presented yet another challenge to the Stars, who were still set on fostering positive impressions in front of their home crowd.
It didn’t go according to plan. While Dallas received goals from their big four (Benn, Seguin, Radulov, and Klingberg), they gave up an ugly seven goals against to the Leafs. Two of those came on the power play in three chances, leaving the Stars looking leaky and inefficient while shorthanded. Auston Matthews and John Tavares scored two goals apiece as the Leafs continued to pile it on and stall any comeback attempts Dallas made.
The Stars did look good in terms of attempting to rally throughout the game, tying the score twice and cutting a 5-2 deficit to 5-4 in the early part of the third period. But that’s where it stalled.
As a result, Dallas dropped to 2-1-0 through the first week of their campaign. But still, it was a very telling seven-day stretch. Let’s look at some of the standout factors.