Dallas Stars: Penalty Kill Streak Ends, But It Shows Growth for the Stars
By Summer LeBel
Over the last few weeks, the Dallas Stars penalty kill was unstoppable, but that came to an end Thursday night.
The Dallas Stars killed off 23 in a row, but Patrick Marleau scored in the last few minutes of the third period to end the streak.
Even though the streak ended there, it wasn’t a normal penalty kill situation. The Leafs had pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker, so it took a two-man advantage to finally get one in on the Stars.
Despite the streak, which lasted over two weeks, the Stars don’t have the best penalty kill in the league. Instead, they sit at sixth with a 86.5%.
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The Lightning are in first place, but that’s fine. The Stars don’t need to be unstoppable on the penalty kill. They just need to find consistency and success, and they’ve done that. They’ve been improving by leaps and bounds in regards to their penalty kill.
Two seasons ago, the Stars sat at the bottom of the standings, all the way down in 30th place with a 73.9% penalty kill. It was terrible and frustrating for fans to watch, as was most of the season in general.
Last year, they improved to 80.78%, good for 14th in the league. Jumping from last place to solidly in the middle of the pack was huge for them.
They may not stay this good on the penalty kill all season, and instead might regress back to the middle again, but the fact that they’re doing this well 12 games in is a good sign. The team has changed systems again this year with another new head coach, but the work of Jim Montgomery is paying off in this aspect.
In addition to a system that’s working, the Stars have quite a few solid penalty killers. Radek Faksa has always been an amazing penalty killer, but the addition of Blake Comeau has really helped this team. Esa Lindell is benefitting from the addition of Roman Polak and Miro Heiskanen on the penalty kill as well, to share in the defensive load.
The Stars are at a point where they can be confident in who’s on the ice, no matter which penalty kill unit is out there. Some are stronger than others, but none of them are worrying.
There’s certainly room for improvement, because there always is, but it’s a good start to the season, and they’ve been looking better every game as they get more comfortable with the new system.
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Of course, it would be ideal if the Stars simply didn’t need to go on the penalty kill as much, but they’re improving there, too. They’re currently in 17th place in the league on minor penalties taken. That’s much better than last year, where they were in 2nd at the end of the season. Despite missing them on the ice for other things, the absence of Alexander Radulov and Antoine Roussel helps in that regard.