To close out the month of November and open up the month of December, the Dallas Stars will spend the next five days in Western Canada. And throughout this three-game road trip in the recent past, the Stars have fared particularly well.
12-10-2 isn’t a terrible spot for the Dallas Stars to be in through 24 games in the 2018-19 season; but, it’s also not the best spot.
The Stars currently sit with 24 points in the middle of an overloaded Western Conference playoff race. It’s a good enough mark to hold them in the second wild card spot, but with four points separating them from a top-three spot in the Central division and four teams within four points just below them, it would be folly for Dallas to feel comfortable with 58 games to go in the year.
Now, the Stars have been dealt a pretty tough hand. After trying to balance a first-year head coach and new additions to the roster, Dallas has suffered through the majority of their starting defense (including John Klingberg, Stephen Johns, and Marc Methot) and top players like Alexander Radulov and Ben Bishop missing different portions of the season.
But even with all of these challenges, the Dallas Stars have found a way to make it work; however, it hasn’t been easy.
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Saturday night’s loss to the Colorado Avalanche was a prime example of the struggle. After leading 2-1 in an important divisional game with less than five minutes to go, the Stars coughed up two goals against in the final minutes and left the Mile High City without a point. With Klingberg, Johns, or Bishop in the lineup, things might have been different.
But there’s no time to dwell on the past; instead, all the Stars can do is learn from it and move forward.
And that’s just what they are doing. On Tuesday night, the Dallas Stars will continue their four-game road trip north of the border. They will start things off with the Edmonton Oilers before moving on to Calgary to duke it out with the Flames on Wednesday. The trip ends in Vancouver on Saturday with a showdown against the Canucks.
It’s been a road-heavy month for the Stars. In their 15 games during November, 10 will be played away from the American Airlines Center. They are currently in the midst of their third road trip, with visits to places like Toronto, Boston, New York, and Pittsburgh rounding out their other journeys.
This final journey gives the Stars a chance to build some momentum with their road woes before taking on a balanced December slate. And, if history tells us anything, the final three games of this road trip could be the perfect time for Dallas to do so.
Every year, the Dallas Stars take one or two trips to Western Canada. Considering Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver are bunched together in the secluded northwest corner of North America, it’s only natural for the scheduling folks to put the three teams together when making each team’s regular season slate.
The Stars are no strangers to this trip to see a handful of Western Conference foes. And in the recent past, Dallas has made the trip count.
The Dallas Stars are 11-4-3 when playing in Western Canada over the last four seasons. That includes a 5-0-1 record against Vancouver, 4-1-1 record against Calgary, and 2-3-1 record against Edmonton.
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Whenever they head up north, everything seems to click. The Stars’ offense gets rolling, they get some timely play from goaltending and defense, and the games usually end up in their favor. What’s even more impressive is that this trip typically includes a back-to-back setup, which usually doesn’t bode well for Dallas.
Perhaps one of the most impressive things in these games throughout the recent past is the Stars’ ability to grind out wins. Many of the 18 games over the past four years have been decided by one goal. In other words, the Dallas Stars know how to hang around with these teams and slip out with two points more often than not.
And this year, the Oilers, Canucks, and Flames are once again offering an opportunity to the Stars. The Oilers fired head coach Todd McLellan last week and brought in Ken Hitchcock to try and fix their early season mess. They now sit at 10-11-2 and are four points back of the Stars. The Canucks have cooled off considerably after a hot start and now sit 11-13-2. And finally, the Flames sit in first in the Pacific division, but only own three more points than Dallas.
With that being said, the final leg of this trip is a chance to catapult the Stars into December. They are on the playoff brink right now, reinforcements should be on the way in the near future, and they have a history of playing well in the month of December. With that being said, these next three games can play a critical role in getting them moving back in the right direction.
Western Canada has been good to the Dallas Stars in the recent past. Though this team has underwent some serious changes in the past four seasons, they always know how to match up with the Western Conference teams sitting north of the border.
We’ll see if they have another dose of magic in their back pocket as they make their push across Alberta and British Columbia.