Dallas Stars: Winless Road Trip Can Teach Stars Valuable Lessons

It’s been over a week since the Dallas Stars last garnered a point in the standings. As a result, they are quickly fading into the back of the Western Conference race. But this losing skid is something that they must learn from. At this point, their season depends on it.

Four games. Eight possible points. Seven days on the road against the Western Conference. And somehow, the Dallas Stars came away empty-handed.

Instead of points and forward progress, the past week has dealt the Stars a strong dosage of frustration, weariness, and overall confusion. Every game boasted a new set of challenges, from sacrificing a late lead to not giving a 60-minute effort. All of these challenges combined for an 0-4-0 record for the Stars along with being outscored 19-11.

Each game seemed to become tougher and tougher for Dallas to handle, with new kicks to the gut coming with each stop.

In Vegas, they took their foot off the gas following a Martin Hanzal power play goal which allowed the Golden Knights to respond with three goals of their own. In Anaheim, the Stars turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead before collapsing in the third period in front of a furious Ducks attack to fall 6-3. In San Jose, a lucky bounce for the Sharks provided Joe Thornton with the game-winning goal in a narrow 3-2 defeat. And finally, Colorado took a 6-4 victory from Saturday night’s contest although Dallas clawed back from a 3-0 hole to tie it 4-4 in the final minutes of the game.

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As a result, the Dallas Stars now own their longest losing streak of the year at four games. It negates the four-game win streak that they carried into the road trip and takes them back to square one as they board the plane to return to Dallas following a week away.

And through all of the defeats from the past week, it’s clear that this is exactly what the Stars need: to get home and reset.

It’s been a grind for the Stars over the past month and a half. Since Oct. 28, Dallas has played 24 games. That averages out to about a game every other day. And of those 24 contests, 17 have come away from the American Airlines Center. The Stars have played almost half of their scheduled road games for the entire season in the past 50 days.

That’s a gauntlet for any hockey team, especially one that is currently dealing with long-term injuries to some of its most important players. But, regardless of how this past week went, the Dallas Stars managed to post an 11-10-3 record over the span. Posting a record above .500 over that difficult period should be noted as significant and, to a certain extent, impressive.

But, the past week was the defining factor between a good stretch and a great stretch. If they had pulled four points out of the past week, we’d have a different story to talk about. If they even pulled two points from the four contests, we would have a different story.

That’s because at the end of the day, the standings are where all of the eyes shift to. The early part of December is when hockey fans tend to begin checking the standings on a regular basis to see where their team stands. It’s only natural considering the halfway point of the year is approaching.

And, as of right now, the Dallas Stars are outside of the playoff picture. After sitting in the wild card hunt for over a month, the Stars were removed from their place of playoff prominence on Wednesday night following their loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Part of it had to do with the Stars’ two-game skid, but a larger part had to do with the fact that the rest of the Western Conference is beginning to heat up.

Every season has its ebbs and flows, and this winless road trip could serve as either for the Stars moving forward. When a team misses the postseason, the largest handful of consecutive losses is usually the easiest to blame as the culprit. But when a team qualifies and gets into the playoffs, any losing streak can be labeled as fuel to the fire.

So, how will this tumultuous trip affect the Dallas Stars? That will be answered as the season goes along.

But, for now, it can teach the Stars a handful of valuable lessons.

For one, it goes to show how deep the competition is in the West. The Stars were 9-0-1 against the Pacific division going into the road trip. Now, they are 9-3-1. On top of that, they are a humbling 1-3-1 against the Central division to start the season. As a result, a handful of losses seems to have completely undone weeks of assumed progress and pushed Dallas into the playoff hunt. It isn’t easy to stay in the playoff picture in the West. If the Stars didn’t know that, now they do.

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In addition, it also goes to show that the Dallas Stars need to find their identity and they need to do it soon. There’s no right or wrong way of doing that besides using consistency, but the team is struggling without it. On this trip alone, they had nights where the offense was good but the defense played poor; on other nights, the defense stood on its head while the offense showed no signs of life. Some nights, the special teams units played top-notch and some nights, they struggled.

It was a battle of different faces and left Dallas searching for something to cling onto. Finding an image that the entire team can buy into will be crucial going forward, and that starts and ends with coaching and team play.

There were times when everything seemed to be going right on the trip before it all crashed. The famous Dallas Stars top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov didn’t first make themselves known on the trip until the second period against Colorado. That cannot happen, regardless of the hockey team in question. Ben Bishop looked rock solid at certain points and completely shaky moments later.

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The entire trip is one that the Dallas Stars and their fans would probably like to throw away. Taking the past week and erasing it from memory can be therapeutic, but it could also lead to further problems for the Stars. Instead, they have to take this trip head-on and learn from it.

You may have noticed that there have been plenty of “learning moments” through the first 33 games of this season. And while you may think of that as aggravating, they are all important lessons. This is a new team with a new coaching staff and a new mindset, and that all takes time to mold together.

If this road trip did anything, it thrust the mirror in front of the Dallas Stars and forced them to take a look at themselves. They let eight valuable points slip from their grasp to beatable teams. Those eight points could end up playing a critical role in the playoff race down the stretch.

But there’s no more time to dwell on the past; all the Stars can do is learn from it and come back better prepared for the next game. The NHL is an unforgiving league like that and offers little time for reflection.

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Dallas now has an upcoming stretch where 14 of their next 20 games will come on home ice. They are done with extensive road trips for a while and will get a chance to play a good chunk of games at the AAC, where they are 10-3-1 on the season. They may have reached this point on fumes, but they made it while still being involved in the fight.

And with 49 games left on the schedule, anything can happen. This road trip can serve either as a serious gut check or a knockout blow. It’s up to the Stars how they play the next move.

A long and treacherous portion of the Stars’ 2018-19 campaign is now complete. They made it through and find themselves just three points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. This winless road trip is a stinger, but could give the Stars just what they need: motivation.

Next up: the Pacific-leading Calgary Flames on Tuesday night in front of a home crowd. Let’s see what kind of shakeup this road trip provides.