Dallas Stars: What We Learned In First Half Of 2018-19 Season

With 41 games behind them and 41 games to go, the Dallas Stars stand at the midway point of their 2018-19 regular season. As they gear up for the second half, let’s take a look at some of the things we have learned about the team so far.

The Dallas Stars will wrap up a four-game homestand on Friday night when they welcome the Washington Capitals to the American Airlines Center. Both teams currently sit in one of the top three spots in their respective divisions, have played consistent hockey as of late, and are trying to create separation in the playoff race.

Those storylines alone make it an entertaining game to indulge in on a Friday night. Not to mention that the first meeting between the two teams offered overtime and an eventual game winner from Jason Dickinson in a 4-3 final. But this matchup marks yet another important game for the Stars.

It’s been a crazy week for Dallas. From team CEO Jim Lites dishing out an expletive-filled rant in the direction of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, to rookie Miro Heiskanen being named to the NHL All-Star Game, to the Stars picking up points in every game since the NHL Holiday Break, there’s been a lot to take in.

But buried in the news hotbed is the fact that the Dallas Stars are now halfway done with their 2018-19 campaign. That alone is a topic worth discussing in-depth.

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The Stars’ played their 41st game of the year on Wednesday night. The eventual 5-4 win bumped Dallas up to 21-16-4 on the season with 46 points and catapulted them into third place in the Central division. It was their first time being a top-three team in the division in over two months and highlighted their push for consistency over the past week.

But the first 41 games have been anything but consistent. There have been ups, downs, and in-betweens for the Stars. And while it was expected, it’s always a challenge to endure.

Dallas started the year with a new coaching staff and a new look to the lineup. Valeri Nichushkin made his return to Dallas, Miro Heiskanen made his NHL debut at the age of 19, Anton Khudobin slotted in as the newest addition in the team’s backup goaltender carousel, and the team took the ice trying to avoid missing the postseason for a third year in a row with Jim Montgomery at the helm.

And through 41 games, the odds seem to be in their favor. But, they have been fooled before. Need proof? At the halfway mark, the Stars have exactly half of their record from last season (42-32-8). And, if you don’t remember whether or not Dallas made the playoffs last season, just google “Dallas Stars March losing streak.”

So, there is still a lot of ground to cover and a lot that can happen.

But what has happened so far? What have we learned about this 2018-19 Dallas Stars squad? The team has showed plenty of strengths as well as a few pitfalls, and that’s what makes them an interesting case study. Every team is different from year-to-year, and this one has plenty of factors that make it a unique group.

That being said, the progress can be seen and the Stars have spent the past week vastly improving many parts of their game. As a result, they are riding a hot streak that they will put up against the defending Stanley Cup champions tonight.

Let’s take a look at some of the things we learned from the first half.

The Dallas Stars Have Themselves A Goaltending Duo

For the first time in what seems like forever, it looks like the Dallas Stars have themselves a rock solid duo in the crease.

When July 1 rolled around, the Stars had a choice to make. With their goaltending prospects still a few years from the NHL and UFA Kari Lehtonen simply not getting it done down the stretch in the 2017-18 season, Dallas went out to search for a new backup goalie to pair with Ben Bishop.

Da Windy City

Instead of signing one of the big names on the market like Carter Hutton or Jonathan Bernier, though, they went with Anton Khudobin. The 32-year-old had around six full seasons of NHL experience and was well-acclimated to playing in the backup role. And so, with the help of Alexander Radulov acting as a salesman, the Stars locked Khudobin down for two years with a $2.5 million AAV.

What a steal that turned out to be. Khudobin has since proven to be one of the best backup goaltenders in the league this year. He is 7-7-2 on the year with a .920 save percentage (eighth-best among goalies that have started at least 16 games) and 2.63 goals against average. But, it’s not necessarily the basic stats that surprise you; instead, it’s how he has gone about picking up wins.

Khudobin has faced over 500 shots in his 18 games played and owns a quality save percentage of 62.5 percent. In November, he stopped 31 of 32 against Toronto (including a few great opportunities towards the end), 33-35 against Boston, and 31-34 against San Jose. The Stars went 2-0-1 in those contests, and Khudobin played a critical role in securing that record. His most recent performance? Setting a franchise record with a 49-save shutout against the Nashville Predators on the road.

Meanwhile, Ben Bishop is having one of his better seasons as an NHL starter. He’s 14-9-2 this season with a .923 save percentage (third-best among goalies that have started at least 25 games) and 2.35 goals against average.

SenShot

He’s heated up here recently, going 4-1-1 in his last six starts with a .935 save percentage that also included a shutout. Even though he missed the final 11 days in November with a lower-body injury, he’s still been a solid starting option for Dallas. He’s seeing pucks well, taking care of the crease, and is buying the Stars chances to win games in his second season with the team. On top of that, he’s also the team leader in “Three Stars of the Game” points with 27 (4 first-star finishes, 2 second-star finishes, 1 third-star finish).

Without Bishop and Khudobin, there’s no telling where the Stars would be in the standings after the first half of the season. The two are feeding off of each other and giving Montgomery a 1A-1B setup that he can use to his benefit.

And if the Stars are going to get to the postseason this year, it’s going to stem from playing strong in the crease. That much you can count on.

Through 41 games, it seems like the Dallas Stars finally have their goaltending right.

This Team Can Survive When Backed Into A Corner

On Nov. 8, 2018, the Dallas Stars world collectively held its breath as John Klingberg exited the ice in a game against the San Jose Sharks with an apparent hand injury. Klingberg, the team’s no. 1 defenseman, was a crucial part to their blue line and had never missed extended time in his four seasons at the NHL level.

But when it was revealed that he would miss a month (that turned out to be almost six weeks) with a broken hand, the Stars braced for impact. They were clinging to their playoff lives through 16 games and had just lost their All-Star defender. On top of that, Marc Methot was in and out of the lineup with a knee problem, Stephen Johns hadn’t played all season due to post-traumatic headaches, and Connor Carrick was on the IR for the next few weeks ahead with an ankle injury.

Editor In Leaf

The Dallas blue line was missing four of its typical top-six defensemen and needed help. Where did they look for it? Not the free agent or trade market. Instead, Dallas called on the services of Ben Gleason, Gavin Bayreuther, and Joel Hanley from the AHL. In addition, they also pushed Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen, and Roman Polak into extended roles.

And you know what? They survived. Not only did they survive, but they found a way to push themselves back into the playoff race without some of their top players in the lineup.

The mass of injuries (a total of 190 man-games lost going into Friday) that have piled up for the Stars this year on offense, defense, and in net could have easily broken most NHL teams. The 2016-17 Dallas Stars are an example of a team that succumbed to early-season injury problems.

But this Stars team didn’t back down. The prospects that were called up found a way to make a quick impact, the regular starters took a step up in their extended roles, and the entire team kept themselves in the fight.

And that cannot be forgotten about through the twists and turns of this 2018-19 season. The Dallas Stars have done well when facing adversity. From new teammates to constant line shuffling to different playings hitting ruts or droughts, they have found a way to make it all work.

Hockey is just as much of a mental game as it is a physical one. If the Stars can survive when the going gets really tough, what can they do when fully healthy? That’s up to them to decide, but would you really want to stand in the way of a team that knows they can still stay in the fight even without some of their superstar pieces?

That certainly bodes to be a recipe for success in the final 41 games.

The Offense Still Needs A Resurgence

As crazy as it may sound, the one thing that the Dallas Stars are lacking more than anything else through the first 41 games is consistent offense. And that’s not just talking about Benn and Seguin’s lack of production; it revolves around the whole team.

The Stars currently sit tied for 26th in the NHL in terms of goals per game with an average of 2.76. While that puts them 0.55 goals away from the Los Angeles Kings who sit in last place, it pins them 1.41 goals away from the top spot which is currently held by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That’s a far cry from a team that has been used to scoring 3.00+ goals per game over the past few seasons and sitting 18th or higher in the league standings. The Dallas Stars have never been a team significantly lacking offense, but they seem to be now.

Blackhawk Up

Seguin (13-23-36), Alexander Radulov (13-21-34), and Benn (17-15-32) currently lead the team in scoring, but even their numbers are down when compared to their averages.

The depth scoring has produced better than the abysmal level it hit in 2017-18, but there is still a need for more.

Only three players have scored more than 10 goals this year. The next few names? Heiskanen has nine, Radek Faksa has seven, and Jason Spezza, Esa Lindell, and Tyler Pitlick are in a three-way tie with six.

The production is lacking throughout the entire lineup and three of the top nine goal scorers are defensemen. That should never happen.

Devin Shore was good early but has hit a dry spell, Mattias Janmark is having an unusually quiet year in terms of scoring, and Valeri Nichushkin has been almost non-existent in the offensive zone with zero goals and seven assists through 32 games.

Now, things are starting to look up. The Stars have scored 14 goals in the past four games and put up 40+ shots in three of those four contests. The offense is looking more dominant and hungry, and that’s translating to more success.

“I expected it to happen post-Thanksgiving, to be honest,” Montgomery said at practice on Thursday. “It’s just taken a month longer than I expected. But, you’re starting to see the consistency of how we want to play in every zone and we’re becoming a much better hockey team because of it.”

This Dallas Stars offense is in need of some sort of spark, though. Maybe it will come from the top duo of Benn and Seguin after a reaming from Lites or maybe it will come from the other 10 forwards stepping up and putting up the necessary numbers.

Either way, the Stars got to the second round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs primarily due to the fact that they owned the highest-scoring offense in the NHL. Defense and goaltending are crucial elements, too, and Dallas seems to have both of those locked down. But good, playoff-bound teams know how to score early and often. The Stars will need to find some sort of offensive kick throughout the next 41 games if they want to stay in good standing. Offense is critical.

Monty Doing Alright, But Could Still Use An Identity

“This team needs to figure out their identity.”

If that isn’t one of the most truthful and yet frequently overused cliches in the Dallas Stars organization, I don’t know what is.

But it still rings true even in this 2018-19 campaign. The Stars have done some good things at times, but bad things at others. They have solved some of their early season problems, but others still linger. So, exactly what kind of team is this Dallas Stars group? That’s what they are trying to figure out, and it all starts behind the bench.

Causeway Crowd

Jim Montgomery has done a pretty good job through the first half of his “rookie year” as an NHL coach. Making the jump from college directly to the NHL is a path that very few take, but Monty has weathered the storm so far. Through 41 games, he has the team five wins over .500 and sitting in third place in the Central division with first and second still within reach. That’s not easy to do, especially considering all of the challenges the Stars have faced, so you have to give him props.

“I keep learning every day,” Montgomery said after practice on Thursday. I’ve learned a lot, but still have a lot to learn. You never stop learning, it doesn’t matter where. But especially for me, I’m like a baby learning how to walk and now I’m hoping to run. But it’s a process. I’m lucky that I have a great general manager in Jim Nill that helps me through this process and I have a great staff. [Rick Bowness], [Todd Nelson], and Stu [Barnes], they help me a lot and [Jeff Reese] with how to handle goaltenders. It’s a team effort and I think as a staff, we’ve improved immensely. I think that’s why our team is improving.”

But he still needs to find that identity for his team. When he was hired back in May, he preached a relentless style of hockey that revolved around puck possession and consistent offensive pressure. That’s a great mindset to have, but the Stars have yet to find it consistently this year.

Monty has the respect of his players and they have bought in to what the new coach is bringing to the table. But, there needs to be an identity established and soon. Teams without identities never seem to go anywhere for a reason.

“I think we have a comfort level of what my expectations are and what I’m going to hold them accountable to,” Monty said. “They have expectations of how we’re going to play and they’re more comfortable. We’re a lot more fluid team now. The only thing I’d like to improve right now from a consistency standpoint is our starts.”

And so, it’s been a ride through 41 games. It was an intriguing first half of the 2018-19 season to follow, and that sets the stage for even more interest in the second part. But all in all, the Dallas Stars are proving that the process is still moving along and they are gaining consistency and ground with each step. Let’s hope that holds up.

So, let’s see what Act Two has in store.