Dallas Stars Put Potential On Full Display In Win Against Jets
Saturday night was a chance for the Dallas Stars to snap a losing skid and enter a long break on a high note. But on top of that, they dominated a strong Winnipeg Jets team and successfully reopened the discussion about their legitimacy.
It’s a question that has been asked for the past six years and only becomes more pressing with each passing season: is this the year that the Dallas Stars finally get it right?
When Jim Nill assumed the title of general manager in April 2013, the Stars were in a transition phase. They had missed the playoffs in five straight seasons, had an inconsistent and low-talent lineup, and needed everything from superstar talent to a coaching staff with a proper and winning vision.
Nill immediately got to work and found a way to get Dallas back to the postseason in his first year. It was a good step forward, but a first round exit held them back from getting it all right.
2014-15 left a lot to be desired, while 2015-16 had all of the makings of a historic season except for winning the Stanley Cup at the end of it. But since then, the Stars have fallen painfully short of taking that necessary next step. They missed the playoffs in both 2016-17 and 2017-18, have gone through three head coaches in three seasons, and cannot seem to get around the corner.
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And as the 2018-19 Dallas Stars entered Saturday morning, it looked as though they were once again stuck in the same rut of mediocrity.
After another offseason of significant change that included hiring Jim Montgomery as their new head coach and adding a handful of players through free agency, the Stars seemed ready to finally take the next step forward.
But through 48 games, it was much of the same. Certain areas were clicking, like the defense and goaltending. On the other hand, their offense and power play were wrapped in inconsistency. The system that Montgomery had preached upon his hiring has yet to be fully established and the Stars are clinging to their playoff lives due to a lack of much-needed stability in their play.
As a result, the Stars entered Saturday night sitting in the second wild card spot. They had lost four games in a row, including three against teams sitting well outside of the playoff picture. Their season-long homestand had yet to see a two-point effort and their postseason hopes continued to dwindle. The offensive effort was atrocious, they couldn’t seem to start a game on a strong note, and their system looked flawed.
To top it all off, the Stars were facing off with a red-hot Winnipeg Jets team that had defeated them 5-1 less than two weeks prior.
But if you had said on Saturday morning that the Dallas Stars would play arguably their most complete game of the season and snap a pathetic four-game losing skid against the best team in the Central division, you probably would’ve garnered some strange looks.
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And yet, that’s exactly what happened. The Stars burst out of the gate, kept the pressure on throughout the game, and emerged with a 4-2 win to boost their record to 24-21-4 with 52 points going into a 10-day break.
There wasn’t really any point in the 60-minute contest where Dallas didn’t look to be in charge. The Stars took control of the game early, using a heavy forecheck and plenty of speed to create consistent and long opportunities in the offensive zone. They won the physicality battle, created high-danger chances using all four lines, went 2/7 on the power play and 6/6 on the penalty kill, and received timely goaltending from Ben Bishop when the Jets pulled within one goal midway through the third period.
The Dallas Stars simply looked like the more dominant team against one of the fastest and most well-rounded clubs in the NHL. They countered everything that the Jets threw at them and beat them at their own game using speed, creativity, and a full offensive attack.
Slow starts? The Stars scored a goal and outshot the Jets 11-4 in the first period. Depth scoring issues? Brett Ritchie, Blake Comeau, and Radek Faksa each scored a goal in the game. An inability to find consistency through a full 60 minutes? Dallas dominated every aspect of the game and kept their lines intact from the beginning to the end. Every line had its own claim to fame during the game, whether it was speed, scoring, physicality, or even an ability to shut down Winnipeg’s counterattack.
“I liked the way we competed, I liked the way we skated, and I thought we dictated play for a majority of the game,” said head coach Jim Montgomery.
All of this combined together to push the Dallas Stars into the break on a high note. But it also raised another question: is the potential for this lineup still there? Is this team still a legitimate playoff threat? Can they play to this caliber on a nightly basis?
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That’s a question that, as unfortunate as it may be, can only be answered in time. Maybe this was a game that showed the Stars’ abilities and their true legitimacy as a playoff team in the west. Or, maybe it was nothing more than a poor performance by the Jets that gave the Stars an edge to work with.
Regardless of what happens, this could quickly turn into an internal battle for the Dallas Stars. They now know that they can go toe-to-toe and compete with the best teams in the NHL. Now it becomes a matter of finding a way to access that same compete level on a nightly basis. The win over Winnipeg is a big one, but 33 games still separate the Stars from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. A lot can happen over the next few months.
“It’s huge,” said Brett Ritchie following the game. “I thought we sort of built on that third period we had in the last game, that style of hockey. Just trying to play simple and get everything in. We were able to get the two points and it’s huge.”
This game set a bar for the Stars going forward. They put their capabilities on full display and once again raised questions about their ceiling. The potential is there for them to stay competitive, earn a playoff spot, and take it from there.
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A 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets may not sound like a monumental victory for the Dallas Stars, but it just might end up saving their season. Dallas is back in the win column and proved that they can compete and put on a full, well-rounded attack when everything clicks. All that matters now is figuring out how to make everything click for the next 33 contests.
Is this the year that the Stars finally get everything right? Every great journey starts with a single step, and Saturday was a good first step in the right direction. But the real challenge is on the way.