Dallas Stars Slip From Playoff Picture, Need Strong Finish To Road Trip

Wednesday night brought a dose of reality to the Dallas Stars as they slipped outside of the Western Conference playoff picture for the first time in a while. With that being said, their upcoming games against the Kings and Blues to close out the road trip are more critical than ever.

The Dallas Stars are no strangers to adversity, and that’s usually a good thing. Adversity breeds winners, after all.

The Stars have been met head-on by plenty of trials over the past few seasons. In each situation, they have been forced to do one of two things: battle through or crumble entirely under the weight. Whether it’s coaching decisions, injuries, or moves made by management, it seems as though every season has its own unique mountain to climb.

In 2013-14, it was a nail-biting race to the final Western Conference wild card spot between the Stars and Arizona Coyotes. Dallas ended up landing the last punch and clinched their first playoff berth in five years in game 81.

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The 2014-15 season saw Tyler Seguin miss a month of play with a sprained MCL as the Stars were trying to navigate a crowded playoff push. Their slump during Seguin’s absence ended up costing them a second-consecutive playoff berth.

In the second round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Stars slipped into a 3-2 series hole after coughing up a valuable opportunity on home ice in game five. But Dallas broke through the adversity, picking up a gritty 3-2 win in St. Louis in game six to force a deciding game seven back in Dallas. That’s where they eventually lost their battle with adversity, though, as the Stars dropped a humiliating 6-1 loss.

During last season’s rollercoaster journey, the Dallas Stars were faced with a challenging road in the final month of the season. With GM Jim Nill not adding any pieces at the trade deadline and starting goaltender Ben Bishop missing 15 of the past 16 games of the year, it was up to the Stars to hold the line and keep a firm grasp on their playoff spot. That plan flunked as the adversity buried the team entirely down the homestretch.

And even through 63 regular season games in their 2018-19, the Stars have already faced a mountain of adversity. A new coach that is new to the NHL, a massive plague of injuries to the majority of their defensive starters throughout the first half of the season, CEO Jim Lites publicly abashing the team’s two best players, newly-acquired forward Mats Zuccarello breaking his arm 40 minutes into his debut with the team, and large win streaks being followed immediately by large losing skids highlight some of the more prominent challenges.

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On Wednesday night, Dallas was dealt yet another hefty and potentially crippling dose of reality. With the Colorado Avalanche defeating the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in a shootout, the Avs catapulted themselves back into the Western Conference playoff picture, bumping the Stars outside of the wall.

It’s the first time that the Dallas Stars have been outside of the Western Conference playoff picture since the NHL Holiday Break. That was in late December.

What’s even more daunting about this shift is the progress that the Stars seemed to be building during the month of February. They started the month off with a five-game win streak, followed it up with a rough 1-3-1 road trip, but picked up a big win at home against St. Louis and on the road against Chicago over the past week to reestablish their potential.

And yet, a handful of poorly-timed losses have been enough to force them out of the picture. That’s a testament to the Stars’s struggles, but it points to how well the teams around Dallas are playing right now.

The Avalanche (who sit in the second wild card spot) are 6-1-1 in their last eight games and have a relatively easy schedule awaiting them over the next five weeks. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild (who sit in the first wild card spot) are riding a four-game win streak that has completely negated a slow start to the month of February. The Blues are still surging as well, with the loss to Dallas last Thursday being their only regulation loss in the month of February.

Here’s how the Western Conference playoff picture sits on the final day of February 2019.

1. Nashville Predators 66 GP 79 PTS

2. Winnipeg Jets 63 GP 78 PTS

3. St. Louis Blues 63 GP 74 PTS

4/WC1. Minnesota Wild 64 GP 68 PTS

5/WC2. Colorado Avalanche 64 GP 68 PTS

6. Dallas Stars 63 GP 67 PTS

7. Chicago Blackhawks 64 GP 63 PTS

This leaves the Dallas Stars with a substantial hole to climb out of and lots of ground to cover in their final 19 games of the year.

And that all begins with the remainder of this four-game road trip. After defeating the Blackhawks in an emotional 4-3 final to start the trip on Sunday and following it up with a bland 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, Dallas has a date with the Los Angeles Kings set for Thursday night as well as a visit to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. That’s two more road games for a team that is 12-17-3 when playing away from home this season. In other words, that’s adversity.

It’s also a tale of two opponents. The Kings currently sit 30th in the NHL standings and are in last place in the Western Conference. They are 1-6-3 in their last ten games and own a goal differential of -51 (second-worst in the NHL) on the season. They are ten games below .500, own a lower-scoring offensive attack than the Stars, and have bottom-three units both on the power play and penalty kill.