Dallas Stars: Looking Ahead At Their March 2019 Schedule
After a rollercoaster month of February filled with plenty of highs and lows, the Dallas Stars are gearing up for one final push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their March schedule offers a lot of action against fellow playoff challengers, leaving a lot of room for movement in the postseason race with just five weeks to go.
There was some good and there was some bad, but the Dallas Stars made it through the month of February and sit in a relatively promising position. With February in the rearview mirror, the Stars are 32-27-5 on the season with 69 points through 64 games.
On top of that, they find themselves sitting in the first Western Conference wild card spot and have won three of their past five games. That includes a thrilling overtime victory against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night to wrap up their February slate.
But the month as a whole had its fair share of ups and downs. The Stars started the month off with three consecutive wins that contributed to a season-high, five-game win streak. Immediately after, they sunk into a 1-3-1 hole during a five-game road trip. Then came a shaky 1-2-0 homestand in which the Stars pulled off a big win over the surging St. Louis Blues but dropped valuable points against the Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes.
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That brings them to the current road trip. Dallas is in the midst of a four-game swing and owns a 2-1-0 record so far. It began with a thrilling and somewhat costly win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, transitioned to an emotionless 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, but picked up speed again on Thursday in LA with a 4-3 victory in overtime against the Kings. The trip will wrap up on Saturday with a Central division showdown in St. Louis against the Blues.
And so, the Dallas Stars wrapped up their month on a 7-6-1 note. But the record by itself doesn’t do justice to the 28-day journey that Dallas endured.
Amidst the winning streaks and losing skids was the drama from the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline. With the Stars being a potential playoff challenger, they looked as though they would be a significant player in the trade market.
And after acquiring Andrew Cogliano and Jamie Oleksiak in January, GM Jim Nill took another dive into the market. He acquired Ben Lovejoy and Mats Zuccarello on Feb. 23 and seemed to round out some of the weaker points in their game plan.
But while the last week has put the Stars in a difficult position in terms of injuries and another challenging road trip, they have found a way to battle through and persevere. As a result, they own a playoff spot on March 1. And while that’s an impressive spot to be in, it’s no reason to get complacent.
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That’s because the month of March is make-or-break time in the NHL. It’s a 31-day grind for every team still in the playoff race, as teams battle for positioning in a race to the regular season finish line.
With Dallas just five points out of third place in the Central division and one point away from the postseason cutoff, the final 18 games of the 2018-19 regular season will mean everything to the Stars and their race to a playoff berth. That all begins on Saturday night with an important divisional showdown against the Blues.
Take a look at the Stars’ March schedule and opponents:
St. Louis Blues (1 game: away), New York Rangers (1 game: home), Colorado Avalanche (2 games: home), Chicago Blackhawks (1 game: home), Buffalo Sabres (1 game: away), Minnesota Wild (1 game: away), Vegas Golden Knights (1 game: home), Vancouver Canucks (2 games: 1 home, 1 away), Florida Panthers (1 game: home), Pittsburgh Penguins (1 game: home), Winnipeg Jets (1 game: away), Calgary Flames (1 game: away), Edmonton Oilers (1 game: away)
Let’s break that down for a moment.
The Dallas Stars have a loaded schedule in the final full month of the season. They will play 15 games over a 29-day span. That ties March with November for the most games in a month in their 2018-19 regular season schedule.
With the rigorous and consistent schedule, the Stars won’t have more than two consecutive days off from action in the month ahead. Following the game against St. Louis on Sunday, Dallas will have two days off before taking on the New York Rangers on Tuesday at the American Airlines Center. But after that, there are two three-game weeks followed by two four-game weeks to close out the month. That includes two different back-to-backs as well.
It’s a relatively balanced schedule in terms of travel, with the Dallas Stars playing eight home games and seven road games during March. That includes a three-game homestand following the game in St. Louis and a five-game homestand that begins on March 15 after the Stars arrive home from a short two-game road trip. Dallas ends the month with a four-game road trip to Western Canada.
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Pucks and Pitchforks
In terms of conference play, the month of March offers the Stars a West-heavy schedule. Of their 15 games, 11 of them will pit Dallas against a Western Conference opponent. Each of those games could end up playing a large role in determining the playoff standings out west, while the four games against Eastern Conference opponents (New York, Buffalo, Florida, and Pittsburgh) will offer the Stars a chance to get ahead with non-conference points.
Their Western Conference schedule also offers a hefty dose of Central division action. Of the 11 games against the West, six of them are against divisional foes. Of those six, five are against the Blues, Avalanche, Blackhawks, and Wild. The Stars are within six points of each of those teams in the Western Conference standings, which leaves the month ahead as an opportunity to surge ahead or fall behind.
Every divisional game matters, especially at this time of the year, so it will be up to the Stars to find a way to dig in and capitalize in their “four-point games.”
Of the 13 different teams that the Dallas Stars will face in the coming month, only five currently sit in a playoff spot as of March 1. The Jets and Blues sit just ahead of the Stars in the Central standings, while the Wild are close behind Dallas in the second wild card spot. In the Pacific bracket, the Flames and Golden Knights sit in top-three spots.
But this is where things get interesting. Though the other eight don’t currently own a playoff spot, you could make an argument that six of them are still “in the hunt.” The Avalanche are currently tied with the Wild for the final wild card spot. Chicago and Vancouver sit close behind, with just five points separating them.
In the East, the Penguins are tied with the Hurricanes for the final wild card spot, while Florida and Buffalo are eight points back. This is the time of year where teams either gear up or fall back, and only a handful of teams are truly “eliminated” already.
The point is that anything can happen in the NHL playoff race. Remember when the Dallas Stars sat in a playoff spot on March 1, 2018 but were passed by the Avalanche, Wild, and Kings in the final month of the season? There is still plenty of time for every team to either hit a hot streak or fall into a slump.
The March slate for the Dallas Stars is filled with plenty of things to look forward to. A five-game homestand staked in the middle of the month, Mats Zuccarello’s return from injury, and another final push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s got everything a Stars fan could want.
And so, with the deadline, injuries, and a riveting end to the month of February behind them, it’s go time for Dallas.
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March presents a loaded schedule filled with challenges and plenty of potential pitfalls. The 2018-19 Stars have struggled at times with finding ways to succeed on a consistent basis through the first 64 games of the season. But in this final month, they will have to find a way. Their playoff lives could very well depend on it.
It’s time for the Stars to finish strong or collapse entirely. By the end of this month, they will either be surging towards the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs or will be looking forward to their ninth early offseason in the past 11 years. And when a team reaches that kind of postseason skid, there’s usually a wave of change involved.
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That’s why these next 31 days are so critical. It’s time to find out just what the 2018-19 Dallas Stars are made of and how they work under pressure.
The playoff race is on.