Dallas Stars: Four Keys To Qualifying For 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs

With the final full month of the regular season underway, the race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is in full swing for the Dallas Stars. Here are four things they need to do that just might help in getting them over the hump and into the postseason.

It’s March 2, 2019 and the Dallas Stars sit in a playoff spot in the Western Conference. And for the time being, that’s big.

That’s because through the first 64 games of the 2018-19 regular season, the Stars have been riding an inexplicably intriguing rollercoaster. Since they opened up their “new era” under first year head coach Jim Montgomery with a 3-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 3, the ride has provided consecutive twists and turns.

But this Dallas Stars rollercoaster isn’t like the ones from past seasons. In this year’s journey, the number of thrilling highs, humbling lows, and uphill battles have been at a maximum. On top of that, each one has perfectly countered against the other to provide a perfectly imbalanced balance.

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They’ve had long win streaks that were almost too quickly erased by long losing skids. But at other times, they have found ways to bounce back from difficult losing skids with equal victorious surges.

Back and forth the pendulum has swung, allowing the team to get neither too far ahead of behind. One win, one loss. Three wins, three losses.

With that being said, the Stars have yet to break free and hit a consistent stride that could carry them to the top of the Central division race. On the other hand, they also have not sunk to the bottom of the Western Conference race.

Instead, they sit in the middle of a crowded postseason race at 32-27-5 with 69 points. It’s a race that has only gotten tighter over the past month as more teams have jumped into the fold using either a midseason surge like the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche or a complete resurrection from the ashes like the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks.

As a result, the Dallas Stars have plenty of company to associate with in the race both for the two Western Conference wild card spots and a top-three spot in the Central division overall.

But time is running out. With the final month of the season underway, this race begins to have a shelf life. Some teams will rise and some teams will inevitably fall over the next few weeks. It happens with every passing season and helps set the stage for the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And for each of the past two seasons, the Stars have found themselves in a similar spot to where they currently reside here in 2019: digging through the middle of the playoff hunt. Sure, their 2016-17 standing pinned them as a long shot; but they still found themselves within striking distance through the opening days of March. The hope was still there.

Causeway Crowd

2018 was a different story. Dallas sat in third place in the Central division in the opening days of March and looked to be a playoff challenger. But, after a catastrophic meltdown in the middle of the month, the Stars fell apart and watched their postseason hopes shatter.

This time around, they are in an eerily familiar spot: battling with the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, and Colorado Avalanche (among others) for supremacy in the standings.

So, how do the Dallas Stars make sure that this sprint to the finish boasts a different result than the devastating one that they have endured in their past two attempts? How do they make sure that this mediocre ride ends with a thrilling corkscrew that propels them into the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs? How can they limit their downs, maximize their ups, and turn this season into an ultimately thrilling one that extends past game 82?

It’s going to require a full-team effort. The wild card standings are airtight, with six teams sitting within six points of each other. On top of that, the Stars are only five points out of third place in the Central and have the potential to make a run at reclaiming their spot in Central division prominence.

But, amidst simply winning and staying one step ahead of the competition, here are a few things that might help provide the spark that gets them into the dance.

A Pressing Need For Energy And Focus

Much like the entirety of the 2018-19 season, this past week has provided a lot of emotional surges for the Dallas Stars. On Sunday afternoon, they rallied in Chicago after being put in a corner by various injuries and a comeback bid by the Blackhawks to win a 4-3 game. Spirits were high and the team found a spark to rally behind.

Two days later, that spark disappeared as the Stars dropped a 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. As the Golden Knights hiked up their emotional intensity in the final period of the game, Dallas watched and let their opponent take control of a 1-1 game. The lack of focus and passion was painfully evident as the Stars gave up three goals against and only managed to get one shot on goal in retaliation through the final 20 minutes.

As the road trip shifted to Los Angeles on Thursday morning, Stars coach Jim Montgomery made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the team’s performance at morning skate. He cited a lack of emotion and energy from the entire team, leaving plenty of doubt lingering about Thursday night’s contest against a struggling Kings team.

Editor In Leaf

And through the first 40 minutes, those doubts were entirely justified. The Stars found themselves down 3-2 at second intermission in a critical game and didn’t seem to have the emotional push necessary to win the game.

But in the third period, they turned a corner. The Stars got up, dusted themselves off, and fought back against an unexpected LA Kings club. Dallas controlled the final frame, got a goal from Radek Faksa to tie it up, and sent the game to overtime, where Roope Hintz scored the clinching goal. The comeback showed that the Dallas Stars had regained their spark.

That’s a spark that they will need in the final 18 games of the season. Every good playoff team has their focus set and has an arsenal of energy and emotion to use on a nightly basis.

It’s an arsenal that the Stars have lacked at different times throughout the 2018-19 season. In various games this year, the team has looked uninterested and undedicated to their purpose. That lifeless effort has turned into a loss more often than not, thus holding Dallas back from taking that next step.

But in these final 18 games, they need to bottle that energy up and keep it on tap for the final push. What does that look like?

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It’s not something that can necessarily be taught or coached. Instead, it’s an internal feeling that each player has to grab hold of and implement into their game. It involves giving 100 percent on every shift, battling and beating the guy in front of you for 60 minutes, and standing up for your teammates in any way necessary. It’s doing everything in your power to make the critical play that decides the result of a game and bringing the team along with you.

It can be a tricky characteristic to access and harness, but good teams find a way to make it happen. Every game is critical from here on out, both for the Stars and many of the teams they will face over the next month. And when two teams in desperate need of a win get together, the team with that extra dose of emotion and energy usually finds a way to get the upper hand.

If there was ever a time that the Dallas Stars needed to dig deep and find that enthusiasm and passion, this is it. Every game has a purpose and every point is crucial at this point in the year. Bringing a consistent energy to each game can help with setting the tempo for the rest of the season.

The Stars’ Best Players Have To Be Their Best Players

This one may sound self-explanatory, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

For a team like the Dallas Stars, there is no shortage of superstar talent to go around on the lineup. Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, John Klingberg, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, and Ben Bishop are all well-known names around the NHL that give Dallas that certain “star power” element.

And even in a season of inconsistencies and searching for that next step, the Stars have seen their superstars take over during important games and stretches to help lead the team along. It hasn’t always worked, but it’s encouraging to see the big-name players stepping in, especially in the recent past.

Blackhawk Up

If the Dallas Stars are going to continue pushing for a berth in the postseason, though, they will need their big names to continue stepping up in a sizable way.

The Stars haven’t been good on offense this season. In fact, they own the third-lowest goals for per game total in the NHL at 2.53. Their offensive zone time has been unstructured and spotty, the scoring chances haven’t been consistent, and the team has resolved to playing a strong defensive style and winning low-scoring battles as a result.

In the last 18 games, however, the offense will have to find a new gear. That all begins with their top scorers in Benn, Seguin, and Radulov.

For Seguin, it doesn’t look as though it will be a problem. Since team CEO Jim Lites called he and Benn out for their lacking play back on Dec. 28, 2018, no. 91 has scored 16 goals and posted 27 points in 26 games. He’s on a tear, is heating up at the right time of the season, and is on pace to reach the 35-goal plateau for the fourth time in his six seasons with the club.

But for Benn and Radulov, the challenge is at their fingertips. As the captain of the team, Benn sets the tone for the rest of his teammates in each game. One week ago, he looked like his old self, scoring two goals and going “full beast mode” in a critical game against the Blues. He’ll have to continue accessing that level of intensity while also ramping up his offensive production in the homestretch.

The same goes for Radulov, who has two goals and five points in his past four games. If the Dallas offense continues to struggle with getting pucks in the back of the net, it will be up to their leaders to get the job done.

In the back end, players like Klingberg, Lindell, and Heiskanen will have to help the defensive effort along. The Dallas blue line has been consistent for much of the regular season, but there is no room for error at this time of the year.

All in all, the push to the playoffs is a full-team effort. But, if certain parts of the team aren’t getting the job done on a given night, it will be up to the big guns to take control.

Winning Divisional Games Is Critical

Each season, the Dallas Stars play a grand total of 26 games against Central division opponents. Those games are considered by players, coaches, and fans to be “four-point games.” In other words, when two teams from the same division play against each other, there is the potential for a four-point swing to occur based on the results.

Every game against the Central is an important game for the Stars. After starting the year on a slow note when it came to divisional play, Dallas has hiked up the intensity over the past few months when it comes to divisional brawls. Overall, they are 9-7-2 against the Central, including victories in five of their past seven contests within the division.

With that being said, however, there are still eight games against the Central left on the Stars’ 2018-19 regular season slate. That’s eight of their final 18 games, with each one holding significant importance in regard to the playoff race.

As of Saturday morning, the Dallas Stars own sole control of the first wild card spot in the Western Conference. They sit five points back of the St. Louis Blues, who sit in third in the division, and just one point ahead of both the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche, who are trailing close behind.

The Stars play the Blues on Saturday night to wrap up the season series. The results from that contest could do everything from bring Dallas within three points of a top-three spot in the division to pushing them below the Wild and into the second wild card spot.

Two games later, the Stars will host the Avs at the American Airlines Center. It will be the first of two meetings between Dallas and Colorado over a two-week span at the AAC as they also wrap up their season series.

On March 14, the Stars will be in Minnesota to take on the Wild. The two clubs will also wrap up their regular season slates against each other in Dallas on April 6.

Mix all of that in with two games against the Chicago Blackhawks (who are still breathing and alive in the playoff hunt) and the Winnipeg Jets (who sit first in the Central) and you have a challenging stretch.

Winning Central division games is always important, but it takes on another level of severity when the regular season hits crunch time during the playoff push.

“I think that’s what we say about the Central. Everyone talks about how it’s gotta be the hardest division in the league, if not sports. But when you come down to the last 30 games or so, you’re playing playoff games already.” – Tyler Seguin on Feb. 1

The Stars will have to find a way to secure those valuable points against the teams just ahead of them and the teams trailing close behind them. Moving up in the standings is a pleasant luxury  while moving backwards is a disappointing stumbling block that can be impossible to recover from.

Big games are due up for the Dallas Stars over the next five weeks, and it will be up to the team to rise to the challenge against one of the toughest divisions in sports. That all begins with their head coach and top players.

And so, the journey begins. The Stars sit in a playoff spot and are in the driver’s seat to make a serious final push, but will need to keep their one last surge from burning out. It could be enough to get them into the postseason.

Let the race begin.