On a road trip that could have significantly unraveled their playoff hopes, the Dallas Stars found a way to escape on a triumphant note. And considering all that they endured on their path to success over the past week, they just might have the boost that they need for the final push to the playoffs.
It’s Monday, March 4, 2019, and the Dallas Stars find themselves sitting in a playoff spot and riding a winning streak. And when you consider all of the trials that they faced over the past eight days, this feat is nothing short of impressive.
Let’s rewind to last Sunday, Feb. 24. Following a stale 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes to close out a homestand and a handful of trades made by Stars general manager Jim Nill on Saturday, the Stars were in Chicago to kick off a four-game road trip against the Blackhawks. It’s not likely that the stakes could have been much higher at the beginning of the trip.
The Dallas Stars were staring down a road swing that had the potential to significantly alter their fate in the race to the playoffs. With the final month of the regular season approaching and the Stars being a subpar 1-4-0 in their previous five contests, the Western Conference postseason push had quickly caught up with them. Dallas sat in the first wild card spot, with Colorado, Minnesota, Arizona, and Chicago trailing intimidatingly close behind.
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To add onto that, the Stars had squandered a precious chance at generating breathing room during a three-game homestand, picking up two of a possible six points at the American Airlines Center.
And so, the focus shifted to a daunting road trip. The scheduled stops? Chicago to face a Blackhawks team clawing to stay alive in the postseason hunt, Vegas to battle a Golden Knights team that landed one of the biggest trade deadline names in Mark Stone, Los Angeles to duke it out with a Kings team that had nothing to lose (making them the most dangerous kind of team), and a final stop in St. Louis to fight a surging Blues team for valuable points within the division.
That’s a tough schedule for any team to grind through in the midst of a critical push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It seem almost unbearable for a team that was 11-16-3 when playing away from home at the time that the trip began. But it was a schedule that the Dallas Stars had to find a way to pick up valuable points against; their playoff lives literally depended on it.
The first stop wasn’t easy; in fact, it might have been the most difficult of them all. After losing captain Jamie Benn in the first few minutes of the opening period, the Stars took on the Hawks with 11 forwards. And after having an immediate impact on an ailing Dallas offense with a goal and assist, newly-acquired forward Mats Zuccarello broke his arm while blocking a shot towards the end of the second period. But that wasn’t all.
Alexander Radulov played through an illness. Brett Ritchie missed a few shifts with a lingering injury. Jason Dickinson rammed into the boards awkwardly and was in clear pain during a penalty kill at a key point in the game.
As Stars forwards continued to drop, the team watched as their commanding 3-0 lead turned into a 3-3 tie in front of a raucous Chicago crowd.
But by the time it was all said and done, Dallas had battled through adversity and emotions and triumphed with a 4-3 win thanks to a late power play goal from Jason Spezza and a superb showing in net from Anton Khudobin. With that, the Stars started their trip with two points.
Two nights later, they were in Vegas looking to expand on their resilient effort. But with Benn and Zuccarello both missing the game due to injury, it looked as though they were in for an uphill battle.
Da Windy City
While the Stars put together a decent attack through the first 40 minutes, any hope they had of winning the game stayed in the locker room following second intermission. Dallas was outshot 21-1 in the final period of a 1-1 game as the Golden Knights surged to a 4-1 victory. Ryan Reaves tossed various Stars players around and even knocked Andrew Cogliano out of the game on a brutal check as no Dallas players fought back in retaliation. Dallas looked emotionless and battered as they dropped an important two points in the desert and shifted their road trip record to 1-1-0.
Those lost points ended up costing the Stars their spot in the playoff picture as the Avalanche and Wild continued their respective surges and assumed the two wild card spots.
With the need for points becoming more crucial, the Dallas Stars found themselves in a tight spot against a reeling Los Angeles Kings team on Thursday night. After falling into a 2-0 hole through the first few minutes, the Stars clawed back to even thanks to goals from Tyler Seguin and Mattias Janmark. Minutes after tying it up, though, Anze Kopitar restored the LA lead to 3-2.
As Dallas entered second intermission, their playoff hopes looked to be flickering. With the teams around them forging ahead, the Stars were losing games that they shouldn’t be and looked to be out of gas. It looked as though the clock was close to striking midnight.
Then a Radek Faksa goal off the rush happened and it was 3-3. And after a few minutes of vigorous overtime action, Roope Hintz potted a goal to claim a thrilling and ever-so-important two points for the Stars.
Bleedin' Blue
And then came Saturday night. Going up against a Blues team that had won seven consecutive home games and 13 of their past 16 contests overall, the Stars received valuable reinforcements with Benn’s return to the lineup.
It didn’t take the captain long to get back to game speed, either, as he netted a hat trick on Jordan Binnington, the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for February. The power play and penalty kill were hot, Ben Bishop was good when he needed to be, and the Stars surged ahead to a dominant 4-1 win to end the trip.
That’s enough action and excitement for an entire month of hockey. Instead, the Dallas Stars endured all of it through seven days. That’s just how it seems to go with this team.
But with a 3-1-0 road trip now in their back pocket, the Stars proved a few things. They proved that they can win road games (they are now 14-17-3 when playing away from home). Jamie Benn proved that he can still be his usual “beast mode” self when it counts. The goaltending continued to dazzle, the defense was solid, and the Dallas offense found ways to score, averaging 3.25 goals per game on the trip.
Perhaps more than anything else, though, the Dallas Stars proved that they can face adversity head-on and still emerge victorious, even in the most important part of the regular season.
You can’t help but think of the infamous quote from Rocky Balboa. Though it may be one of the most overused inspirational quotes in the history of sports movies, it provides a good perspective:
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”
The Stars were hit hard during this most recent trip. It’s even possible that this trip hit harder than any other stretch so far in this 2018-19 campaign.
Dallas lost their captain and leader at the very beginning of the swing and didn’t get him back until the final game. They also watched as their newest addition in Zuccarello, who had become an immediate asset to the team, was quickly and almost unfairly yanked from their game plan without even getting one full game under his belt.
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The Golden Knights delivered what seemed to be a knockout blow to a team that was clearly lacking in spirit and energy. To add onto that, the Stars were bumped from the Western Conference playoff picture for the first time in the 2019 calendar year. And had it not been for a furious rush from Blake Comeau and Radek Faksa, Dallas might have dropped a painful and potentially unforgivable loss to the Kings.
Topping the trip off was a Blues team that had lapped the Stars on their way to third place in the Central division just a few weeks prior. St. Louis owned a dominant home record, had the league’s hottest goaltender standing in their crease, and needed two points just as badly as the Stars did.
The Dallas Stars were hit a lot during this road trip, but they kept moving forward. They took on a lot, but didn’t let it phase them when it came to their ultimate goal.
Let’s play the “what if” game for a moment.
What if the Stars had lost that game to the Kings and had followed it up two nights later with a loss to the Blues? That would have wrapped their trip up on a 1-3-0 mark. As a result, they would be 31-29-5 with 67 points and would sit two points out of the final wild card spot and nine points out of third place in the division on this Monday morning.
If they had finished the trip at 2-2-0, they would currently sit tied for the second wild card spot along with the Arizona Coyotes and would sit 5-7 points out of a top spot in the Central.
Helps to put things in perspective, doesn’t it?
However, instead of crumbling under the pressure as they have been known to do in years past, the Stars dug their heels in and swung back. And when thinking about how the Dallas Stars have dealt with long road trips and extreme adversity in the recent past, this trip becomes all the more admirable.
They won important road games and used any means necessary to get six valuable points. Now, they find themselves with sole control of the first wild card spot and just three points out of third place in the division.
But this road trip was worth so much more than the big points. In addition to helping them climb the standings, the trip taught the Dallas Stars that they can accomplish just about anything using determination, energy, and maybe a little bit of elbow grease.
Six forwards being injured in the same game? No problem. Falling into an early hole to a bad team with their playoff lives already in question? Easy. Being 1-6-0 in the final game of a road trip so far and finishing this trip against a red-hot divisional foe? Got it.
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The Dallas Stars acquired a heavy dose of motivation from this road trip. They were hit hard by a variety of challenges and found a way around each one of them. As a result, they will open up a three-game homestand this week with a chance to continue their sprint to the finish line.
This road trip could end up defining the homestretch for the Stars. In one of the most critical parts of a regular season campaign and with the odds seemingly stacking against them, Dallas avoided the rubble.
Now, they look encouraged, motivated, and energized to begin the most important month of the year. And when a team looks like that, they can be difficult to stop or even slow down, for that matter.
This past week wasn’t about how hard the Stars could hit. It was about how hard they could get hit and keep moving forward; it was about how much they could take while still moving forward. All they have to do now is apply those strengths to the remainder of the race.
That’s how winning is done, after all.