Dallas Stars: Changed Culture Can Lead To Further Success Next Season

After falling victim to the “culture of mediocrity” in years past, the Dallas Stars adopted a new culture midway through the 2018-19 season and did some pretty great things. As a result, this new mindset provides both hope and inspiration for the future.

It’s almost poetic that the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues were two of the final six teams remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After all, look at where the two clubs were at when they faced each other on Jan. 12, 2019.

It was a typical Saturday night divisional rivalry game, but carried a somewhat stale storyline. The Stars were just a handful of games above .500 and had lost two of their past three contests, while the Blues were hovering near the bottom of the NHL standings. Dallas was still trying to shake off the spotlight that Jim Lites’ comments had cast on the organization and mold themselves into a legitimate playoff threat, while St. Louis was on track to finish in dead last in the Central division.

Neither team had much going for it at the time, leaving many Dallas fans to instead turn to the Dallas Cowboys Divisional Round playoff game for their Saturday sports fix.

More from Editorials

• Dallas Stars hockey is about to be the main attraction in Dallas this year
• Age Before Beauty: The impact of Benn’s new role on his Dallas legacy
• Dallas Stars hockey is the light at the end of the tunnel
• Dallas Stars coverage is lacking and it’s very concerning to be honest
• Sit back, relax and watch Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars draft scouts cook

And as the hockey game progressed, it was made clear that they weren’t missing much. The Blues took control early in the first period with two goals and controlled the pace for much of the game. AHL call-up Erik Condra ended up being the only Star that found the back of the net as St. Louis claimed a 3-1 win that supplied a minuscule pat on the back for a team still deep in the woods.

As the game wrapped up and the Stars dropped to 23-19-4 on the season, rookie head coach Jim Montgomery served up a quote in the postgame that perfectly painted the Dallas Stars not only up to that point in the season, but also in the seasons preceding it.

“I’m very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity,” Montgomery said after the loss.

Boy, did that ever hit home.

More from Blackout Dallas

• Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
• Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
• Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
• Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
• Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs

The culture of mediocrity is one that has not only followed, but plagued the Dallas Stars for the past few seasons.

It’s as simple as it sounds. Instead of taking a giant leap or being consistently great or bad, the Stars have simply hovered around middle ground. They fall just short of a trip to the postseason, but are high enough in the standings to where they aren’t considered a “tank” team. And when they have an ultimately successful season (like they did in 2015-16), they quickly follow it up with a subpar showing (like in 2016-17) to balance things out.

It’s a culture that no team wants and only the unlucky ones have. And when Jim Montgomery arrived in Dallas in May 2018, it seemed as though he would be the one that could flip the switch and change the culture.

But through 46 games, it seemed as though even Monty didn’t have an answer.

The week ahead presented more struggles as the Stars dropped losses to the Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning. Their offensive game was practically nonexistent and they fell into a three-game skid during their homestand. Nothing seemed to be going right and Dallas seemed to be already be in jeopardy of missing the playoffs.

Live Feed

Causeway Crowd

But on Jan. 19, a turnaround occurred. The Dallas Stars knocked off the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 in a Central division matchup and entered an extended break in the schedule on a high note.

So they beat a division rival and got up to three wins above .500. That’s more of a happy account than a turnaround.

But they backed it up. From Jan. 19 to the end of the season, the Stars went 20-11-3. They were faster, went toe-to-toe with some of the best opponents in the league, and let their full potential show. They secured a wild card spot in the playoffs, defeated the Central division champion Nashville Predators in six games in the first round, and advanced to double overtime of Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues before falling just short.

And that’s where a new culture comes in handy. Dallas was one of the most electric teams in the NHL following the 2019 All-Star Game and turned their woes into successes. The Stars simply looked like a playoff team and it seemed as though they had the horses to carve a path to the Stanley Cup Final. That didn’t end up panning out, but the possibility of it was still enthralling.

The real question now involves how the team can keep this hot streak alive as they prepare both for the 2019-20 season and beyond. It all starts with adopting the new mindset as the status quo.

When the Dallas Stars began playing as a team and connecting their skills with their overall execution, they were a great team. Jim Montgomery adapted to the lineup he was given and found a style that worked. He implemented that new style and helped forge a drastic shift in both the mindset and output of the team.

"“I think we’ve still got so much more in us. There’s a lot that we haven’t tapped into. There’s so much depth in this team that, if we can get going on a consistent basis; you saw it in the Island where we played as a team, all four lines were going, we had [defense] involved, and everything was clicking. So, if we can get that on a consistent basis, we could be a real deadly team.” – Jason Dickinson on Nov. 23"

The key now will be keeping this streak of success going. The last thing the organization can afford to do is slip back into the clutches of mediocrity and follow up a promising 2018-19 campaign with a rough and unenthusiastic 2019-20 push. If that’s the case, they will practically be back at square one yet again and looking for another do-over.

The Dallas Stars proved midway through the 2018-19 season that they simply needed an adjustment in their culture and mindset in order to take off. Heck, the Blues found something similar and are now four wins away from their first Cup victory in franchise history.

Succeeding in today’s NHL is all about adapting properly and promptly in order to stay ahead of the curve. The Stars did that following the All-Star Break after putting together a patchy start and it turned into a playoff berth and series win.

Can they carry that new culture and use it as inspiration and motivation down the road? Only time will tell.