The Dallas Stars are seven games into the season. The on-ice production has had some positives and some negatives. The glaring issue is their inability to score on the power play, which has cost the Stars some wins this season. However, the goaltending has been spectacular, with Jake Oettinger getting his brand-new contract extension. Let's look at some things that have gone right and wrong for the Stars.
Gone Right
1. Goaltending
Jake Oettinger is among the best goaltenders in the league. According to NHL.com, his .941 save percentage through seven games ranks third-best in the league. Stars management did right by locking him up for the next eight years. I think this will be a team-friendly deal as goalie paydays continue to increase, not to mention all of the other young players the Stars will try to lock up in the not-too-distant future.
2. Penalty Kill
The Stars have the best penalty kill in the league, carrying that skill over from last season when they finished in the top ten, dating back to the 2017-2018 season.
3. Protecting Home Ice
The Stars remain undefeated at home through four games while allowing only three goals. To put things in perspective, as good as the Winnipeg Jets have been, they've allowed eight total over the same four-game span.
Gone Wrong
1. Power Play
Let's just get this out of the way now. Thankfully, it's been the most glaring issue for this team in a very young season. The Stars own a piddly 10% PP, which is the 9th worst in the league. It can be argued that the lack of execution on the power play has contributed to their two losses thus far, power play considering how good their defense has been.
2. Offense
This, by some, could be considered a 1b. since they can sort of be tied together, but the Stars are in the middle of the pack regarding goal scoring. If the power play were more successful, they would be ranked higher. However, the main reason I am including this here is just due to the sheer depth of this team; you would think we'd have netted more than 11. The Stars have also been said to play down to their opponent, likely another contributing factor to the low total.
Should there be cause for alarm? I don't think so. The season is still so young, but I think the offense will come together more as the season progresses and players become more acclimated to each other, along with experimenting with some line changes.
Okay, so having gone through all that, let's return to the question: which moves should Stars management make now?
With the season so young, it remains hard to discern what is a real concern versus something that will naturally resolve itself with time. The Stars' powerplay struggled in the early going last season but ended up finishing with the sixth-best PP% by season's end.
That situation resolved with time, which involved shuffling some lines, play-calling adjustments, and increased effort to execute. I think we are in that same boat this season, where we will see some line adjustments to see what combinations work and what don't.
This can also be said for our full-strength units, where mixing up the combinations may yield more fruitful results. It will be interesting to see if there will be any notable lineup changes soon to shake things up as we enter the second month of the regular season. I believe the coaching staff will make the proper adjustments based on what they study on film and work on in practice to hoist this offense to another level we know they are capable of.