This year's Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) are right there in the thick of things, again. They currently reside four points out of the eighth and final spot. The teams ahead of them, Calgary and Phoenix, along with Los Angeles, continue to gain points each and every game by going into over time. The Stars just recently had over time losses to Calgary and Phoenix. The problem is, Dallas is not getting their games to overtime. On the season, the Stars have six total losses in OT/shootouts. Vancouver has twelve, San Jose has ten and St. Louis has thirteen. Sure, to the naked eye, those are more losses, but when you compare, take Dallas' six points they've earned in their extra time losses, Vancouver, San Jose and St. Louis each have double-digit points for theirs.
The Stars do not lack effort. Night in and night out, you can be assured that they will play their hearts out for sixty minutes; sometimes, more. But they are inconsistent. They haven't strung together more than two wins in a row since December. They'll win one, lose two. Win two, lose one. In this tight of a conference, you can't expect to go far without being more consistent. You can't expect to be more consistent unless you score more consistently. The Stars are being out scored by a differential of thirteen goals. Of the teams on the outside of the top eight looking in, that is the "best of the worst," however, when compared to the teams in the top eight, the Los Angeles Kings have a differential of -1 (they just so happen to hold the last playoff spot). The difference as to why the Kings, who can't find water off the side of an aircraft carrier, are holding down a playoff spot has to do with the fact they've given up the second-least amount of goals in the west.
The Stars do not lack talent. Granted, they're not the Detroit Red Wings, but this team can hold their own. Again, it's not as if the Stars are 15 points out of the eighth spot and getting outscored an average of four to one. Dallas is in games. Dallas doesn't quit. All you have to do is look back earlier in the season how they went on the road and manhandled Washington and Carolina. Now, of course those teams have struggled greatly with how they were expected at the start of the year, but nonetheless, these are games, that if you asked the so-called experts, the Stars had no business being in, let alone winning by the margins they won by. Jamie Benn (@jamiebenn14) got to showcase his Jedi-like skills to the hockey world during the All-Star break by winning the accuracy skills competition. Before going down with an injury, Kari Lehtonen was included in early Veznia Trophy talks. This team is good. But, on this Hockey Day in America, I am reminded of the spine-tingling quote from the late, great Herb Brooks, "Gentlemen, you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone."
When it came to the Mavericks of the 80's and early 90's along with the Rangers, you knew what you were going to get because neither team had any talent what-so-ever. Today, you know what you're going to get with the Cowboys because they have no heart. But, this Dallas Stars team is going to give you everything they have. They're going to lay it out on the line every single night. But Kari will get screened, and a puck will go under his blocker. Or, the Stars will get one of their rare power plays, and they'll peel the paint off the post (I'd love to see a stat on how many posts the Stars hit) and the puck will clear itself out of the zone. Steve Ott will clear the puck back to the point to Trevor Daley, and it will hit a pile of snow and kick out to center ice. Down on the other end, Anze Kopitar will kick it out to Jack Johnson on the point, it will hit a similar pile of snow, kick back out into the slot and Mike Richards will slam it through Lehtonen's five-hole. That's the beautiful thing about this game, and it's tragedy all at the same time. You don't have to have enough talent to win on talent alone. A little luck is required. The Stars have had all the luck they could handle this year. Only problem, it's been of the bad variety.
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