Stars Stack

The Dallas Stars experience has been a whirlwind. We have some answers and we have some questions. We have some ideas, and we have some feelings. The end result is a victory green picture with blanks to fill. It’s an odd thing to say about a team that is comfortably second in their division. But it’s not really a criticism either. There are a lot of stories to cover so far. Glen Gulutzan, and the coaching staff’s systems. What becomes of the top six when they’re healthy.

I write the same intro I write for every game, it seems. Who are these Stars? Who are they trying to be? Where are they headed? Blah blah blah, existential posturing, blah blah blah, more existential posturing. If you want my broad takes on this team, listen to me yap about Dallas with Gavin. It’s, I think, a lot of fun. For most of tonight’s game versus Vancouver, fun wasn’t exactly the operative word.

The Dallas Stars are starting to resemble a centaur more than a hockey team, with their Equus Texas Stars features. Jamie Benn finally made his triumphant return, while Vladislav Kolyachonok made his Stars debut, marking the fourth AHLer to receive a cameo. The end result was…as Anthony Hopkins dramatically tells Alec Baldwin…”beware of the deadfall.” It’s kind of a tough game to analyze. Both teams played extremely tight outside of a few hiccups.

“I told you so.” This is an obnoxious thing to say out loud, and it’s in poor form, but if you aspire to analysis that isn’t simply a surface-level reaction to wins or losses, then you should be able to say this. Of course, any sincere analysis will have its misses too. Ahem. But it’s important to go out on a limb. Hockey is filled with uncertainty. True analysis should find threads tethered to the realities that have yet to manifest.

Wins and losses are less interesting to me than process. That’s been the heart of my criticism thus far: I just want to see a strong performance. For too long, the Stars have been the sum of their power play and not much else. I don’t believe it’s overly critical or “negative'“ to demand just a bit more from a team that has stamped itself top-four certified for three years running. It turns out, Glen Gulutzan agreed. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

Yesterday my analysis boiled down to throwing my hands up in the air. Because that is where I think we’re at with Dallas. There are good things (points in the standings, Wyatt Johnston) and there are bad things (last place shot share, the penalty kill). Some bad things will become good, like Jason Robertson’s shooting percentage. Some good things could become bad. The Ottawa game became a perfect distillation of all that. There were good things, like the power play and Jake Oettinger.

Have I hit the grumpy old man phase of my life? I don’t believe so. The old man part, yes. But a) I don’t look like Walter Matthau (although I probably will in six years) and b) I’m never grumpy when it comes to hockey. I love this sport. I don’t know this sport, however. Maybe that’s when I get grumpy. For example, the Dallas Stars are 9-4-3 through their first 16 games. And they’re 6-1-3 in their last 10.

I’m a little (okay a lot) under the weather, so apologies but this one will be quite short. And potentially filled with typos. As a Magic: The Gathering enthusiast, I’ve always loved midrange strategies.

Finnish prospect Emil Hemming officially got his groove back this past weekend. The experiment in the AHL ended a bit prematurely, but it’s easy to see why. The Texas Stars were going nowhere. They’re a team without purpose, and without offense — a team that was expected to be anything but after their playoff run last year. It’s hard to fault anyone in this scenario. Veterans underforming, injuries, prospects struggling to adjust to the new system, a new coach, et al. Take your pick.

The panic index is rising. Or maybe it just is for me. In today’s piece for D Magazine, I wrote about the Thomas Harley deal, and what it means for a blueline that is simultaneously elite, yet has question marks. So it’s about Harley, and it’s not about Harley. This Schrodinger’s Puck Effect is kind of like Dallas: they’re a good team, and not a good team right now. Injuries have them on their backfoot, and yet injuries don’t fully explain why they’re always on their backfoot.