Dallas Stars Daily Links: One Week Down

It’s safe to say that everything has gone according to plan except their overall record. Let’s take a look at week one.

That’s a pretty good way to put it, Josh Clark. It does seem like the Stars have been playing pretty well- not great by any means, but not terribly either. They’re generating a ton of shots and scoring chances, possessing and moving the puck pretty well, playing much better on special teams then last year, but they’re just not scoring...which is kind of a vital part of winning. It seems like they’ll be dominating a game for long stretches, but then when the momentum (whether or not you believe in it) swings the other teams way, as Craig Ludwig pointed out on Thursday, they just scramble for several shifts in a row and give up goals.

Furthermore, while it seems like every other team in the league is scoring 7 goals a game, the Stars seem to have faced the only goalies that are having a strong start:

But a large sum of it can be chopped up to almost unbelievable goaltending on the other end. On opening night, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 45-46 (.978 SV%). One night later, Jake Allen turned aside 38-40 (.950 SV%). And last night, Pekka Rinne kept out 30-31 (.968 SV%).

Hopefully, this is all an aberration and things will turn around soon. I keep telling myself that a 1-3-0 stretch in February wouldn’t seem nearly as bad as it does when 1-3-0 is the entire record.

See more of Josh Clark’s early season takeaways here.

Stars Stuff

Taylor took a deep dive into Martin Hanzal’s major-drawing hit here, but here is another quick blurb about it, along with a survey and a predictably entertaining comments section. [SportsNet]

Sean Shapiro opens up the Mailbag to answer some questions:

Even if he was delivering devastating news, I think Razor could still make me smile:

The return of Dan Hamuis could cause some shakeups in the Stars’ d-men pairings:

Here’s a little more on what to expect on defense tonight:

Ralphie is back in the booth!

...for the Zoomies.

John Klingberg got his pizza delivery on as part of the Stars’ 25 acts of kindness:

Here’s a little more on the initiative:

The Other 30

The Hurricanes, who are searching for a new owner and rumored to be a candidate for relocation, had 7,892 fans attend their second home game. [The Comeback]

Down Goes Brown’s Friday Grab Bag has some fun “facts” from the 1917-1918 NHL season, an awkward call between the first Aussie hockey player and his PM, and some excellent goalie slashing highlights:

Emily Kaplan has a little more information on Nathan Walker, the aforementioned Australian who was inspired by The Mighty Ducks movies. [ESPN]

Here’s a look at another team who has had issues putting the puck in the net despite generating many scoring chances, the Montreal Canadiens. [SportsNet]

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

NHL goalie and Twitter afficionado Roberto Luongo is moving up on the all time list:

Have a good weekend, everyone. Hook ‘em Horns or Boomer Sooner, depending on where your allegiances lie (Go Navy!).