Dallas Stars Daily Links: Stars’ Collapse Begs Many Questions

Injuries are an easy excuse to point at, but clearly there were many more problems with the Dallas Stars over the last two months than missing a few players. Sure, diminished depth at a point in the season when fatigue is a major factor doesn’t help, but changing absolutely nothing about a team’s style and strategy while they are falling apart isn’t too great either. None of the explanations into the team’s issues, however, explain how they’ve still managed to be in a position to win so many of their games, only to come up short at the most crucial moments:

But then how have the Stars gotten so close to overcoming all of those problems? How have they pushed Boston to the edge, dominated long stretches against Minnesota, played a whale of a game at Winnipeg? How have they hacked through miles of wilderness only to fall down when they hit the open field?

The special teams have not been very good for the last couple of months. The penalties induced by frustration, laziness, and ridiculous plays have exacerbated the penalty-killing issues. The six goals within the last 20 seconds of a period over the last 13 games have been particularly demoralizing. While some may point to the pressure of fighting for a playoff spot, Jason Spezza points out that everyone is facing that kind of pressure this time of year, but some just handle it better than others:

“There’s frustrating moments in every game. I thought we created a lot, that’s why when you don’t score, you see some frustration,” Spezza said. “The pressure is what everyone is playing under at this time of the year. We had to win tonight, but I don’t think that played into why we missed our chances.”

Let’s hope the organization can figure out how to put themselves in a position where they can embrace and thrive with the pressure on. See more at Mike’s place. [SportsDayDFW]

Stars Stuff

Sean Shapiro took a deep dive into the team’s penalty kill, which has been less than stellar recently:

Say what you will about Ken Hitchcock, but the guy definitely stays on brand:

There is apparently still a four percent of one percent of a chance that the Stars can make the playoffs:

PSA:

Adios, Curtis:

Scott Burnside has his Five Takeaways from the loss on Thursday:

Around the League

Greg Wyshynski makes some arguments, some of which have logic behind them. The metaphors and analogies in this piece are really something else though:

The Chicago Steel hockey team has jokes:

In case you haven’t gotten your fill of the Scott Foster story quite yet:

This is pretty wild:

My first instinct was to make a joke about the Washington Capitals’ performance in the playoffs, but at least they’re actually in the playoffs:

Time to really start paying attention to this kind of coverage:

Down Goes Brown never disappoints with his Friday Grab Bag: