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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Lessons Learned

What are the takeaways from the Stars’ losses to the Lightning and Bruins? Plus, the future is bright in Dallas, trade deadline news, and more.

The Dallas Stars have been put through the ringer as of late — after a nice 4-1 takedown of the Minnesota Wild, the Stars faced a recent two-time-champion, the Tampa Bay Lightning as well as the current Stanley Cup favorite, the Boston Bruins. Both games ended up in a loss, although the Stars managed to salvage one point:

“There was some good stuff. We played some really good teams this week,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said after the loss to the Bruins. “We were right there. The Tampa game, we should have gotten points, tonight got a point. Obviously, everyone wants more. You want to be greedy and get two in these games. You can always learn something from them and the good thing is we got a point against the best team in the league.”

On one hand, playing well in such close games against top teams is encouraging for a team looking to prove themselves as a true cup contender. On the other hand, it serves to highlight the team’s weaknesses, such as their recent power play struggles:

“The one that hurts the most is the five-on-three during regulation time,” DeBoer said. “That one, it felt like it was a full two minutes. Those are the ones you’ve got to stick a puck in the net.”

You can read more observations from the last couple games from Saad Yousuf here.

Around the League

Back to optimism: looking at #fancystats, the Dallas Stars have the second strongest “core” in the league, behind only the Colorado Avalanche:

And ICYMI, Stars prospect Logan Stankoven cracked the top ten of Scott Wheeler’s list of top prospects:

In a different ranking, Jake Oettinger cracked the Top 5 of the NHL’s top goaltenders:

It may be slow, but it’s nice to see a rise of minorities in important positions in hockey:

Should the NHL limit how long players can be healthy scratched for trade-related reasons? Of course not, but it’s an interesting idea, to say the least:

Finally, the NHL trade deadline is always lame — Down Goes Brown offers suggestions on how to fix that:

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