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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Suddenly, The Stars Are In The Thick Of Divisional Playoffs Battle

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

If you didn’t see this coming…well, you must be a Dallas Stars fan. Once again, the Victory Green Gang has gotten hot at a fortuitous time, and here they are in the very thick of the Central Division’s playoffs battle – not as a wild-card hope, but as a solid contender.

The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks examines the Stars’ recent run of, well, stellar play against its divisional foes, and reports that the players are knocking down their milestones and setting new ones:

“Now is the time of year when you really start looking at [the standings] more,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “We know our situation with how we’ve been on the road this year, and how we’ve been in the last 10-11 games.

“We know where we’ve been as far as catching Nashville. Not looking too far ahead, but also looking at St. Louis now. Just setting new goals every day and never taking a day off as a group, or becoming complacent as a group.”

Fans may still be wary of getting their hopes up, but the stats gurus are seeing a pattern:

MoneyPuck’s model gives the Stars a 58.4% chance of making the playoffs. HockeyViz is at 64.8%. Hockey-Reference (81.1%) and The Athletic (83%) each put the Stars over 80%….

Beginning with last week’s game in Winnipeg, 12 out of 15 games are away from American Airlines Center. That used to be a massive issue for the Stars, who did not earn their first road regulation win until Nov. 27 and didn’t earn their second until Jan. 20.

But the Stars have started to figure things out on the road and are 8-2-1 away from home since Jan. 20, the fifth-best road points percentage in the league during that stretch.

Matt has more. [SportsDayDFW]

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