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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Time to Worry?

The Stars are holding down a playoff spot, but how long will that last? Plus, NHL Awards watch in the Central Division, Columbus will host home games in spite of coronavirus, and more.

Sometimes, good teams go on long losing streaks. Maybe it’s due to a string of bad luck, or because of a tough schedule, or maybe they’re battling the injury bug. Whatever the case may be, good teams eventually bounce back from those.

But after an ugly loss to the New York Rangers that saw their streak extend to six, it’s worth asking: are the Dallas Stars a good team?

The flaws in Dallas are clear.

The Stars struggle to score goals — even though they broke shutout streaks both overall and at even-strength on Tuesday. They lean too heavily on defense and goaltending, which can sink a team whose turnovers directly led to four goals on Tuesday. They don’t draw enough penalties, which handcuffs a power play that is their best route to offense.

Two days ago, the theme of Links was that Dallas still more-or-less locked into a playoff spot despite the recent skid. That still mostly holds true, but even Rick Bowness knows that if the Stars don’t figure things out, they’re going to go nowhere fast:

“I don’t know what we’re doing the day of a game, but we’re not preparing ourselves properly, we’re just not. It’s as simple as that. There’s no urgency if you’re not prepared. With 13 games to go, we’re still in a playoff spot, and we can dig ourselves out of this. But if we don’t prepare ourselves properly the day of a game, it’s just not going to work.”

You can read more from Matthew DeFranks here.

Stars Stories

For the majority of Tuesday’s loss, it felt like the Stars may never score another goal:

Thankfully, Roope Hintz does what he does best and put the puck into the net early into the third:

Then for good measure, Andrew Cogliano found the back of the next later in the period, preventing it from being a complete embarrassment of a loss:

For those of you keeping tabs at home:

Still, the Stars ultimately lost, because that’s typically what happens when you go down 4-0. Here’s what Bowness had to say about the game:

And here are the players:

Central Census

In the only other Central game of the evening, the Nashville Predators pulled within four points of the Stars thanks to a 4-2 win over Montreal:

The Winnipeg Jets are also four points back on Dallas (albeit with an extra game played), due almost solely to the incredible play of Connor Hellebuyck:

Speaking of trophy races, Dominik Kubalik has a very strong case for winning the Calder Trophy:

By now you’ve heard all about how NBC put on an all-female broadcast for an NHL game. Now see what things were like behind the scenes:

The San Jose Sharks are shutting down their home games for the season due to coronavirus, but the Columbus Blue Jackets will keep going:

Finally, should the NHL change their playoff format? The answer for most is “yes,” but how is the bigger question:

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