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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Stars In Good Position Heading Into Bye Week

Posted on by Tyler Mair

As we begin the second day of the bye week for the Dallas Stars, the Stars are in a pretty good position. They hold the first wild card spot at 43 GP and 51 points, and no team below them can overtake them solely with games in hand (the Colorado Avalanche, 41 GP and 47 points, could only tie and the San Jose Sharks, 40 GP and 48 points, currently sit at 3rd in the Pacific and thus wouldn’t knock the Stars down at all).

Still, that doesn’t mean that the Stars won’t get passed up over the next several days, a likelihood that head coach Ken Hitchcock is prepared for:

“To me, the psychological part is we’re going to be behind teams in the standings based on points. The numbers, the volume of teams that are going to be playing four games when we’re only playing one is significant, so we’re going to come back from the break chasing teams with games in hand… I think the players recognize that teams that are behind us in the standings are going to end up being ahead of us and then we’re going to be the team playing catch up.””

Maybe the Stars (who have gone 6-2-2 in their last 10) would prefer to keep playing while they seem to be finally finding their groove, but they have no control over the schedule. Instead, they’ll have to do their best to pick up where they left off when they resume play next Saturday, and focus on winning each game regardless of who it is against:

From here on out, we can’t let anything slip by because we know how hard it is to get your foot in the door and play in the playoffs,” defenseman Marc Methot said. “All of these games are going to be so key and you don’t want to look back in March and think ‘Oh God, we should’ve won a couple more back there.’

You can read more in Mike Heika’s piece here.

Stars Stories

The worst part about the bye week? We Daily Links folks are gonna probably be very short on Stars’ content the next few days. Good thing I can just pluck stories about the Edmonton game that Kathleen omitted! (Ed. note: or they came out after she wrote them up, buddy.)

Here’s the CarCast from Saturday’s 5-1 drubbing of the Oilers, featuring special guest traffic!

Here are Scott Burnside’s five takeaways from Saturday’s 5-1 drubbing of the Oilers: [NHL]

Mark Stepneski provides the post-game quotes from the players and coaches as always:

John Klingberg is rocking the points column for defensemen, but that doesn’t mean he’s the go-to-guy for shut down defense. [The Upset]

Here’s what various Stars’ personnel had to say about the alumni game that followed the win over Edmonton:

Around the League

It was a busy night in the NHL last night, with 3 Central Division teams playing:;

  • The Chicago Blackhawks came away with a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, which stings less when you remind yourself that at least the Stars scored more. [Second City Hockey]
  • Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Jets also won 4-1, snuffing out another Pacific team in the San Jose Sharks. [Arctic Ice Hockey]
  • Not every Central Division team scored 4 to win, however; the St. Louis Blues managed only 3 in an overtime loss to the Washington Capitals (who, of course, scored 4 times). [Japers’ Rink]/

It’s a long read, but if you love USA hockey, you probably won’t care:

The coaches for the NHL All Star Game have been selected and, well, they’re just about who you would expect. [NHL]

Jets’ sophomore Patrik Laine is having a stellar start to his career. He’s only 19 years old, which is really good for the Jets and bad for pretty much everyone else in the Central. [FanRag Sports]

In case you haven’t seen it yet, this is quite the sight to behold:

The Montreal Canadiens are probably not going to make the playoffs. Just don’t tell that to their GM. [Sportsnet]

Finally…

In a very disapointing twist of fate, it looks like Jaromir Jagr’s NHL career might be over:

Assuming he doesn’t find a suitor and indeed retires, here’s a list of milestones the mullet has achieved in his lengthy career: [NBC Sports]

Talking Points