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Stargazing, A Dallas Stars Puckcast – Episode 319: You’re The Man Now, Dawg

In which Wes and Mark take one of their favorite Stars-related bits to its natural extreme.

Defending Big D's Stargazing podcast logo, featuring a Dallas Stars Victory Green cassette tape with tearaway jersey texture and nets over the sprocket holes, designed by Jason Lara
Logo design: Jason Lara | @NHLMaps

What’s the most important thing about These Dallas Stars? Maybe it’s the two most important things – the players who are Him, and the players who have that Dawg in them. OK, make that the three most important things, because of the players who are both Him and Dawg.

If you’re a regular Stargazing listener, you may know that Wes and Mark like to talk about this, as well as the associated stat they created pretty much out of thin air. For branding and hashtagging purposes, we’ll call it Expected Rawr (xRawr). In this edition, they discuss how Matt Duchene makes Sam Steel better (and vice versa), the balance in net between Jake Oettinger (Him) and Casey DeSmith (Dawg), those all-important players in the upper right quadrant, and ever so much more.

The best statistics are the ones you make up. (Sixty percent of the time, this is true all the time.) We’re Stargazing, and we can make stuff up as well as any podcast out there.

Which Stars would you assign to each xRawr quadrant? Let’s talk about it in the comments. And don’t forget to give us a rate, review, or share wherever you get your podcasts. That’s, like, our whole thing right now.

Welcome to Stargazing. We love you.

The Dallas Stars have visibly struggled with late-season injuries in the past couple of weeks. And nowhere has this been more apparent than in the depleted forward corps. How do you rotate lines when the second line is missing? In this episode, Wes and Mark talk about this in depth. They discuss whether Michael Bunting needs to play on the first line, the possibility that Tyler Myers has a Jordie Benn problem, the state of the defense, how the Stars' run-up to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is panning out, and – of course – who falls where on the Expected Rawr (xRawr) chart, now enhanced with up to 37 percent more made-up stats. You take two of your best players off the roster, and all of a sudden forward depth is an issue. We’re Stargazing, and we get it. We really do. Which Stars are in which xRawr quadrant? So far, Wes and Mark have calculated rankings for the following players, current and historic: Sam Steel Jason Spezza Alex Radulov (Yes, we are this committed to the bit. Get on board now, or risk an injury when you try to jump this train during the playoffs.) Let's talk more at Defending Big D. And don't forget to give us a rate, review, or share wherever you get your podcasts. That's, like, our whole thing right now. Welcome to Stargazing. We love you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
  1. Dropping Lines
  2. You're The Man Now, Dawg
  3. Post-Deadline
  4. Push Play
  5. Olympic Break Score Sheet

Talking Points