B_Chapman

"Dallas Stars Blogger"

Waco, TX • United States •

Inconsistent Stars Show Flashes of Brilliance

Consistently inconsistent, as they say. For stretches the Dallas Stars dominate opponents on the ice. But like clockwork the dominance ends as soon as it begins, never stretching beyond 3 games. After laying an egg against division rivals in Nashville, losing 2 huge points the Stars bounced back and scored a plethora of goals against the equally important Winnipeg Jets.

So naturally, like following a plan, the Stars follow the 6-4 win up with a 6-2 loss against the Avalanche. Last night in second half of the back to back home and home series, the Stars played well with a feverish backcheck and physical dominance of the Avalanche's top players for a 3-2 regulation victory.

Time will tell which team the Stars see the most this season, one can only hope that they find the consistency they are looking for and it lands on the side of the great speedy team we see on some nights.

There is probably a reason the Stars look so dominant when they win and so awful when they don't. The current iteration of the Lone Star hockey team is built around team speed. That means that not only do you have to produce offense off of the back of that quickness, but you also have to defend with speed. That places a large emphasis on back checking naturally, and then once the opposition has made it into the zone it is about being on the player with the puck before they can make a decision.

If those two ideas aren't clicking then you get 5 or 6 goals scored on you, because you are sacrificing the size and brutality of some teams (St. Louis, LA Kings) for the Blackhawks-like speed game.

The future looks bright, there is no question. But most fans are asking what you've done for them lately. And if lately consists of the last half a decade then all they've done is miss the playoffs.

I'm not sure what head coach Lindy Ruff has to say or do to the team to get them on the right page. One would think that the simple fact that when they played the right way they easily skated and played with the defending champions in a 2-1 SO loss. And if that didn't work then maybe the 2 back to back games versus Colorado will hit home. Play mediocre, get beaten, play hard every shift and mercilessly back check and you can play with any team in the league. Perhaps the proximity of the two games with two different efforts will be the answer the Stars' psyche needs?

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