Welcome to the first edition of “The Stars Check”. The sport of hockey is a quickly growing phenomenon in the state of Texas. I wanted to be a part of it, help the sport continue its growth, and reach out to more audiences.
Luckily the Dallas Stars have emerged as one of the best teams in hockey, and for the first time in several seasons the Stars are a fun watch. Which is going to catapult the popularity of the team. What I want to do with The Stars Check is bring this high flying team to the casual hockey fan. It won’t be in-depth analysis, but bigger picture stories about the Stars. The main goal being making hockey more digestible for casual fans, and be a piece of the sport growing in the Lone Star State.
Rollercoaster of a Week
The last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster for the Stars. They played 4 games, 2 home and 2 away. The week kicked off with a 5-1 performance against Florida, in which the team looked fantastic. Then the team took a trip out to New York playing both the Islanders and Rangers. Goaltender Jake Oettinger absolutely stole the show against the Islanders, the Stars picked up a 2-1 win in the shootout. The Rangers came up next and it was a goaltending duel. Jake Oettinger had a shutout going until the final second, that’s when New York’s K’Andre Miller tied the game. The Rangers wen ton to win in overtime.
The Stars then came back home for a matinee Saturday against Calgary. Backup goalie Scott Wedgewood took the net for the Stars and had a rough outing. The team went down 6-1 at one point in the second period before Seguin brough them within four. In the third period the Stars came out and did what they’ve done a few times this season already. They clawed their way back from a huge deficit. Two goals from Pavelski and another from Miller brought them to within one. But the come back was just a bit too late and they couldn’t tie it, they dropped the game 6-5.
Dallas Can Actually Score Now
On the bright side, the Calgary game exemplifies what makes Stars hockey so fun to watch. This is my first season really following the team and what I’ve seen more than anything else is that they cannot be counted out of a game. So many times this season they’ve been down by multiple goals and have come back, especially at home. This team can score in bunches with not much difficulty, very much unlike stars teams the past. The change to bring in Pete DeBoer as head coach has given the Stars some much needed life, this is far from the defensive teams Dallas has seen in the past.
The Stars are starting another road trip this week, They play the Golden Knights tonight and after them it’ll be San Jose and Los Angeles. The Stars will be looking to avoid their first three game losing streak of the season against Vegas.
