Are The Dallas Stars Underachieving?

[DitchMarner]

They were considered a top contender heading into this season...

To be honest, the team does seem good, but DAL's record isn't anything amazing. The Stars are "only" six games above .500 while Utah is five games above and CGY is four games over. The Stars do have one of the better goal differentials of teams in the West and are among the best teams in terms of goals against and are a good possession team.

They have some forwards who seem to be underachieving. I heard a lot of hype about guys like Johnston and Stankoven, and they're being outscored by a post-prime Tyler Seguiin (who has missed a number of games). Robertson and Hintz have also been a bit disappointing in terms of production.

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[ps241]

They were considered a top contender heading into this season...

To be honest, the team does seem good, but DAL's record isn't anything amazing. The Stars are "only" six games above .500 while Utah is five games above and CGY is four games over. The Stars do have one of the better goal differentials of teams in the West and are among the best teams in terms of goals against and are a good possession team.

They have some forwards who seem to be underachieving. I heard a lot of hype about guys like Johnston and Stankoven, and they're being outscored by a post-prime Tyler Seguiin (who has missed a number of games). Robertson and Hintz have also been a bit disappointing in terms of production.

Its a long season and they are at that level now where their season really starts when the playoff get going. I heard they were pretty active trying to add Dillon and Pesce in the off season but that obviously didn’t come together. I assume they add at the deadline and will be ready to compete for the cup again this spring. Good team having a slow start by their standards.

 

[Magic Mittens]

Their PP has been terrible this year, I think they're 26th in the league. Duchene, Marchment and Seguin's line was lighting it up until Seguin got hurt, and now that line has been quiet. Robertson, Hintz and Johnston are having a slow start. Hintz has been scoring lately though.

Oettinger has been good, besides a couple games like the Toronto one.

They will have 16M or so in space by the deadline, so depending what they do there, and if everyone gets going, they should be fine come time for the playoffs

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

They're preserving their energy for the playoffs. Smart move

 

[Regal]

They’re a good roster that’s underperformed. I imagine they’ll have a hot stretch at some point, though it might just be one of those years where things are off a bit.

 

[eojsmada]

The Pavelski loss is a bit more than I think the players were expecting.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

They were considered a top contender heading into this season...

To be honest, the team does seem good, but DAL's record isn't anything amazing. The Stars are "only" six games above .500 while Utah is five games above and CGY is four games over. The Stars do have one of the better goal differentials of teams in the West and are among the best teams in terms of goals against and are a good possession team.

They have some forwards who seem to be underachieving. I heard a lot of hype about guys like Johnston and Stankoven, and they're being outscored by a post-prime Tyler Seguiin (who has missed a number of games). Robertson and Hintz have also been a bit disappointing in terms of production.

The broader point about Dallas underachieving stands up under scrutiny here, but as to the point being made right here...by regulation win percentage:

12. Dallas: 17-13 (.567)
17. Utah: 11-11 (.500)
18. Calgary: 10-11 (.476)

They really aren't as close in terms of real performance as the standings make it seem. Dallas has only had two games last beyond 60 minutes this year, they've gotten very few of those bonus points. Utah's been to OT 10 times, Calgary 12 times. Lots more coin flip points they've gotten thanks to that.

Regulation W-L is the only W-L worth looking at. The standings the NHL promotes is, and has been since 2005, full of lies.

 

[wasup]

Good team don't worry about them .

 

[Kcb12345]

Idk how to feel about the team this year. They seem to be good, but then they can't score at all. No one is consistently finishing their chances despite the chances being generated.

Tons of guys underperforming offensively. Will they snap out if it?

The powerplay is obviously a big reason but I guess on the bright side some guys are starting to be more noticeable of late. Powerplay still sucks though

Seguin out for the season now messed up our best line too. Stankoven still looks good but can't finish at all right now. Johnston, Robertson, Hintz all have looked better lately but still need to pick it up.

Their defense is in a rough spot though I will say that. Dumba & Smith aren't gonna cut it. Hell they barely cut it as #7's. Bichsel looks good but he's pretty raw.

DeSmith hasn't been a great backup either so Oettinger is already facing a heavy workload. Safe to say outside of Lyubushkin, Nill had a rough off-season.

They'll be a playoff team, but how good of one I don't know. Depends on the trade deadline/powerplay. Luckily they'll have a ton of space at the deadline

 

[Satan]

let`s revisit this after playoffs - regular season is meaningless

 

[Iggys Dome]

They miss Pavelski

 

[Chessarmy]

Not a great season so far by their standards. Powerplay has been abysmal. Robertson and Johnston totally irrelevant. Lack of offense in general is hurting them, guys you'd expect to be producing just aren't and the young players they have like Stankoven have not taken the next step.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Looks like they're struggling a bit defensively but they have excellent goaltending which has more than compensated for that. PP is also ice cold this year so probably lost a few close games because of it.

Utah is turning into a pretty darn good team so not that crazy that they're close.

 

[Bleedred]

Probably a little bit

And I honestly think Jake Oettinger is currently the most overrated goalie in the league. He doesn't look like a bad goalie by any means, I just don't think he's shown the ability to be elite or even particularly great.

His 22-23 was really good, but he went splat in that year's playoffs. And then he had that playoff series in 2022 where he almost won them the series all by himself, but his numbers are really nothing that make me think ''Yeah! One of the best goalies in the league!'' I could totally see him having pretty weak numbers on a poor or even mediocre team.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Probably a little bit

And I honestly think Jake Oettinger is currently the most overrated goalie in the league. He doesn't look like a bad goalie by any means, I just don't think he's shown the ability to be elite or even particularly great.

His 22-23 was really good, but he went splat in that year's playoffs. And then he had that playoff series in 2022 where he almost won them the series all by himself, but his numbers are really nothing that make me think ''Yeah! One of the best goalies in the league!'' I could totally see him having pretty weak numbers on a poor or even mediocre team.

I don't know the numbers are showing he's bailing out a team that's playing fairly mediocre defense.

 

[Boomstick]

I just don't trust DeBoer until he actually wins a Cup. He had a stacked Sharks team, a stacked Vegas team and now a stacked Stars team and he's yet to get it done.
But that's just my opinion.

 

[dalewood12]

Yes, a little bit. I still have them as my favorite out west to make the finals.

Some good news is that Jason Robertson seems to be waking up. Has 14 points in his last 16 games, compared to the 8 points in his first 16 games.

 

[independent observer]

Things will be better with Bichsel… what a start… plays a heavy game and is quite mobile for his size…

The stars have to many lefties as defensemen and need to do a trade… ship Lindell out and keep heiskanen, hartley and bichsel on the left side…

 

[Bleedred]

I don't know the numbers are showing he's bailing out a team that's playing fairly mediocre defense.

Just looking at moneypuck's numbers he has an expected save percentage of .907% and currently has a .910%. I'm not sure how mediocre that defense is, but over the course of his whole career it definitely hasn't been.

 

[Johnny Tomala]

They should have won Stanley Cup last season, they underachieved when they lost to Oilers. This season, after Seguin got hurt they are in the slump. I picked them last season to win SC, but not this year.

 

[NyQuil]

I don’t think anyone really wants to play them in the playoffs so that’s something.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

They have an amazing roster. Seems like they should be producing more offensively. I'm not a DeBoer fan at all, so I'll put some blame on him. He is the NHL equivalent of a NASCAR restrictor plate.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

They're a good team still, but frankly I thought last year was kind of "the" year. Only negative thing was Pavelski running out of gas.

Their off-season moves were extremely underwhelming, they lost Pavs' presence from the room and now Seguin is out too.

We'll see what moves they're able to pull off later in the season, but there are a few holes from being a complete roster in my opinion.