Jump to content

Dallas Stars 2018-2019 Season Thread

Longhorn_Fan68

By Longhorn_Fan68
in Other Sports

 Share

Recommended Posts

Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54238

Posted
Posted

Sean Shapiro's Athletic column:

Quote

The Dallas Stars launched a six-game homestand with a disappointing 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

Erik Condra scored the lone goal for Dallas, which has lost back-to-back games to teams struggling in the NHL standings.

1. A “culture of mediocrity.”

That’s a phrase that those inside the organization have used in the past when discussing the team. It’s a term you hear behind closed doors, in chats on the side and even in the occasional angry text message.

But that message and honest assessment have been hidden from public view for years now.

Even when the Stars had a public blowup, courtesy of Jim Lites, the culture wasn’t blamed, but rather two pieces of a larger fabric of disappointment.

On Saturday, after another disappointing loss, someone from the Stars organization finally acknowledged the bigger issue and vindicated quite a few fans’ views when Jim Montgomery stepped up to the podium.

“It’s everybody,” Montgomery said. “Unfortunately, I’m very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance and I have not been able to change the culture of mediocrity.”

There it is.

That’s the truth about this organization. There are so many pieces that come together to make a whole, but when you boil it all down it’s a culture that has to change.

2. In a way, you have to feel for Montgomery.

He inherited this team and this culture and was tasked with changing it.

Montgomery has tried to push the buttons in many different ways. On Saturday morning he met with each of the Stars lines to make sure they were on track and ready for that evening.

So what else can he try?

“I don’t know, my job is to keep trying,” Montgomery said. “That’s my job.”

3. Montgomery is clearly disappointed in himself.

It’s something you could feel when he spoke after the loss in Philadelphia. When the Stars no-showed Saturday, he felt responsible for failing to figure out what makes this group of professional hockey players actually care about a game against a divisional opponent.

“Last two games have been a real gut-punch for me personally,” Montgomery said. “Because I just don’t think I’m being able to get across how we’re supposed to execute. The more important part is a lot of time the effort can overcome a lot of mistakes, but there is not the effort there to overcome the mistakes.”

4. What about the players? How can they fix this?

After Thursday’s game in Philadelphia, Stars captain Jamie Benn said they would work to fix the slow starts internally as a leadership group.

Jason Spezza, who is part of the leadership group, said the Stars never discussed it after the Philadelphia game.

Instead of a message from leaders to set the tone, there is more of a vibe that every man needs to step up and prove it themselves.

“It falls on the individuals,” Spezza said. “It’s pro hockey, it’s not a rah-rah, get everybody going. You have to zone in on yourself, you have to create your own routines. You have to do what works best for you and if it’s not working you have to change something and make sure you’re ready to start. A little bit falls on the leadership group, but a lot falls on individuals.”

“It just comes down to individuals to get prepared for games,” John Klingberg said. “It comes down to us (as leaders) but we are all playing in the NHL and we’ve got to be ready when the puck is dropped. We can’t be babysitters in here and try to get other guys going; it has to be individual.”

5. There is a difference between babysitters and leaders.

When the Stars are playing well and when they gush about their captain’s leadership they point to how he sets the tone and the team follows. There is a certain way that Benn can make an impact on the rest of the roster and get them to play better, even on nights when he doesn’t look like one of the best players.

If he’s going to get the praise when it goes well, he needs to take the blame when things aren’t going well. The Stars need more from their captain.

6. The loss in Philadelphia was bad. This one felt worse.

It’s one thing to lose to bad teams on the road — there is at least a slight built-in excuse — but to no-show against bad teams at home is embarrassing for a team that Stars ownership calls the best-built roster in the Gaglardi era.

7. Dallas allowed St. Louis to dictate the flow of the game, and the Blues, to their credit, played an ideal road game after striking 34 seconds into the game.

St. Louis mucked things up, clogged up the zone and did their part to make sure the Stars never really got to the high-danger areas against rookie goalie Jordan Binnington.

Binnington wasn’t required to make many difficult stops. For much of the evening, the goalie looked like a catcher just waiting for a fastball headed his way and framing pitches.

8. Condra’s goal in the third period temporarily made it 2-1 and snapped a five-game stretch in which the Stars failed to get a goal from any forward not named Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin or Alexander Radulov.

While there was a stretch earlier this season when the depth would show up in spurts, it’s only becoming clearer that the Stars are a one-line team and it’s hard for anyone to deny that.

9. The Stars have survived rough first periods in the past, including a stretch earlier this week against the Blues, which has somewhat masked how big of an issue this really is.

Maybe Saturday was the reminder players needed to actually wake up and give a damn in the first 20 minutes.

10. St. Louis took the lead 34 seconds into the first period on the second shot of the game.

 

The goal came after the Stars struggled to cleanly exit the defensive zone, and Vladimir Tarasenko was able to pick his spot at the end of clean re-entry by the Blues.

11. The lead doubled midway through the first period on this pass by Oscar Sundqvist.

AB2SjdZj_normal.jpg

Oskar Sundqvist sends in a pass for Pat Maroon to backhand past Bishop. 2-0 #stlblues

 
Embedded video
 
 

 

Sundqvist later picked up a second assist when he had the second helper on Tarasenko’s power-play goal that made it 3-1.

12. The second period wasn’t much better.

This chance by Jason Spezza could have at least added some intrigue and maybe sparked something if the shot were any lower.

 

13. The best development out of the second period for Dallas came when Alexander Radulov returned to the game after hobbling to the locker room. He had awkwardly gone down on his knee in the corner on a forecheck during a Dallas power play.

14. Ben Bishop wasn’t at fault tonight. The team in front of him was.

15. The Stars started with this lineup:

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Erik Condra
Tyler Pitlick – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Devin Shore – Roope Hintz – Valeri Nichushkin

Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Julius Honka – Taylor Fedun

16. Jason Dickinson took part in the morning skate and is getting close to returning from a back injury, potentially Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.

17. As far as other injuries go, there is no real update on Martin Hanzal (back), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches) and Marc Methot (knee).

None of the players has skated recently, and Montgomery added that each of those players will need roughly three weeks to get back to game action when they do start skating.

18. Most of the Stars’ scouting staff attended Saturday’s game.

Dallas has its annual scouting meetings this week in San Antonio, which is a week-long deep dive for the organization looking at both the amateur and professional ranks.

This week is where the Stars start to focus on key targets for the 2019 NHL Draft and do a deeper diagnosis on whether they’ll make a move to improve the team before the trade deadline this season.

In addition to the meetings in San Antonio, the scouting contingency also caravanned up to the Texas Stars game Wednesday and Friday before many completed the journey up I-35 on Saturday for the NHL game.

19. Montgomery is trying everything to fix the culture.

And as hard as the coach tries to fix things, there is only so much he can do with the roster that’s been given to him. That’s something management needs to realize, and they need to play their part in helping to fix a flawed culture.

20. Here is how the Stars did in the various elements of Montgomery’s Process:

Win 56 percent of faceoffs: Failed.

Zero undisciplined penalties: Failed.

Three or fewer odd-man rushes: Passed.

Win net-front battle: Failed.

Win special teams: Failed.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 1.4k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Longhorn_Fan68
Longhorn_Fan68

Another look at Chiasson's whiff last night:

Firemans4Horn
Firemans4Horn
vtaenz
vtaenz

When they played Anaheim a couple years ago they were not the favorite. Man how come you always pop up on this thread just to spew some negativity. I don't know what going on in your life so it's no

Firemans4Horn

Firemans4Horn 18075

Posted
Posted
On 10/4/2018 at 1:05 PM, Firemans4Horn said:

Don’t want to be a negative Nancy but I just don’t see a lot of quality depth on offense, the same problem we had last year. Spezza is 2c and looked done. Devin Shore sucks and is our 3rd line winger. 4th line is an unknown centering 2 guys that have never shown anything (dickinson/Ritchie). 

 

Hope for the best but I’m not seeing it. 

 

The Oracle has spoken. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jebusshuttlecock

jebusshuttlecock 200

Posted
Posted
The Ducks have scored the 2nd fewest goals in the league. I don't think that falls completely on Cogliano. I think he'll do well in this system. But I'm a sunshine pumper, so who the fuck knows
Cogliano hitting his 5-year PPG only comes out to ~15.3 points over the next 36 games. Shore is on pace for 14.6 points in that span. We basically picked up an old guy who costs $1mm more and has a NTC for 0.7 more points

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
vtaenz

vtaenz 601

Posted
Posted
I think this is an upgrade and that Nill is likely not done. I bet we see one or more of Ritchie, Val, and maybe Honka moved before the trade deadline.
The biggest problem is two of those have next to zero value right now and were first round picks.
You can't miss that badly on relatively high picks and get nothing in return.

I really thought honka would improve with ice time but he made sure to prove me wrong as hard as he could.

Stars need to overhaul their scouting team because the drafts that found late gems Dallas needs more of. Those drafts also produced some meh first round picks also...

Riley Smith, Eriksson, a host of average defenders that are at least full time NHLers.

I'd take that drafting over what we've been looking at now. It's not great but at least that drafts gave Dallas trade pieces for some superstars.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...