Stars struggle but keep playoffs in sight
Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill calls his team’s performance this season “consistently inconsistent.”
Considering the number of injuries the Stars have endured and their inability to put together winning streaks, Nill said he feels fortunate that his team is only two points out of a playoff spot heading into a Thursday game against the New York Islanders.
“The next 10 or 15 games will tell us where we are at,” Nill told USA TODAY Sports.
Saying the Stars are lurking around the playoff picture is an apt description because they are viewed as a potentially dangerous team if they can qualify for the postseason. They were the only Western Conference team to win 50 games last season, as well as being the NHL’s highest-scoring team.
Although they only rank 14th in scoring (2.74 goals per game) this season, the Stars have scored three or more goals in nine of their past 12 games.
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Their biggest problem has been that their penalty killing (74%) ranks second to last. They have given up 13 power play goals in the past nine games.
The Stars have used younger players as penalty killers because of injuries. They've lost their confidence in that area. “It’s just bad decisions at the wrong times,” Nill said. “And when things go bad, they then get worse. When our guys get a penalty they have to kill it’s like, ‘Here we go again.’ ”
Goaltenders Kari Lehtonen (9-12-4, .900 save percentage, 2.86 goals-against average) and Antti Niemi (10-7-4, .902, 3.16) have been blamed on social media for the Stars’ slide this, but that isn’t Nill’s assessment.
“They have been beaten up because of our record, but they have actually been pretty good this year,” Nill said. “Overall, they have calmed the waters for us. It’s our penalty killing that has struggled, and we haven’t scored like we did. The goaltending is not the major problem. They are just easy targets."
Jamie Benn scored 41 goals last season and has 11 this season. Patrick Sharp recently returned to the lineup after missing a month with a concussion. The Stars are counting on him to help spark the offense. Mattias Janmark and Ales Hemsky are both sidelined with long-team injuries. At the start of the season, the Stars had six of their top nine forwards out of the lineup.
“We are just waiting for the pieces to come together,” Nill said. “The problem is even when guys come back from injuries it takes another two or three weeks to be where they should be. We need to get our top guys going. Somewhere along the way here we have to win three, four, five games in a row.”
Nill said he doesn’t expect to be an aggressive shopper before the trade deadline on March 1. “My trades will be players getting healthy,” he said.
