Dallas Stars 2018-19 Season Preview

With the 2018-19 season days away, we’re rounding up everything Dallas Stars before they kick it off at home against the Arizona Coyotes.

The wait is over, folks. For the next six to seven months, we get to bathe in the cold waters of NHL hockey. The draft has come and gone, free agency has left every owner with lint in their pockets and some fans (rather, just those that root for the New York Islanders) are probably still pouting.

What a time to be alive! But hold on a second. There’s still a bit of work to be done before we dive full-on into the new campaign. Because what could be worse than going out onto the pond totally blind? Absolutely nothing — unless you’re a referee and then it’s a requirement. Hey-oh!

So let’s kick off this new year right and get you up to speed on your definite-Cup-winning Dallas Stars, yeah?

2017-18:

Record: 42-32-8

Final resting place: Sixth in the Central Division

Did they make the postseason: Hell no.

They were good…

Before the Stars dropped pucks on the 2017-18 season, there were vast changes that needed to be made, most notably behind the bench and between the pipes. So they went out and nabbed a piece of nostalgia in glory-days head coach Ken Hitchcock, traded for former Vezina finalist Ben Bishop, and to make sure things stayed on-par down at the other end, they signed the man who is at this point two parts oxygen and eight parts celly, Alexander Radulov.

Things were slow no doubt. I mean, they lost their first game to the greatest group of misfits ever an expansion franchise. Who does that? 20 games in, Dallas hovered around .500. Not ideal of course. But then they took off. The offense was scoring, Rads was going bananas, the defense was defending and the goalies were goalie-ing out of their gourds. By the end of February, the Stars had driven their record to 13 games above .500, were sitting on 76 points and looked to be pacing towards the playoffs.

In fact, at one point the probability of them not making the postseason was something in the range of….dear lord let’s not get into those numbers. Suffice it to say the probability was low.

…and then they were really, really bad.

Oh those Ides of March. As soon as things seemed beautiful as a blue bonnet under the Texas sky, the nightmare began. Beginning on March 11 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Stars would go on to lose eight in a row and thus guarantee themselves a perfect tee-time over the early summer.

The collapse was … nothing like Dallas fans have witnessed before, and we hope to never witness again. We vomited a thousand days. Moving along.

Defensive rankings:

Goals against: 7th, 2.71/game. Wait, what? Yep.

Shots against: 4th, 29.8/game.

Penalty Kill: 14th, 80.8 percent. Meh.

Offensive Rankings:

Goals for: 19th, 2.82/game.

Power Play: 19th, 19.3 percent.

Team Leaders:

Goals: Tyler Seguin – 40

Assists: John Klingberg – 59

Points: Jamie Benn – 79

Wins: Ben Bishop – 26

Cellys that made us happy: Alexander Radulov – Such many.

2018-19:

First game: Thursday, October 4

Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Who gets beat first: The Arizona Coyotes

In with some new…

While the Stars prepare to take on Arizona, they actually went through quite a few changes in a relatively short time-frame. The biggest is the hiring of a new guy-who-yells-when-you-do-stuff-wrong in Jim Montgomery. He’s fresh up from the college ranks and taking a crack at the bigs for the first time in his coaching career — a career that’s decorated with wins at nearly all levels. That sounds wonderful, so let’s keep that going.

Dallas wasn’t shy come free agency either, as it took backup goalie Anton Khudobin from the Boston Bruins, signed Blake Comeau away from the Colorado Avalanche, and then hit itself in the brain with a hammer by grabbing D-man Roman Polak from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There’s also the case of Val Nichushkin, former first-rounder who played a bit in Dallas before going to Russia. He’s back now, likely because barbecue over in the motherland just isn’t the same. Oh yeah, and Tyler Seguin is going to be here for like, the rest of his life yo.

…and out with some old/still kinda young

With the hiring of Montgomery, you might have put all the peas and carrots together and realized that means Ken Hitchcock is no longer behind the bench. He stepped down after last year’s befuddlement, effectively “retiring” though he will remain on as a consultant. Whatever that means. It’s sad, but also we’re really excited because why not? New style of play, new year. Let’s go!

Of course, with the dawning of free agency and its additions comes the inevitable free agency subtractions. Our favorite rapscallion Antoine Roussel parted for Vancouver and defensive grandpa Dan Hamhuis has gone back to the team that initially drafted him, the Nashville Predators. Greg Pateryn is no longer with us either. He’s in Minnesota, probably winning beard contests.

As for backup goaltender Kari Lehtonen, he’s still out there … somewhere.

What has us excited:

Miro Heiskanen, Defenseman

The hype is real. After being selected third overall in the 2017 draft, Heiskanen went over to Finland and subsequently tore the league to shreds as an 18-year-old. Now with a chance to hit the gas in the NHL, he hasn’t looked back. The kid is a stud and ready to compete at the highest level.

There’s a reason Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill and company balked at trading him for two-time Norris winner Erik Karlsson.

Alexander Radulov, Celebration master

Because seriously, another season of watching this guy go swordsman after every goal? Inject it into our veins.

The offense

We might need to hold off on this until opening night, but the offensive style of play through the preseason is giving us the meat sweats. It looks vastly different from what we saw in the short-lived second round of the Ken Hitchcock era. Chances are being created off of skilled passes, players are creating confusion for opposing defenders, and entering the zone is no longer a game of “see who can chase the puck down first.” It’s based on talent overtaking talent. We think our guys can simply outplay yours, so good luck.

This is a product of Montgomery and we can only hope it continues. And that we win all the games, of course.

Not so exciting, but maybe a little exciting:

I think we had all hoped that when the great Craig Ludwig wasn’t retained as announcer for Dallas broadcasts, that we would get a reunion between Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh. Alas, the incoming Josh Bogorad takes over, which is actually itself pretty awesome. We wish him luck.

Another note, the Stars are pretty much not on national television at all during the upcoming regular season, which is both a bummer and a blessing. When Dallas goes on to win 75 games, well, who’s looking foolish now? More Razor Reaugh? Bring it.

Key Games/Key Stretch:

October 4 through October 13

Yep, the beginning of the season is marked as a key stretch, because the first four games of the year are all at home. There’s no better opportunity to rinse the awful taste of last season out of their mouths than to come out of the gate full blast. A good start under favorable circumstances? Yes, please.

@ Winnipeg, March 25

Just as well, this game sounds off the beginning of the end of the regular campaign. The Stars will finish up on the road for five of their final seven contests, which includes their tour of Canada. And as you might know, the Winnipeg Jets have treated Dallas like rag dolls the last few years. If the Stars are in contention at this point, it will be critical to end the year on a solid note. They have to learn to beat the Jets, plain and simple.

The nightmare road trip through Halloween

Dallas’ first stretch away from home for an extended period comes at the end of October, and it’s a doozy. It will start off against the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens, then descend into playoff contenders Toronto, Boston, Columbus and Washington. Not only that, but they get to come home and immediately play the new-look San Jose Sharks. Joy.

Projections:

Record: 46-30-6

Final resting place: 3rd in the Central Division

Do they make the playoffs? Hell yes.

Sure this is going to come across as biased, but here we go. The feeling here is that Dallas will absolutely compete in the division. Then again, as always, this could depend entirely on the health of the roster and also how they mesh with Montgomery’s coaching. It’s going to take some time to get acclimated to a new way of playing, but the talent is there. Let’s not forget that before their collapse, the Stars were on their way to just this very spot in the Central last year. And the division is no cakewalk.

They have the goaltending and the defense to win games, the only question might be do they have enough offense? Seguin, Benn and Radulov should provide enough, but as we saw in 2017-18, the depth has to come through and show up or else this club gets into trouble. If this team can get its other lines clicking, they will be dangerous. Are they “go all the way” dangerous? Maybe not. But they are built to win now. There should be no doubt that they can at least stay in the race.

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