By the end — with Sean Avery wearing his earphones in the dressing room, texting and e-mailing in the hallway outside the dressing room between periods, and refusing to take part in team functions — the distance between Avery and the rest of the Dallas Stars organization had grown vast. But as much as the Stars’ mantra is about moving forward…

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The Dallas Stars’ defense has not looked good this year. I figured I would start things out with the obvious and move on from there. Although dealing with early injuries to two of it’s leading members – Sergei Zubov and Phillippe Boucher (who has since returned) – the Stars have struggled to find cohesion this season. This has led to a spot that the Stars aren’t used to – dead last.

The Stars blueliners are 30th out of 30 in team defense so far on this season. They’ve allowed 23 goals in 5 games (through Sunday), which is a goals against average of 4.00 if you’re keeping track of such things. They’ve surrendered 123 shots (there are 6 teams who have given up more), but have only stopped 100 of them. That means Dallas netminding has a 0.813 save percentage. 81% folks. 1 out of every 5 shots on a Dallas goal is going in.

Dallas started a three-game road trip against the New York-area teams on Monday (the Rangers, Devils and Islanders) and beat the Rangers 2-1. Dallas got goals by Brendan Morrow and Mike Modano that were much needed and extremely welcomed. Seeing the leadership of this team step up and lead the scoring is great for the offensive side of things. And the defense? They allowed just one goal on 29 shots. That’s a .965 save percentage – 97%. Maybe this is the new attitude of the Stars’ defense and they’ve ironed out the wrinkles. But, maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s a situation the Stars need to address.

So how does Dallas address this situation? What do you do if you’re in Coach Dave Tippett’s shoes? Or Brett Hull’s? Or Les Jackson’s? Do you push the button on an early trade to shake up the chemistry and let people know that if they don’t do their job, they’re on their way out? Do you change up the defensive pairings and let players work with a new defensive partner for a while? Do you show some patience and let the “kinks” work out of this defensive machine? What’s the fix?

I have a suggestion, modest though it may be. It’s an approach that can’t hurt – it can only help. Work on the communication! The thing that has been most apparent on ice through the first 5 games is that the six men on ice haven’t been on the same page all that often. Whether they’re working better together now or not, there’s no way that some team exercised couldn’t improve the way things go on ice.

The Stars get back into town after the trip to The Big Apple this coming Friday the 24th. They have a game on the 25th at the AAC against the Washington Capitals and another on 29th against the Minnesota Wild before leaving for a five-game trip on Halloween.

During that stretch, maybe the Stars D-squad should get together off the ice and do some team-building, stress-relieving-type activities. Shoot each other with paintballs…challenge one another to rock climbing competitions…anything where you rely on a teammate and talk to one another, which hasn’t been happening during games.

The month of October is a busy one for sports – three major professional sports leagues all vying for the spotlight (four if you count pre-season NBA and five if you consider College Football). There is lots of competition for viewers, night in and night out.

To add to it’s woes, the NHL doesn’t have the assistance of a top tier major cable network broadcasting it’s games. You can say the league blew that opportunity themselves during the lockout of the 2004-05 season, if you wish, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are less viewers through VS. than there were through ESPN. It’s tough to get large audiences watching the games.

But, I’m sure a good number of folks around the metroplex were tuned in to see the Dallas Stars open their season on back-to-back nights against Columbus here in Dallas, and then on the road in Nashville on Saturday. Many critics may be writing off the Stars already, thanks to their ignominious 0-1-1 start. But (for the second time in as many weeks), I must urge you to wait on passing judgement.

Here’s the part where you say, “But it’s Columbus! And Nashville! We’ve always done well against those teams.” And you’d be right. Historically, the Stars have matched up well against both the Blue Jackets and the Predators. But, both aforementioned teams are starting to come into their own.

Investments in youth are beginning to pay off for the Blue Jackets, Rick Nash continues to lead with great play and has gotten assistance from Derick Brassard, Jakub Voracek and Pascal Leclaire, all of whom have come up through Columbus’ developmental system.

The Predators are finding success in building around a strong core of journeyman players, and are plugging in the pieces that are left through trades and free agency. The leader of the team, on and off the ice, continues to be Jason Arnott. Finding the success he always sought during his tenure as a Star, Arnie is lighting the lamp more regularly in Nashville, and has a great support crew surrounding him. People like J.P. Dumont and Martin Erat, who also struggled with other NHL teams, have found success in the Music City as well. And another former Star, Dan Ellis, has been impressive as a starting goaltender.

Starting a season winless after two games is not what the Stars want (what team would?). But I’m waiting to see how the Stars will do against Nashville in a re-match at the AAC on Wednesday, and the Blues on Thursday. It’s another back-to-back game situation, and it’s another home one night, away the next situation too. It will test the Stars, and hopefully show fans how much this teams wants success. If we’re still winless after Thursday – then it’s time to re-examine where this team is headed.

Is anyone worried?

I know it’s just the pre-season, and I know the games have been tight, and I know we’ve been evaluating talent along the way… But the fact is, the Dallas Stars have started the pre-season 1-5-1. That’s just one win out of 7 games. If this were the regular season, fans would be swallowing one heck of a collective gulp. So are you worried?

The reassuring thing is that it is just the pre-season. This is the time where teams can experiment, work out kinks and realize just where they come up short on their team. One thing the Stars haven’t lacked over the last couple weeks is shots. According to a Dallas Morning News article, the Stars have outshot their opponents 218 to 152. That’s an average of nearly 10 shots per game.

The offense is clearly getting their opportunities. The shots are plentiful – so far, the goaltenders have played well against the Stars. But, the puck is going on net. And, most reassuring of all, the rookies are the ones doing a lot of the shooting. All 3 rookies who were expected to be vying for a job have been showing up on the gamesheet. B.J. Crombeen, James Neal and Fabian Brunnstrom have all made good cases for why they should be on the roster this Friday when Dallas opens up against Columbus. One of them may start the year in the minors, simply because Dallas doesn’t have roster space.

And if you do the math, the Stars have surrendered less than 22 shots per game, on average. The defense is clearly doing it’s job. And, beleaguered by injuries, their core will only grow stronger as Philippe Boucher returns to form (Boucher has been rehabbing a toe injury he incurred because of an enthusiastic off-season training program. Then, the Stars get Sergei Zubov back in a few weeks, when he completes recovery from a hip injury. The defense looks good.

So it has to be in goal, right? Well, not so fast. Coming into this season, Tobias Stephan had played just one regular season NHL game. It was a fantastic game up in Chicago, and Stephan had the Stars in it until the final seconds of overtime when he let in his second goal of the game out of 38 shots. But, it’s one game. The guy is still only 24 years old, and adapting to the speed and skill of the NHL level. And, the other guy he split time with in net we all know well. Turco might have some rust on his hinges, but I have no doubt he’ll amaze Stars fans again this season when the games start counting.

So that’s it, fans. Nothing to worry about. Sure, it’s a slow start, and there are a few question marks. But this is a team that went all the way to the Western Conference Finals last season. They have proven they know how to win, and the pieces that are in play deserve to be there. The additions to the team have all looked good thus far. Let’s wait another couple of weeks before we panic. I think we’ll be glad we did.