A Time to Worry?

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.