DALLAS _ Lost in the upheaval of Jim Montgomery's firing, in the Stars' 3-2 overtime loss Friday night to the Golden Knights and one of the most confusing weeks in recent franchise history is a simple fact: the Stars are a good hockey team.
It was an easy fact to ignore given the unexplained dismissal of their coach and the coaching shuffle it caused, plus the days of murkiness and speculation. It was easy to remember the recent four-game losing streak and the embarrassment in Winnipeg just 10 days prior and dismiss the Stars' three-game win streak entering Friday.
But in the last two months _ yes, two months _ the Stars have been the best team in the Western Conference. Since they started the season 1-7-1, the Stars are 17-5-3. Only one team in the NHL (Washington) has more points than Dallas, and the Stars have turned a horrendous start into a 100-point season.
On Friday night, the Stars lost at home for the first time as Max Pacioretty won the game for Vegas 51 seconds into overtime.
After controlling the first period (15-7 shot advantage and a 1-0 lead), the Stars struggled in the second. Vegas outshot the Stars, 16-7, as both William Karlsson and Chandler Stephenson scored in the period.
Taylor Fedun scored for Dallas, wristing a shot through traffic with less than five minutes left in the first period. Jamie Benn tied the game at 2 with 5:11 left in the third period by deflecting Tyler Seguin's shot from an extreme angle.
Dallas finishes a back-to-back in Nashville on Saturday night.
Since the Stars' poor start, they've owned impressive league-wide numbers. The power play entered Friday ninth in the league since Oct. 19; the penalty kill, fourth. Two of the four best goaltenders in that stretch wear Victory Green, including Ben Bishop and his .947 save percentage since then.
The 12-game point streak that ended in Chicago in November could have been viewed as a mirage. Perhaps the hot streak was a simple act of the right bounces at the right times. Due to the somewhat random nature of hockey, teams go on stretches like that often. Sometimes, they're flukes.
The four-game losing streak questioned the Stars' validity. But the bigger picture doesn't.
"The four-game losing streak, that could happen again, doesn't mean they're playing bad," interim coach Rick Bowness said. "Sometimes, you play your best games and you lose. There's a lot of variables that come into the game. It's not a perfect game. Sometimes you play poorly and win."
The Stars aren't a perfect team, of course.
While their defense is elite again, the offense has lagged behind. The power play can be streaky, and their usual big-time producers (like Benn, Seguin and John Klingberg) aren't putting up numbers like they can. And the Stars reside in the tight Central Division.
