At the midway point of the season, following Sunday night’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Predators, the Stars are — somehow — in the playoff hunt in the Central Division.
Hold on.
These Stars are close to a playoff spot? The ones that once went three weeks between wins and the ones battling nightly to put a team on the ice given their injuries? The ones who continuously found ways to lose games and were once 15 points out of a playoff spot?
Yes, those guys.
The Stars still trail Chicago and Columbus by six points in the standings since they have played four fewer games than both teams. Dallas’ .500 points percentage is still within striking distance of the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets’ matching .516 figure, a more meaningful metric given the disparity in games played.
On Sunday, Calle Jarnkrok scored the game-deciding goal for Nashville in the fifth round of the shootout, completing the comeback after the Stars held a 3-1 lead in the second period.
The Stars again received contributions from their depth. Rhett Gardner scored his first career NHL goal. Radek Faksa deflected in a goal before departing in the second period following a pair of blocked shots. Ty Dellandrea scored in consecutive games for the first time in his career.
Anton Khudobin allowed three goals on 22 shots after a 21-save shutout the night prior in Detroit.
The Stars had a chance to win two straight games for the first time since they began the season 4-0-0 in January. They blew it.
They still have only lost in regulation twice in the last 10 games, a stretch combined with Chicago’s 1-6-0 downturn that leads the Stars back into playoff contention.
“Listen, if it takes us until the 56th game of the season to get in, then that’s what it’s going to take,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said before Sunday’s game. “It’s happened before in the league and if that’s what it’s going to take us, that’s what it’s going to take.”
To even be in this position right now — with 28 games remaining — is noteworthy for the Stars, however disappointing another shootout loss to Nashville is.
When they lost 10 of 11 games in February and March, hope seemed bleak in Dallas. The Blackhawks were surprising. The Stars were disappointing. Dallas couldn’t score. It was eyeing down an impossibly busy schedule. It was rotating a hobbled cast of characters in and out of the lineup every game.
Already without Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop, nagging injuries to Roope Hintz and Alexander Radulov forced them in and out of the lineup. Dallas’ depth (Andrew Cogliano, Blake Comeau, Mark Pysyk and Andrej Sekera) have missed games at certain points.
A turnaround appeared unlikely.
Instead, the Stars snuck back into contention with loser points in overtime and shootout losses, and a continued stretch in which they have consistently outshot and outchanced the opponent.
Before the game, Bowness said the Stars are aware of what’s happening in Chicago, but that they need to help themselves, first and foremost.
Dallas absolutely has plenty to work on, especially goal-scoring. Plenty can happen in the final two months of the season. The Stars have proved that in the first two months of the season, but they need to avoid another poor stretch like they’ve already endured.
“We’ve had ours, we can’t afford another one,” Bowness said. “We just have to keep pushing forward.”
Same goalie again: For the third time this season, Bowness used the same goaltender during both games of a back-to-back, this time turning to Khudobin to play Sunday after shutting out Detroit on Saturday night.
Bowness previously started Jake Oettinger in back-to-backs on March 6-7 and March 12-13. He said starting Khudobin was because Khudobin was rested, having not played since March 11 prior to Saturday against the Red Wings.
Khudobin made 21 saves during his shutout win Saturday.
“It wasn’t that difficult a night for him last night and listen, a goalie’s like a forward,” Bowness said. “If a forward scores a hat trick, he wants to get right back in there the next night. A goalie coming off a shutout, they’re feeling it. There are varying circumstances, but in Dobby’s situation right now, he’s rested, he worked very hard in practice for a couple days.”
In a macro sense, the Stars could benefit from resting their goalies on back-to-backs, especially given that they employ a pair of capable NHL goalies. In a micro sense, Bowness and the Stars are trying to ride the hot hand, and capitalize on a surging goalie while that goalie is still surging.
