NHL front-running Stars seek consistency to go along with their points
It’s no secret how the Dallas Stars jumped atop the NHL in points at the Christmas break.
Look no further than the league’s scoring leaders.
Stars forwards Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn sit tied for second with 46 points.
Benn, the defending Art Ross Trophy winner, is tied for the league lead in goals with Vladimir Tarasenko of St. Louis with 22.
As a team, Dallas broke away from the pack in goals scored, holding a 19-goal lead over Eastern Conference leaders Montreal and Washington.
But as Dallas enters the second half of the season, simply outscoring opponents, especially from the team’s top two, won’t cut it.
“The further you get down the schedule, history says the tighter it’s going to get,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “Typically the scoring goes down, and if you can get some depth of scoring you win a lot of games.”
That theory manifested itself in Dallas’ 4-0 victory over division rival Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday before the Christmas break began.
The Stars led 1-0 after two periods and goals by Patrick Sharp, Colton Sceviour and rookie Mattias Janmark sealed the victory.
The schedule gets more difficult from here.
The Central Division of the Western Conference, in which the Stars reside, has a 12-point separation between Dallas’ division-leading 54 points and Nashville’s 40 points in fifth place.
Dallas has only played seven games against Central Division opponents through the first half, the fewest in the conference by two games. Three of the top five teams in the league call the Central Division home — Dallas, Chicago and St. Louis.
With the margin of error greatly reduced in the second half of the season, consistency is of the highest importance.
Luckily for the Stars, finding a way to win games has become a constant. They have yet to lose consecutive games this season.
Changes in the lineup have created momentum between games as well as periods.
Players such as Sharp, Cody Eakin, Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky have been movable pieces for Ruff throughout the season.
“We’ve gotten used to it. At times he’s been able to change the flow of the game,” Spezza said. “At times, he’s kept us together and allowed us to build chemistry with guys.”
“You adapt to what your coach wants and he likes to mix the lines around at times and I think, as players, we’re comfortable with it now.”
The same fluidity has been shown with goaltending. Antti Niemi holds a slight edge in games started with 20, over Kari Lehtonen’s 15.
Statistically, Niemi has been just slightly better than Lehtonen with a 2.30 goals against average and a .915 save percentage, and Ruff said the numbers do matter.
“These guys have been good for us, so those decisions, there’s never a wrong one on which guy we play. Sometimes we’ve just looked at numbers against certain teams,” he said.
Should Dallas make a return to the playoffs this season after an absence last season, the goaltending decisions could be a challenge for Ruff.
But that’s a thought process still 47games away for the Stars.
“I hope I have that decision to make. That’ll be a great decision to have to make and I hope the decision after Game 1 is a tough decision, too,” Ruff said.
This story was originally published December 25, 2015 at 2:19 PM with the headline "NHL front-running Stars seek consistency to go along with their points."