From Oettinger On Out, Struggling Stars Should Be Better Soon -- And Here's How

After Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Winnipeg, the Dallas Stars are mired in a losing skid where they’ve dropped three of their past four games to fall to 8-5-0 on the season. And the root cause of the unfortunate streak is that Dallas’ defense needs to improve, and improve in a hurry. But not to worry, Stars fans – Dallas should be getting on the right side of the win/loss ledger soon enough.

Improvement has to start with defense, as in the Stars’ five losses this year, they’ve been outscored 17-9. But in seven of their eight victories – and in every win since their season-opening 4-3 win over Nashville – Dallas has limited its opponent to two goals or fewer. And it’s not about one single member of the Stars being better in their own zone – Dallas needs a true team effort to get back on the right road.

For instance, goalie Jake Oettinger allowed four goals on 15 shots in Saturday’s loss to the Jets. But while Oettinger has gone 6-3-0 this season, he’s allowed just nine goals in his six wins. And his individual numbers have been above-average this year – including a .910 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average. Despite the chants of Jets fans, we fully expect Oettinger to bounce back with strong showings in the games imminently ahead. And the Stars players in front of Oettinger have to give him and No. 2 netminder Casey DeSmith a solid amount of support on defense to keep the goals-against numbers as low as possible.

We also expect Dallas will improve in short order because of its schedule. Starting Monday in Pittsburgh, the Stars take on the terrible Penguins, followed by tougher games against Boston at home and Minnesota on the road, and then very winnable home games against Anaheim and San Jose. We’re confident Dallas will squeeze at least seven standings points out of that stretch of the year, and given that the Stars are an intimidating 6-1-0 in their own building this season, Dallas wouldn’t shock anyone if they went 4-0-1 or better against the aforementioned five teams.

Related: Stars Central Division Showdown: How Dallas Will Fare Against The Minnesota Wild

The Stars’ offense also needs to be more consistent, as Dallas is currently in 17th position in the league in terms of goals-for at an average of 2.92 per-game. With the depth of talent the Stars have up front, that number should get better soon. Dallas had the NHL’s third-best offense last season (3.59 goals-for per-game), and there’s been no gigantic exodus of skill to explain away the lack of production. This is largely the same team, although a little younger and less experienced at the NHL level. But few regular observers of the league are picking the Stars to stumble for any great length of time.

Dallas still has what it takes to be great, and this stretch is probably a hiccup and small bump in the road for the Stars. There should be some sense of urgency to get back in the win column, but there should be no sense of panic. The Stars aren’t a perfect team by any metric, but they’re better than they’ve shown of late, and sooner than later, they should be experiencing success more often than not.

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