First Shift 🏒
Steve Spott put it perfectly.
The Stars assistant coach was asked about the team’s offensive struggles to start this season, and said Dallas needed the real life experience of not scoring to understand how hard it is.
“You come off the last couple of years we have had and it’s human nature,” Spott said. “We can show up, we can play, we’re going to create offense - so I think sometimes you’ve got to touch the hot stove to know you can get burned. We have a lot more offense than we have shown.“
Since head coach Pete DeBoer came in two seasons ago, the Stars have been a solid offensive team with a great power play, and individuals have posted some of their best career stats. So the feeling after training camp was they would once again find easy success. Even the coaches were comfortable with the process.
“We didn’t think offense would be a challenge, so it’s respect for the league, it’s recognizing that you have to play hard in the offensive zone every night in this league,” Spott said. “With these layered defensive zone coverages, you’ve got to get to the inside. If you stay on the outside, they’ll let you stand there.”
The Stars have broken through in the past two games with a 7-1 win in Pittsburgh on Monday and a 7-2 home win against Boston on Thursday. Several players have been able to break out of slumps, and that could be a good sign for the future.
“So much of scoring is confidence, so every bit helps,” said Duchene.
The Stars ranks sixth in shot attempt differential, a stat the league uses to show puck possession, and DeBoer said the team’s analytics say they are in a place that is very similar to last season. Because of that, the coach said the scoring woes early in the season likely are a matter of simply not putting the puck in the net.
“We had some analytics meetings and the underlying numbers are pretty similar to a year ago at the same time other than our finishing,” DeBoer said. “Finishing is usually confidence and feeling it, and hopefully we’ve got some guys heading in the right direction.”
In rattling off 14 goals over the past two games, the Stars were able to see some results for players like Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven and Miro Heiskanen. While players like Robertson and Hintz are still behind their normal pace, the feeling is good throughout the lineup.
“That allows guys to maybe get some confidence back,” Spott said. “You talk about Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, they have had opportunities and then to be able to score, it lifts a weight. Pete challenged them, and it’s not about cheating for offense, it’s about playing the right way and letting the offense come. So it’s nice to see it come.”
Now, they have to try to keep it going. Saturday’s game against Minnesota is a key battle for Central Division positioning and also a potential First Round playoff matchup, so it will be more than just a regular game. But the whole start to the season has sort of been like that.
“I don’t think we’ve hit our full stride yet as a hockey club,” Spott said. “I think we’re turning the corner. We’re playing faster, we’re quick-upping the puck, we’re getting rewarded in the neutral zone for playing faster. When we do those things, we’re a dangerous club.”
