A few good bounces…

By Jon Gabrielle, Stars correspondent

When November rolled in, I opined that we would know a lot more about these Dallas Stars on December 1st. Unfortunately, after 13 games played and a 6-5-2 record during the month, I’m left wondering what exactly we learned? 

So what did November tell you?

Early Christmas at the A.A.C. (photo by flygraphix/flickr)

If those infamous words, “you are what your record says you are,” hold  water, then the Stars are just as likely to miss the playoffs as make them.

They have been remarkably consistent this year, winning one, follwed by losing one with amazing regularity, breaking that pattern only twice through the season’s first 27 games.

Not quite a third of the way through the season the Stars find themselves on the playoff bubble with a 12-8-7 record in the conference. Extrapolate those numbers out over 81 games and they would finish with a 36-24-21 record, good for 93 points and a tenuous playoff postion at best. Of course if you do the math correctly, they play 82 games, giving them a potential 95 point season.

Like the stock market, up one day, down the next, no one really expects the season to continue with this vacillating pattern. And like the stock market, people with a vested interest are hedging their bets accordingly. For as any good day trader worth his life savings will tell you, sooner or later the graph stops moving sideways and it’s time to get off the fence.

Looking for indicators, these Stars have a former All Star in goal but one with heavy mileage. Turco has been his brilliant self on occassion this year, yet at times has let in the proverbial “soft” one. Combine that with a defensive corps that doesn’t boast a true number one NHL pairing and you have the making of some inconsistent defensive zone coverage.

Early on the forwards were carrying the freight with good forechecking, while hitting the back of the net often. In the first 13 games of the season the Stars scored 43 goals for an average of almost 3.5 goals per game. In the last 14 games however, the scoring has been down, averaging barley over 2.5 goals a game. The difference, almost a goal a game could take its toll.

So it’s on to December, where a few good bounces may be just what the Stars need.

And did they ever get them last night with the Anaheim Ducks in town.

Trailing 1-0 after two periods and J.S. Giguere playing great in the Ducks cage, a couple of pucks bounced the Stars way.

Here’s how James Neal described his tying goal, only 1:50 into the final period. “I was lucky. Lucky. One of the luckiest goals I’ve ever scored.” With nary a Star within 20 feet of the play, it’s hard to argue with Neal’s assesment.

Just 1:11 after that “lucky” goal, Steve Ott’s pass toward the goal crease from along the goal line in the corner, trickled it’s way past Giguere and stunned the visitors. Ott commented, “a couple of lucky shots got in and all of a sudden, you’re up in the game…”

I’m not sure either one was an intended shot on goal, but nonetheless in a span of 71 seconds, the Stars found their fortune change dramatically, thanks in large part to Giguere’s mental collapse.

They finished off the Ducks with an empty netter, making the final score 3-1.

Christmas came early this month at the AAC…now it remains to be seen if the Stars can turn their gift of a few good bounces, into a great December.

Posted by Jon Gabrielle on Dec 4 2009. Filed under Dallas Stars, Pacific, Western Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.