Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, family, and readers! By now, you’ve settled into a day of family and football and mountains of food, and I hope it’s a blessed day and weekend as we all celebrate the beautiful lives that we have.
As for the Dallas Stars, they have a lot to be thankful for as well, starting with a 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken that helped them finish their West Coast road trip 3-0-1 before a day off today and a game back at American Airlines Center on Friday night.
Related: Stars Weekly: Rantanen, Robo, Special Teams, & Keeping Up With the Avs
Beyond that, there’s a long list of things to be grateful for this season, but we’ll hit the things that I think matter the most. Let’s get to it.
Excellent Record While Battling Through Injuries
If you’re the Stars, it’s easy to look at the standings and be thankful for your record. They enter Thanksgiving 15-5-4 with 39 points, which is five points back of the Colorado Avalanche, who are first in the Central Division.
But, upon a deeper look, it’s actually really impressive what the Stars have done. Between the injuries to top players and having a new head coach, they haven’t lost a step.
The Stars have played 24 games so far. Captain Jamie Benn has played five, and Matt Duchene has played four. Those two are huge parts of this team, both on and off the ice, and they have barely played.
On defense, Nils Lundkvist has played four games, Thomas Harley has played 18, and Ilya Lyubushkin has played 17.
Under former head coach Pete DeBoer, Lundkvist was in and out of the lineup and was constantly battling for a place in the lineup. Beyond that, he has battled injury quite a bit in his young career.
As for Harley, he is a massive part of the offensive production on the back end. Yes, he’s a solid defender. But it’s his work on the power play and 5-on-5 offensively that helped him receive his recent raise.
Lyubushkin’s presence has been missed in a big way as well, or so you would think. While he’s not one for big numbers, he’s a steady and physical force back there and it would have made sense if their defensive play dropped off dramatically.
Well, it hasn’t. It hasn’t been perfect, but they keep winning hockey games, and ultimately, that’s what matters.
Racking Up Wins On the Road
Historically, the Stars have been a really good home team. So far this season, they are middle of the pack with a 6-4-1 record. Usually, that’s what their road record looks like. This season, however, they have flipped that narrative and have gone 9-1-3 away from Texas, which is the best road record in the NHL.
On top of that, they are first in goals per game on the road with 3.77, and seventh in goals against with 2.54. On special teams, the Stars are 10th on the power play at 23.8%, and eighth on the penalty kill at 84.4%.
Robo, Rantanen, and Johnston
If we wanted to, this article could be all about Mikko Rantanen, Jason Robertson, and Wyatt Johnston. Whether it’s 5-on-5 or on the power play, these three players have driven the offensive production all season long.
Robertson’s goal streak ended at seven games after Wednesday’s game against the Kraken. But hey, he wasn’t going to every night, even though it felt that way for two weeks. Robertson is tied for second in the NHL in goals with 14 and tied for third in points with 31. His assist total isn’t so bad either, tied for sixth with 17.
Rantanen has 10 goals and 18 assists, which puts him in a tie for sixth in points with 28. Beyond his points, it’s his playmaking that has made him so valuable to this team. Whether it’s passing or making the opponent miss with his skill, he really does it all.
The Stars have put a bigger emphasis on team physicality than they have in years past, and that has been embodied by Rantanen. That has come with good and bad, including leading the league with 57 penalty minutes and a recent suspension for two game misconducts in three games. However, having a superstar lead the way with his body is something that the Stars desperately needed.
Then, there’s Johnston. The 22-year-old budding superstar is putting together another phenomenal season after back-to-back 30-plus goal campaigns. In Mikael Granlund’s absence, Johnston played a ton on both top units and has fit in wherever he has been slotted.
12 goals and 25 points in 24 games is amazing all by itself. What’s remarkable is his production on the power play. Nine of his goals and 15 of his points have come on the man advantage.
Casey DeSmith Has Been the Perfect Backup
Jake Oettinger is the Stars’ number-one netminder and is considered by many to be one of the best goalies in the NHL. I agree with that wholeheartedly. However, Casey DeSmith has been a sneaky key to the Stars’ success, and it cannot be overstated.
DeSmith is 5-1-2 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.20 goals against average. On top of the numbers, there seem to be moments in every game he plays where he needs to make multiple big saves to either keep the Stars in the game or hold down a lead.
There’s another factor that will be hard to measure until the season is over. Oettinger has played between 54 and 62 games in each of the last three seasons, and inevitably, he appears to run out of gas when the Western Conference Final rolls around. On top of that, Oettinger will almost definitely be on Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February. Whether he plays in Italy, that’s a lot of hockey, and that’s a lot of travel on top of the travel he is already doing during the regular season.
If DeSmith continues to play well, and the Stars continue to play well in front of him, his playing more could be a huge factor in getting the Stars over the hump to a Stanley Cup Final.
Stars One of NHL’s Best at Thanksgiving
After all that, there is still more we could talk about. We could point out the fact that they have the second-best power play in the NHL at 31.4%, which is only 0.1% behind the league-leading Pittsburgh Penguins.
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We could talk about how they have scored 81 goals, which is third in the NHL, and allowed 65, which is 11th. The list goes on and on.
The fact is, the Stars are one of the best teams in the NHL, and should be a hard out every single night, especially in the spring.
