The Dallas Stars brought back their Stanley Cup-winning coach and made a few somewhat pricey acquisitions last offseason.
With those significant changes
Natrell Jamerson Color Rush Jersey , it looked like that fall from top seed in the Western Conference one season to missing the playoffs the next might just
be a blip on the way to bigger things.
Instead, they fell agonizingly short of the postseason because of a late-season slump.
”There’s lots of decisions to be made,” said Hitchcock, who coached three other teams in his 15 years away from the Stars. ”But I’m hopeful that the
feeling is that we’re a lot closer than further away.”
Among the first questions general manager Jim Nill will have to answer is what to do with four primary players who can become unrestricted free agents,
including goalie Kari Lehtonen. Tyler Seguin, already a five-time All-Star at
age 26, is signed only through next season for $6.5 million before he can become
an unrestricted free agent.
Dallas was 42-32-8 for 92 points, a 13-point increase from 2016-17 and only three points out of the Western Conference’s eighth playoff spot. They missed
the postseason for the eighth time in 10 years.
”It hurts a little bit more than last year,” Seguin said. ”This year, there was a lot of hope and it’s a bit of a shocker. That road trip and that stretch,
it’s going to take some time to process it.”
That brutal 1-10 stretch in March included the Stars losing every game in a six-game
Cheap Sebastian Janikowski Jersey , 10-day road trip. The first loss in that overall slide was at home to Ottawa in which Ben Bishop, the goalie added
on a $29.5 million, six-year contract last summer, left with a knee injury.
Bishop started only one game after that.
”You hate to look back and wonder what you could’ve done different,” said Jamie Benn, their other still 20-something top scorer along with Seguin. ”But we
played some pretty good hockey most of the year and then we didn’t raise our
level when it needed to be raised.”
NOT FULL CONTRIBUTORS
Alexander Radulov played every game in the first season of his $30 million, five-year contract and was the third-leading scorer with 72 points (27 goals, 45
assists). But other big-name additions were limited by injuries in their Dallas
debuts, like Bishop. The new starting goalie played only 53 games, while center
Martin Hanzal (back) played only 38 games and defenseman Marc Methot (knee) 36
games. Hanzal is signed for two more years and Methot for 2018-19.
TOP SCORERS
Benn, the captain
Customized Seattle Seahawks Jerseys , had hat tricks in two of the last three games – all on the road – and had 10 points (eight goals, two assists) in his last five
games. He finished with 79 points (36 goals, 43 assists), one more than Seguin
(40 goals, 38 assists). John Klingberg led NHL defensemen with 59 assists.
RETURN OF VAL?
Right wing Valeri Nichushkin could be back with the Stars next season after two years in the Kontinental Hockey League. Nichushkin was the 10th overall pick
by the Stars in 2013, and had 64 points (23 goals, 41 assists) in 166 games over
three seasons by time he was 21 before going home to Russia. That could be the
biggest addition this offseason.
POSSIBLE DEPARTURES
Lehtonen is second in franchise history with 215 wins, but is now a backup to Bishop. The other unrestricted free agents are left wing Antoine Roussel and
defensemen Greg Pateryn and Dan Hamhuis. Jason Spezza is set to make $7.5
million next season in the final year of his deal, but the 35-year-old center
doesn’t seem to be a fit in Hitchcock’s system. Spezza played 78 games and his
26 points (eight goals, 18 assists) were his fewest in a full season since 21
points in 33 games as a rookie 15 years ago.
STRUGGLES VS THE TOP
The Stars were a combined 5-13 against the top five finishers in the Western Conference, 2-9 against the top three in their division.
”We did a really good job of beating the teams we should beat in most cases
Youth Jordan Whitehead Jersey , but our record against the top teams, and especially the Central Division, we’re going to have to find a way to improve
that and we’re going to have to play better hockey,” Hitchcock said.
—
More NHL hockey: Draymond Green saw Klay Thompson limping on his tender left ankle a day before Game 2 of the NBA Finals and quickly texted Nick Young to
tell him the Golden State Warriors would need big minutes from the backup.
But Golden State’s most durable player and understated star once again managed to play through the pain and scored 20 points to help the Warriors beat
Cleveland 122-103 to take a 2-0 series lead Sunday night.
”He came out there and gutted through it,” Green said. ”Even if you saw him take the first lay-up he took in warmups and ran back to the locker room. It’s
like he’s not going to have it. Sure enough he did. I mean, that’s just a
microcosm of who he is, one of the toughest guys if not the toughest guy I’ve
ever played with. He’ll never get credit for it because he’s not going to
physically beat you up. But one of the toughest, if not the toughest guy for
sure.”
Green might be the loudest of Golden State’s four superstars and Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are the most accomplished. Thompson often flies a bit
under the radar, just delivering lockdown defense and long-range shooting that
help the Warriors thrive.
He’s so consistent and always available, having played in a franchise record 100 playoff games without missing a single one, that he sometimes gets
overlooked. But after Cleveland’s J.R. Smith awkwardly fell into his left leg in
the first half of Game 1
Phillip Gaines Jersey Elite , sending Thompson to the locker room following the scary fall, there has been plenty of focus on if he’d be able to play.
He made it back for the rest of Game 1 and scored 24 points in a 124-114 overtime win Thursday before the injury got worse the next day. But he still
managed to play in Game 2 and shot 8 for 13, making three 3-pointers to become
the sixth player with 300 in a career in the playoffs.
”Being on the training table for, it felt like, three straight days. That’s something I’m not used to,” Thompson said. ”But at this point in the season, any
means necessary. And the ankle feels great. I won’t do much tomorrow and I’ll do
a little bit Tuesday. But I’m just going to conserve all I’ve got for Wednesday
because I don’t want to play with it. It’s something that you use a lot. I
didn’t realize how much you use your ankle until you hurt it …”
That drew a quick quip from Curry, who has been plagued by ankle injuries throughout his career.
”You should have asked me,” Curry said.
—
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