Are the Stars Aligned?- Dallas Stars 2021 Season Preview

As we all know, the Dallas Stars lost in the Stanely Cup final to Tampa Bay. Obviously, in order to be good enough to make it that far in the playoffs, you have to be an all-around good team. I really like teams that put defense first. Your offense and your goalie cannot do their jobs if your defense is weak. 

Crash and Burn 

There are only a couple of injuries on the Dallas Stars right now. Their leading scorer and their veteran goalie. Ouch. Tyler Seguin, the leading scorer, had surgery to fix a labral tear in his hip. He had surgery on November 23rd, and he’ll be out for 4-5 months. That puts him out until early April. Ben Bishop is the Stars veteran goalie who tore his meniscus. He had surgery on October 21st and is expected to be game ready in March. That puts the Dallas franchise without two of their star players for the majority of this season. 

Forward Line Predictions: 

LW	C	RW
Jamie Benn	Tyler Seguin*	Alexander Radulov
Joel Kiviranta	Joe Pavelski	Denis Gurianov
Justin Dowling	Roope Hintz	Jason Dickinson
Andrew Cogliano	Radek Faksa	Blake Comeau

Defensive Pairing Predictions: 

Esa Lindell	John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak	Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera	Taylor Fedun

In the net: 

Because they’re missing their previous number one goaltender, Anton Khdobin will more than likely start most games. They have some goaltenders on the affiliate team, Texas Stars, but if they signed someone on the trade deadline who has significant NHL experience, I don’t presume that would cause any damage to the team. This is an all-around strong team so I wouldn’t be too worried about the defense or goaltending. 

The Verdict: 

Without Bishop and Seguin, they’re going to have to work really hard on the backend. Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, and Alexander Radulov are going to have to pick up a lot of slack, which shouldn’t be an issue for top liners like them but it’ll be a change that will need some getting used to for sure. Seguin should be game ready come late April, just in time for playoff contention. They without a doubt have the potential for another strong playoff run, but this is going to be a different Dallas Stars team than we’re used to seeing. 

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Other NHL previews:

Flames, Sabres, Avalanche, Rangers