Thursday night, Dallas Stars fans witnessed what has become a pretty common phenomenon, a little something I like to call the placebo effect. This involves the interplay of two important stages: one, the Stars lose an integral part of their team and then two, the Stars play a team much lower in the standings that is desperate enough to want the win worse.
These ingredients combine to produce some great hockey that, quite frankly, just isn’t sustainable. Let me explain. I’ll use an object lesson.
Earlier last week, the Stars had just come off a humiliating 5-1 loss to Chicago, which seemed to be the final straw that broke January’s back.