As the Dallas Stars cleaned out their locker stalls on Monday morning, an eerie familiarity once again sank in. For the second straight year and third in the last four, the Stars are not playing playoff hockey.
Though that may typically be just a depressing jab, this year was a much more severe cut. The Stars became the first team in the salary cap era to have 80 points through 66 games and still miss the postseason. How did that happen?
Through a monumental collapse, of course. Dallas went through an almost unimaginable rough patch in the final month of the season, posting a 4-8-4 record through the month of March.