The Dallas Stars are back. But which Dallas Stars?
Early on this season, Pete DeBoer’s new team showed off an unforeseen quality - the ability to beat up on the bottom feeders of the league. These new-fangled Stars could be competitive against the best of the league but they didn’t play down to their opponents. Nashville, Arizona, Philidelphia, even the Blues went down to the early-season Stars, and by large margins, too.
But as the New Year began and the All-Star Break hit, those also-rans started turning into Stars killers. Just like old times.
On Saturday afternoon, the flip side of that coin showed up (and we may have seen it late last month with the Stars’ 3-2 win in Vegas against the Golden Knights).