Stars are lucky they can struggle under the radar
Commentary

By Tim Cowlishaw

Published: November 9, 2008

When the Dallas Cowboys go bad, a lot of stuff gets lost. From that standpoint, Stars coach Dave Tippett is lucky.

Dave Tippett’s Dallas Stars have struggled out of the gate. AP photo

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This isn’t Montreal, where a 4-6-2 start would have the talk shows and columnists screaming for blood. This is Dallas. When the Stars play poorly, they simply drop off the radar screen.

And 12 games into the season, the Stars have not simply played poorly. They probably have been the worst team in the National Hockey League.

Their record has them 14th in the 15-team Western Conference. But only Atlanta, at 3-7-2, matches the Stars’ goal differential of minus-15. And in a sport that demands defensive integrity, the Stars stand alone in having allowed 50 goals.

That’s what is both disturbing and encouraging about this team. In Marty Turco’s first season as a regular, he broke an NHL record with a 1.72 goals against average.

His worst numbers came in the 2005-06 season that followed a lockout. Turco was merely average with a 2.55 goals against and .898 save percentage.

His current statistics: 4.34 goals against; .837 save percentage.

"If you had told me those would be his numbers, I would have laughed at you,” Tippett said. "With Turco, it’s the same as it is with every other really good goaltender in the league. When he plays well, you have a chance to win and he covers up a lot of things for your team.

”If you look at his career numbers, he is a far better player than he has shown. That’s why there’s no loss of faith in him. If we had an unproven goalie putting up these numbers, that would be a real cause for concern."

Here’s what is strange about Turco’s poor start. I always believed that once he tasted real postseason success, he would be able to relax and just be at his best throughout the regular season.

Last season, Turco was great in the playoffs. He outplayed Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere and San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov to lead the Stars into the conference finals. He played a great Game 5 in Joe Louis Arena to extend the Detroit series.

Of course, Turco was outstanding the year before in the playoffs, shutting out Vancouver three times. But he had nothing to show for it because the Stars failed in Game 7.

Now that he is unburdened by that "failed in the playoffs” label — the same burden that Tony Romo still has hanging over him — I thought we would see Turco on top of his game.

That hasn’t happened.

Keep in mind, the Stars’ defensive breakdown is a product of many things. The young defensemen who stood up for this team last season have not been as sound. The forwards have committed turnovers at an alarming rate.

And there’s no question that Sergei Zubov and Jere Lehtinen, who have not played a game, and Mattias Norstrom, who retired, are sorely missed at the defensive end.

”If you were going to take two guys out of our lineup that would be sorely missed, Zubov and Lehtinen would be at the top of the list," Tippett said.

But here’s what has to be a huge concern for Stars’ fans.

This team’s history has been to play at a level that keeps them near the top of the Pacific Division without injured players. They have done it for years.

To miss two key players and completely go to pieces is not what this team has been all about.

The second is that the playoff success of last spring has translated into nothing.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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