When you hear some of the things being said about the Dallas Stars — from within the organization — over the past three and a half weeks, you’d be excused for thinking they hadn’t a prayer to make the playoffs.
“I was talking to someone the other day about it who’s a casual hockey fan in Dallas, someone who when the Stars game is on they’ll watch it, but they aren’t really a big hockey fan,” said Sean Shapiro, who covers the team for The Athletic. “When they were seeing this stuff coming out, they were assuming the Stars must be in like last place.”
It all really started on Dec. 28. At that time Dallas was 19-16-3, fourth place in the Central and sitting in the second wild card spot. They were even coming off a 2-0 win in Nashville, when CEO Jim Lites decided it was time to sit down with a couple media members to vent his frustration.
Ever since then there has been a variety of frustrations about this team, which today sits in the first wild card spot with just as many points as Colorado and Vancouver. They are one point out of third in their division.
There certainly are legitimate reasons to be underwhelmed by their season, including the fact they’re 29th in offence, but for a team that’s held a playoff spot far more often than not to this point, it’s an unfolding drama few would have predicted.
DECEMBER 28: HORSE PLOP
It was the profanity-filled rage heard ’round the hockey world from a person many hockey fans in general would not have been familiar with before it happened. Stars CEO Jim Lites invited independent beat writers of the team to come down for a sort of state of the team interview in which he flew off the handle and targeted, specifically, his team’s two best players.
“They are [expletive] [expletive], I don’t know how else to put it,” Lites told Shapiro. The CEO mentioned that he receives frustrated texts from owner Tom Gaglardi who was perplexed by the lack of production from Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn.
“We are a stars-driven league, and our stars aren’t getting it done,” Lites said. “It’s embarrassing, and no one writes it.
“These guys were signed to big contracts because they were the third- and sixth-leading scorers in the National Hockey League over the past five years. They get their money, we expect them to not be outplayed every game we play in. And if they were as good as they’ve been in the past, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”[sidebar]
Part of Lites’ comments were directed at the media, who he perceived was ignoring the lacklustre production from Benn and Seguin instead of calling it out for what it was.
“It’s pissed me off,” Lites told the Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks. “What nobody says is what is completely obvious to me: We are getting terrible play from our top two players.”
And though the primary focus of this assault was on the two big horses employed by Dallas, Lites indirectly put GM Jim Nill on the hot seat.
“I’m telling you, we are gonna run through a GM who does everything he can to make the team better because we aren’t getting any results,” Lites told The Athletic.
DECEMBER 29: THE PLAYER RESPONSE
The day after Lites ripped into his team’s studs, the Stars had a home game against Detroit and there was one question on everyone’s mind: how would Seguin and Benn respond to the criticism?
“I don’t play for him,” Benn told reporters when asked if Lites’ words made it harder for him to play for the organization. “I play for every player in this room, the coaching staff. I come to the rink and, like I said, I am proud to be a Dallas Star and I am proud to go out and battle with these guys in games.
“I think everyone looks at the numbers and that’s the easiest thing to look at. The point production isn’t where it could be or should be or was, so it’s easy to point to that.”
Seguin told The Athletic: “Not good enough. I’m trying to do a job and I haven’t had the right results.”
The Stars won their game against the Red Wings 5-1 that night. Benn had two shots, two hits and three blocks but was held without a point, while Seguin picked up a secondary assist on the power play.
In the days that followed both league commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHLPA spoke about the CEO’s comments.
The players’ association was first, calling Lites’ remarks “reckless and insulting” before criticizing on the CEO’s conduct.
Bettman addressed the situation on Jan. 1, when Dallas was actually awarded the 2020 Winter Classic, hosted at the Cotton Bowl Stadium.
“We’re never going to condone profanity,” Bettman said. “As a general rule I don’t interfere in team dynamics, internal team dynamics.
“I’ve known Jim Lites for as long as I’ve been in the NHL and I know him to be passionate. I also respect the fact that Jamie and Tyler are terrific players and have done a great deal to grow the game in North America, particularly in Texas. … I think we saw some frustration there. That comes from the fact that people are very competitive and want to do better.”
DECEMBER 30: THE GM SHARES HIS OPINION
The Stars had an off-day after beating Detroit and remained at home ahead of a Monday game against Montreal. It was the first time the GM had a chance to get asked about his CEO’s comments.
“First of all, the hockey message by Jim was dead on. I think that message had to get out there,” Nill told NHL.com. “We’ve all got to be better, from management to the coaches to players, all the way down, we’ve got to be better. So, the message was right.
“I’ve talked to Jim; I don’t condone the language or the tone. He’s emotional; he wears the star on his heart. He got emotional, and understandably so I don’t condone that. But the message that was sent from him and management was dead on and correct. I agree with all that.”
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JANUARY 12: COACH CALLS OUT “CULTURE OF MEDIOCRITY”
When a team has expectations as high as Dallas did entering this season and then lacks any consistency halfway through, it’s not unusual for a frustrated coach to challenge his team in front of the media.
For instance, following a 2-1 road loss to Philadelphia on Jan. 10, Montgomery said of his team’s play: “I thought we skated well, we just weren’t doing enough. Not enough players having an impact, either with the puck or without the puck. I don’t know if there was one hit thrown by either team in the first period.”
That loss brought Dallas to 3-2-0 in January and ended a three-game road trip. Their next game came two days later at home to St. Louis and again the Stars were listless, taking just 22 shots and dropping a 3-1 decision. This time Montgomery’s comments went a bit further and touched on more deep-seeded issues within the team that were already present when he arrived.
“I’m very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance, and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity,” Montgomery said.
With two bad games in a row and a woefully inconsistent first half, Montgomery’s post-game comments were along the lines of what Lites was getting at, but far more broad and damning about what had been going on within the team to that point.
“Unfortunately there’s been too many times where we think how do we motivate these guys,” said Montgomery. “That’s a problem in itself that we’ve had to do that so many times this year already.
“There was no rhyme or reason to some of the decisions we made out there tonight. And again our game plan wasn’t executed and that’s my fault for not getting the message through. The last two games has been a real gut punch for me personally because I just don’t think I’m able to get across how we’re supposed to execute. And the more important part is, never mind the execution, the effort can overcome a lot of mistakes, but there’s not the effort there right now to overcome mistakes.”
JANUARY 15: BENN SHARES THOUGHTS ON STRUGGLING POWER PLAY
Following those back-to-back losses, the Stars actually played a very good game at home to Tampa Bay. When they are on their game, it’s instantly noticeable what this Dallas team can be, but the trouble for the Stars has been coming out with that type of effort consistently.
Despite outshooting Tampa Bay 35-21, Dallas dropped a 2-0 decision. The difference in the game was pretty obvious to anyone: the Stars had six power-play opportunities and didn’t convert on any of them. It was the third game in a row their man advantage had been shutdown.
“I thought we played a pretty good game against a good team,” Benn said after the game. “Our power play was s— and that was the difference.”
JANUARY 17: ALEXANDER RADULOV GETS BENCHED AND HE UNDERSTANDS WHY
At this point the Stars’ offence in January had become almost comically bad. Heading into another home game against the Kings, Dallas had scored one goal or less in five of their last seven games. The 2-1 loss they subsequently dropped to the Kings made that six of eight.
At this point, the best player and most consistent Stars player throughout the season had unquestionably been Alexander Radulov. Even though he missed about two weeks due to injury, Radulov was challenging for the team’s scoring lead. He had gone two games in a row without scoring a point just four times on the season, though he was on a three-game pointless streak (his longest of the season) before the puck dropped on the Kings game.
Curiously, Radulov played only half of the first period and after the game he said Montgomery had benched him. Not that he had a problem with the decision — Radulov understood why the coach did it.
“It was the right decision by coach,” Radulov said. “I wasn’t playing good and I talked back with Monty and he basically sit me until the end of the period. It’s the right decision and I can’t do that. It’s been an issue in my career, but I got to learn from it. I got to be better. Try to not make those mistakes again.”
Radulov still played 19:09 in the game and even recorded a primary assist on his team’s only goal. The Stars are on their bye week through all-star weekend and Radulov has the best points per game mark on the team with 41 in 39 games.
JANUARY 19: IT’S NOT ALL BAD
You might read to this point and be thinking “how isn’t this team in last place?” Well, the goaltending has actually been a very good story for them and, for the most part, the team defence has been pretty good.
And every now and then they put together a game like their 4-2 win against Winnipeg on Saturday — those are the ones you watch and wonder “why aren’t these guys better?”
Montgomery split up his top line for the game, putting Benn on the second unit with Blake Comeau and Radek Faksa. Dallas won 4-2, outshooting the Jets 39-29 and pushing right back when the Jets found their legs in the third period.
“I thought Jamie led us great, his intensity,” Montgomery said. “The big hit on (Mark) Scheifele in the first and the way he skated all night. Obviously the other two were physical and intense as well. I thought they led us, the entire line, but Jamie was — his physicality — he was just playing a really good hockey game tonight.”
