The injury bug is having a fiesta with the Dallas Stars lineup. Players continue to drop, leaving the Stars with less and less power. That’s translating to an inability to win games.
The Dallas Stars have had arguably the most unlucky start to the season in the team’s history. A borderline unbelievable number of forwards have missed time, for a variety of reasons.
Although it seemed as if their bad string of injuries was commencing, the Stars were bit yet again by the injury bug. Jason Spezza left Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks with a lower-body injury. Jiri Hudler was placed on injured reserve yet again, seemingly for the same illness that kept him sidelined earlier in the season.
Despite the troubles, there are still reasons to believe the Stars will find themselves yet again and play to their full potential before season’s end.
The Season is Still Young
Dallas is lucky in their bad luck in the sense that these injuries are now as opposed to in April. Although it may not seem like it, every team struggles with injuries throughout the season and hopefully by some luck or help from the hockey “Gods”, Dallas’ injury woes will come to a close soon.
There’s no tip-toeing around the fact that the Dallas Stars aren’t where they want to be in the standings right now. They’ve had issues to stay above .500, which is not something typical of the reigning Western Conference regular season champs.
However, time is on their side. It’s only November and there are plenty of games yet to be played. All of those are opportunities for points and the ability to come back from a slow start.
Opportunities for Young Guns
The Stars are also in the position of playing a few AHL regulars in their line-up on a nightly basis. While that may seem disadvantageous, it actually helps to boost the fortitude of the franchise. Young players are the future of the Stars and getting them into more NHL games gives them more experience.
That time in the big leagues makes their transition to NHL regulars that much easier. More than that, it isn’t a luxury most teams have.
Still, there is a reason that the AHL forwards are in the AHL and not the NHL to start the season, so their missteps do hurt the team in the short-term. Remembering the hopeful long-term benefits, however, make it all seem okay.
Health in Other Positions
Another thing to thank the lucky stars for is that Dallas isn’t hurting at other positions. If they were to have injuries to forwards, defense and goaltenders, a different conversation would be going on right now.
Teams can survive without significant offense, look at the St. Louis Blues, but no defense kills opportunities. Take the 2015-16 Montreal Canadiens season as evidence that losing a starting goaltender can be catastrophic.
Knock on wood that this still rings true throughout the remainder of the season, because if any other big name players go down the Stars’ season might go with them.
More from Blackout Dallas
This article originally appeared on 
