The most stunning thing about the 2016-17 Dallas Stars to this point is not just the fact they are a middle of the pack team offensively after being one of the most entertaining, highest scoring teams in the league the past two years.
It is not necessarily the fact they are 13-15-6 and on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture following their 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night.
It is the fact that they seem completely incapable of stringing together consecutive wins.
They had another opportunity to do it on Tuesday coming off of a big win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday that snapped their 10-game winning streak. As they have done most of the season, the Stars let it slip away -- again -- after a turnover and series of mistakes resulted in this wild David Perron goal.
Perron...for the win... HE SCORES!!!!! #stlblues pic.twitter.com/Ut9sj1OriO
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 21, 2016
That loss drops the Stars to 1-8-4 this season in games following a win.
The only time this season they have won consecutive games came back on Nov. 10 and 11 when they successfully completed the Alberta sweep, beating the Calgary Flames 3-2 and then coming back the next night to beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2.
It’s been a combination of issues for the Stars this season that have them in this position, from injuries to key forwards, to a regression from John Klingberg, to continued struggles in net from the duo of Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen. What’s crazy is that despite all of those issues, and even with a disappointing record, they are still only two points out of a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
Right now the Los Angeles Kings are occupying the second Wild Card spot (they have played two fewer games than the Stars) and are on pace for 89 points. If you assume the Stars would need 90 points to top them, that would mean they have to go 28-19-1 over their remaining 48 games to get there. They will not do that if they can not put together some sort of a winning streak -- and probably a significant one -- at some point.