Stars vs. Jets face off in the first round

The Stars kick of the 2023 NHL playoffs at home against rival Winnipeg Jets. It is no secrect that last year was a playoff dissapointment but the Stars have turned the page as the look to add to their EHE leading 3 Stanley Cups. 

The Dallas Stars were the 8th best team in league in terms of points finishing at 105 points. Leading the way was number #1 Center, Elias Lindholm. He finished the year with 38 goals and a career high 69 assists, good enough for the 5th highest point total in the league at 107. He did it all for the Stars, with a +36 and led forwards in ice time. Last year the Stars had 4 guys above 70 points and then a bit of a drop off for the rest of the team. The focus this year from GM Tang was to build more depth this year and paid off with 6 players being over 80 points. Kirill Kaprizov upped is rookie total of 85 points to a total of 86 this year. Also setting a career high was the potential Norris trophy winner and the man that leads EHE defenseman in most stats, Roman Josi. Josi enjoyed a revitilizing year finishing with 81 points, good for most among D-man this year and 4th best for a D-man in EHE history.

As good of year as it was, now the real season begins. This is what the players play for and it starts tonight against the Winnipeg Jets.

The season series between the two teams went the way of the Dallas Stars, 3 games to 1. Although it was 3 to 1, the goals were much closer as Dallas scored 12 to the Jets 11. 

Leading the season series in points for Dallas were Roman Josi and Elias Lindholm, with both having 1G and 3A. Mid-season acquisition, Brad Marchand followed that up with 2G and 1A. Ville Husso started all 4 games, going 3-1 with a .923 sv%.

Leading the way for the Jets are their top line of Kane-O'Reilly-Rantanen and stopping them will be crucial to advancing in these playoffs. "We feel like if we can shut down their top line, we will be able to be in control of this series," coach Bednar stated. "We are comfortable we can out depth them in this series, continued Bednar. Our top 6 should give us a good advantage against most teams in this league and it should start game 1."

A long run in this years playoffs is the final goal and we will find out in night 1 of the 2023 playoffs if this version of the Dallas Stars are ready to make that goal a reality.