The Stars aren’t who we thought they were

Former Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green made it clear he knew who the Chicago Bears were during a famous postgame rant in 2006, but it's become obvious that the Dallas Stars aren't who we thought they were based on the first 12 games of the season.

This past weekend's games against the Blackhawks and Bruins seemed to hammer that point home. The team many thought would be a Stanley Cup contender currently is a bit of a mess and a bit frustrated judging by the way they looked and sounded at end of the night in Boston Saturday.

"Those are the type of games that show a lot," goalie Marty Turco said after the Boston loss. "There's no sugar-coating anything any more."

There's not much you can sugar-coat when it comes to a 4-6-2 team. The simple truth is the Stars aren't a very good team right now. That much is obvious. So are some of the reasons why. They give up too many goals. That 4.17 goals against average is strong evidence.

But beyond that there's more and it goes back to whether they Stars are who we though they were.

Before the Stars headed off on the less than stellar weekend, a weekend that see them lose 5-2 in Chicago and then go through a meltdown in a 5-1 loss in Boston, coach Dave Tippett talked about some of the factors that have led to the team's up and down start.

"We had way more changes than the perception of our team," Tippett said.

In other words, this was a much different team than the one that knocked off Anaheim and San Jose in last season's playoffs and took Detroit to six games in the Western Conference Finals. In a way, they weren't who we thought they were.

Sure, a lot of familiar faces are still around, but a lot of key components are missing or are gone for good.

"We haven't had [Sergei] Zubov or [Jere] Lehtinen. Both those guys are out and young guys are in their spot," said Tippett.

Throw into the mix that the Stars brought in several new faces like Sean Avery and several younger players like B.J. Crombeen, Fabian Brunnstrom and James Neal.

"[They] have to learn a lot," said Tippett.

And do that while filling some big holes left by key off season departures. 

"They are replacing [Mattias] Norstrom, replacing [Stu] Barnes, replacing [Niklas] Hagman, replacing [Antti] Miettinen," said Tippett. "They are replacing good players. That's especially true of the young players."

You take the two key injured Stars and those four departed players and that's a third of the team's forward skaters in any game. Two key defensemen, both penalty killers and one a key component on the power play, are out of the mix.

The forwards are all capable of moving up and down the lineup, playing in both ends of the ice, and providing some offensive pop. And three of them - Barnes, Lehtinen and Hagman - were key members of the Stars' penalty kill last season.

Zubov and Lehtinen are key parts of the power play.

Those aren't excuses. That's the reality of a salary cap world. Roster turnover is reality and you have to be able to fill holes in your roster just about every year. Teams that can do it are successful and teams that can't struggle.

The Stars had a lot of holes to fill and so far this season not many of there are still open. It's not just the new faces and the young players either. Other players, those who have been around for a few years, have to step up and help fill the voids as well.

For any team it's a combination of the free agents it signs, the youth it brings in and the players it already has who need to expand their roles.

None of that has happened on a consistent basis for the Stars and, as a result, the team's early season struggles have been a collective failure that can been seen in several key areas.

So far the team has had few areas of its game it can hang its hat on. Perhaps there aren't any. The team has shown it can score, but it usually seems to come at the high price of allowing more goal at the other end of the ice.

The goaltending has been less than stellar at times and the defensive coverage in front of the goaltenders hasn't helped at all. The 4.17 goals against average, the league's worst, says it all.

The special teams have been dismal The penalty kill was ranked 27th (75.4 percent) heading into Sunday's games and the power play was 27th (13.8 percent) as well. The power play was a major disappointment over the weekend, missing on two five-on-three chances that could have turned both the games in Chicago and Boston. 

All of that has added up to a 4-6-2 record and the frustration that boiled over with the 5-1 loss in Boston Saturday night. There was obvious frustration on the ice and in the postgame comments of players like Turco and center Mike Modano.

There was talk from Tippett about evaluating personnel this week. He talked about that even before the Stars departed for the weekend trip. Time will tell what happens on that front.

The Stars did make moves on Sunday, shipping James Neal, Mark Fistric and Chris Conner to the AHL. Conner was no surprise. He was up on an emergency basis because the team's injury situation could have left them with just 11 healthy forwards this weekend.

As for Neal and Fistric, with Zubov likely coming off long-term injured reserve this weekend the Stars need to start thinking about cap space again. Also, there's a chance Lehtinen could return this weekend as well, which means the Stars need to rethink their lineup of forwards.

The return of Zubov and Lehtinen will help, but they aren't likely to be a miracle cure. It's going to take both a while to get up to speed and even in top form they can't solve all the problems. That's going to take more, a lot more than has been seen so far this season, from the other 20 or so players on the roster.