Fall of Stars among early surprises of NHL season

Tyler Seguin thought the Dallas Stars couldve been a contender. They still might be, but itll take some work.

More than a quarter of the way through the regular season, the Stars are 11th in the competitive Western Conference and five points back of a playoff spot. Along with the successes of the Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens, the Stars struggles have been among the biggest surprises in the NHL so far.

Weve lost games we probably shouldve won, general manager Jim Nill said recently. But its that old analogy: When you dig a hole, it takes more dirt to fill it in. Were finding more dirt right now.

Seguin said before training camp that Dallas was ready to contend with the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues, the top teams in the West. A trip to the playoffs last season, even though it ended in the first round at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks, infused plenty of belief in the Stars, and offseason additions of Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky added to that.

(Being a contender is) something earned more than just given, and I think we did that last year, Seguin said in September. But thats one year. We want to be a consistent team.

Consistent, the Stars have not been. Coming into Tuesday nights game at the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas is 3-4-1 in its past eight games.

Starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen (.905 save percentage) hasnt played well, and backup Anders Lindback - whose struggles in replacing Ben Bishop for the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring all but handed a first-round victory to the Canadiens - has been worse with a goals-against average of 4.63 and save percentage of .861.

A young, unproven defense hasnt helped, so Nill changed up his blue-line by trading veteran Sergei Gonchar to Montreal for forward Travis Moen and Brenden Dillon to San Jose for Jason Demers. Kevin Connauton was claimed off waivers by the Columbus Blue Jackets, and call-up John Klingberg (three goals and five assists in 10 games) has been better than advertised.

Up front, the Stars are without winger Valeri Nichushkin until March after he had hip surgery. And Hemsky still hasnt panned out with just a goal and five assists in 23 games.

Weve had a lot of guys on our team (who) just havent clicked, Nill said.

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Fall of Stars among early surprises of NHL season