Stars know they can improve offensively, but there's no panic

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- "I don't think we should look at anything from five years ago," said Tyler Seguin as he scanned a chart of numbers scrawled out in a notebook.
While Jason Spezza added: "Yeah, it was a whole different world for us."
The little game I played in the Stars dressing room Tuesday was indeed odd, but I had some purpose. By showing players how the team had gone from top five in most offensive categories to bottom five in a span of five years, I wanted to spark the question of why.

It's pretty clear that the team had a hard reset under coach Ken Hitchcock last season and continues to play a much better brand of defensive hockey this year. They have gone from 29th in goals against in 2016-17 at 3.17 per game to third this season at 2.60, so you can say the changes are more than worth it.
But the interesting thing this experiment shows, to me, is that there are real reasons the scoring is down, and they are reasons the Stars can change. Going into Wednesday's game against the Ducks, Dallas ranked 24th in shots on goal per game, 29th in shot attempts, and 28th in power-play opportunities. It's no wonder they rank 23rd in scoring in a league that is trending toward the offensive.

That said, there is no panic in a team that is 16-11-3 while ranking in the top three in man games lost to injury. The Stars know they have issues, and they know they can improve in several areas.
"There's lots of reasons. You can't peg it on one thing," Seguin said. "Obviously, we'd like to have more opportunities and goals, but considering where we are standings-wise even having those numbers, that's impressive. But I think you're seeing every day we're working on getting better in a lot of areas."
Seguin said in training camp that the style of hockey played under new head coach Jim Montgomery was challenging. Players are asked to play smart defensively, and then look for a moment when they can get the puck going the other way. To understand that moment as an individual is tough, to do it as a team takes time.
"I do want our shot attempts and our scoring chances to go up, and a lot of that is we need to go to tougher areas, and we need to be together," Montgomery said Tuesday. "Too much of our neutral zone counters or D-zone breakouts get shut down by the red line because we don't have puck support to the puck or we're turning our backs on the puck, and that's something we need to get better at that."
The Stars are missing injured defensemen John Klingberg, Stephen Johns, Marc Methot and Connor Carrick. As a result, a new group of defensemen are trying to earn the confidence to push the puck from the back end. Even top-minute guys like Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen have challenges, because Lindell has been support for Klingberg in the past and Heiskanen is a 19-year-old rookie.

"We want them to go, make it a 4-on-2," said Montgomery of a philosophy he's still working on. "It's up to the forwards to replace the defensemen, and that's the playing together that I talk about that is still lacking. Too many of our defensemen shut their feet down at the top of the circles in our own end when they should be pushing the pace."
And that's not the only issue. Dallas ranks 28th in power-play opportunities, and that's not the vision Montgomery has for his "puck-possession" team.
"You draw penalties by going to tough areas," Montgomery said. "You draw penalties by taking the puck there yourself or driving to the net yourself, and we don't create enough scoring chances for my liking right now and we don't draw enough penalties."
That also has been a frequent topic of conversation in practice. Montgomery's style of being patient/aggressive means the players are reading off of each other. If a player carrying the puck sees an opportunity to create a scoring chance, he needs to jump. If nothing materializes, the players needs to back off and keep possession of the puck in the offensive zone.
"If we have a player going down the right wing and nobody is driving to the net, I don't believe in putting a puck on net just to put a puck on net and give a goalie a save," Montgomery said. "I'd rather cut back and allow your teammates to come. If you can drive the net, that's different, that's the area where we can get better. I think not enough of our forwards drive the net and take it inside the dots."

If they do, then more pucks will get to the net, more shot attempts will happen, and more power plays will be drawn -- which of course will add to more offensive opportunities and more goals.
One of the odd little numbers that speaks to the difference between the old Stars and the new ones is "missed shots." Dallas was top three in shots that missed the net for three straight seasons. They are 30th this year. That shows a stark change in philosophy of a team that just threw the puck on net and one that is more judicious with puck placement.
So some of the things that are often seen as "possession numbers" don't actually work in for measurement purposes this case, because the Stars are possessing the puck more, but not attacking the net as well as they can.
"I think we're trying to work on that every day," said captain Jamie Benn. "We're trying to find ways to possess the puck more, especially on the road. We're good at home, but we need work on the road. That's what we want to work on in practice every day."
Understanding that little difference can help lead to improvement in the offensive numbers. The team plays with more confidence at home (3.57 GPG and 33.0 SOG per game) than it does on the road (2.06 GPG and 26.8 SOG per game), so maybe upping the confidence level is an important ingredient to finding greater success overall.

"Monty is not coaching us to be a defensive team, but he's also preaching a lot of `You're in charge of the puck when you have the puck.' So I think our numbers will go up over time," Spezza said.
Getting Klingberg back from a broken hand (he's expected to return around Christmas) and getting more experience are things that should push the Stars at least up to the middle of the league in some of these offensive categories. After all, players like Benn, Seguin and Spezza helped produce those gaudy numbers in the past.
"I expect to see that," Montgomery said. "That's where I expect to see the biggest improvement in our team."
And the path seems pretty clear to those who are trying to walk it.
"When we're going our best, I still don't think we're going to have huge numbers with shots on goal because we're trying to be more possession based and more responsible with the puck," Spezza said. "But we all believe this stuff will all improve when we do what Monty wants."

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Big change?

The Stars over the past five seasons have gone from one of the top volume offensive teams in the league to one of the bottom volume teams. A lot of that is for good reason, but how can they get back some of their numbers?

\ SAT is shot attempts, which includes shots on goal, shots that are blocked and shots that miss the net.
\\ League rankings are listed in parenthesis
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.*