After big win, Stars get another chance in quest for consistency

Consistency has been the Stars' biggest issue this year, correct?
They have been able to put together some fantastic performances, even five-game winning streaks, but then follow that with a similar losing streak.
Four wins in December, followed by four losses.
A 5-1-1 run in January, followed by four losses, followed by five wins, followed by a 1-4-0 stretch.

It's been both exhilarating and maddening for fans; and to be honest, for coaches and players and front-office members, as well.
Why can this team look so good one night and so bad the next?
Oh, the goaltending has done a great job of keeping the Stars in pretty much every game, but rest assured those inside know that they have not looked good on many nights.
They haven't moved the puck smoothly out of their own end. They haven't moved the puck smoothly through the neutral zone. They haven't attacked the net with middle drive or taken advantage of some fantastic offensive chances when the puck has ended up on the right stick at the right moment.
Likewise, they haven't transitioned back defensively. They haven't made the right reads in defending the cycle. They haven't cleaned the net-front. Goaltending has allowed defensive mistakes to be covered, and actually allowed the scorers to breathe a little easier when they have been able to produce the third fewest goals in the league.
Even by their own standards, the Stars have not scored this little since they averaged 2.36 goals per game in 2003-04.

Not so ironically, they finished second in the battle for the Jennings Trophy and finished fifth in the Western Conference that this season, so this low-scoring hockey can work.
You just don't want to have to rely on it too much.
And the Stars know that.
That's possibly why they make mistakes, because they are trying to do more. They want to be able to maintain their defensive play and still find a way to transition. They want to be able to use defense to start offense. They want to be better.
They're not unlike a lot of this league. Each team is trying to do more, each team is trying to improve. Each team is trying to chase that big silver Cup. And so you see similar complaints in other cities.
The Jets are in a 4-7-1 slump. The Predators are 3-4-0. The Blues are 2-4-1 in their past seven games, and have been bumped out of third place in the Central because of the streaking Stars.
And don't even get me started on Minnesota.
On the flip side of that, the Golden Knights are on a 6-1-0 run and coming off a five-day break heading into Friday's match-up in Dallas. It's one of those games that doesn't seem fair. It's three in-four nights for Dallas with travel to every game. Vegas was resting up in the shadow of American Airllines Center watching Stars-Wild on the telly for this one.
So, expect more inconsistency Friday? Possibly. But I keep coming back to this quote from Jim Montgomery when asked Thursday morning about the importance of the points on the line against Minnesota, and his response was: "We've just really been focusing on ourselves. We've felt that a lot of our strong points have slipped in three of the last four games, so we want to get back to outworking our opponent."
The Stars coach has told his team there are things to correct, his staff has showed them how to correct them, and he has asked for the focus needed to make those corrections. It was a simple process that every teams attempts numerous times during the season.

On Thursday, it worked. In a game that was bigger for the Wild than it was for the Stars, Dallas was the dominant team. It controlled play, it suffocated the opposition, it made the big plays when it needed to.
Radek Faksa scored his 13th goal of the season off a hard-working shift in which Blake Comeau picked up his 10th assist. Roope Hintz scored his third goal in two games and continued to look perfectly comfortable on a line with Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov. Joel L'Esperance, who has 29 goals in 50 AHL games this year, was rewarded with his first NHL goal after earning several scoring chances in 11 contests in the Ligue nationale de hockey. It was a great display of potential meeting opportunity.
The plays made are plays that these players are capable of making consistently. Yes, I used that word. The key to finding that consistency is to be able to prepare and perform and correct when things go awry…which they will certainly do in the NHL this season.
Montgomery said after the game this contest reminded him of the 4-0 win over Colorado on March 7, a game that was called one of their best of the year.
"Loved the way we played," he said. "This game is right up there with the Colorado game that we played just last week in terms of importance as a division game and also in the way we executed and the effort we had."
Now, why was that Colorado game, which we all wanted to call a turning point, followed by a couple of sketchy performances against Chicago and Buffalo? That's at the heart of the biggest question this team has faced all season. What did they do Thursday that was different? Can they duplicate it again Friday in a very tough match against the Golden Knights?
We'll see.
Montgomery has been handing out homework assignments all season and been confounded by wrong answers he reads at times. So now it's time to see if the players can correct their own work on a more regular basis.
Because that's what we've all been waiting for, right?
Or should I say, correct?

Tonight's game

Who:Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights
Where: American Airlines Center
When: 7 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Southwest
Radio:The Ticket 1310-AM/96.7-FM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.