The Stars have significantly improved their defensive play

One of the best teams in the NHL thus far has been the Dallas Stars, and it isn’t just because of their offensive weapons.

The Stars are currently fighting it out with the Colorado Avalanche for not only the top spot in the Central Division, but also the entire league. A lot of that can be credited to the team’s depth scoring and goaltender Jake Oettinger. However, Dallas is also showing great improvements without the puck.

Through 31 games, the Stars have given up just 80 goals, good for sixth in the league, and just 10 more than the Avs. There have been multiple assets that have helped the cause, as they’ve worked on perfecting their defensive game.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Steve Peters joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss how the Stars have been a much better defensive team than they were in the past.

Steve Peters: With the Dallas Stars, they’re a team that’s got points in 10 straight…Their balance scoring, their goals-for is top five. Goals against, top five. Power play, top five. When you put those three categories and their PK is top ten, you put all of that together, it’s a good hockey team. It’s a balanced hockey team.

One thing I worry about with Dallas is what we saw a year ago with Dallas down the stretch, is their ability to continually defend in front of their goaltender. They left Oettinger out to dry over the last ten games a year ago, and it really carried into the playoffs…It is going to come down to Dallas and Colorado again, and it’s so disappointing that you’re going to see those two teams not meet in the Western finals, but they’re going to meet probably in the second round again and somebody’s going to be gone. It’s too bad, because I think Dallas is getting there. They’re close. If Oettinger can be the difference, it’s the team that can beat the Colorado Avalanche.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…