Catching Colorado Is Still a Long Shot for the Dallas Stars, but Sometimes Points Aren't the Point

It's a tough thing, this division

“Hey, there’s Colorado, right there!”

As you know by now, Dallas has gone 2-0-1 in three games against the Colorado Avalanche this season. The Stars are also an outstanding 41-15-9 against the rest of the NHL.

Put together, that means the Stars are rocking a .706 points percentage, just .001 behind the .707 mark of the Presidents’ Trophy Winnipeg Jets from last year, and a solid 11 points ahead of a certain Cup-winning 1998-99¹ Dallas team.

Unfortunately, none of that has yet been enough to put the Stars in position to have home ice through the first two rounds of the playoffs, because Central Division. (If it’s any consolation, the GM of the third-place team in the Central feels the same way you do.)

As most of you probably spent half your day repeatedly telling your coworkers, the Stars are now just two points behind Colorado for the Central Division lead, which is also the Presidents’ Trophy lead. Because Colorado is 44-13-10, and that’s miles ahead of everyone else in the NHL—well, other than Dallas.

Still, there are asterisks aplenty when talking about how the Stars can make up those two points. Because even though the Stars have managed to chop Colorado’s 12-point lead from mid-January down to just two points, making up ground in the NHL in the current points system remains a very difficult thing to do. Let’s look at why that is, and why Dallas still has a lot to be optimistic about, even so.