Stargazing: A Dallas Stars Puckcast | Defending Big D

The Dallas Stars always knew they had a lot of work to get done in the 2026 NHL offseason. We fans always knew GM Jim Nill had a plan, and it surely involved re-signing both Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque. So do we panic now that Plan A is dusted? Or is a Jim Nill Plan B good enough to keep the Stars rolling? In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark discuss the battle to keep Robo (and who...

Well, the Dallas Stars exited the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs sooner than anyone wanted. It's going to be a long summer for all of us. What now? In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark examined the takeaways from the Stars' all-too-short run. And along with the obvious issues (injuries, penalties, name it), they found some surprisingly positive evidence for the future (and you may or may not be...

The Dallas Stars are coming home to a best-of-three series after another overtime in Minnesota – this one ending in a loss. What's next? In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark discuss everything from the Nils Lundkvist's injury to Thomas Harley's impact, and from the performance of the top line to Michael Bunting's possible fit into the lineup. Who needs to go off if the Stars want to close t...

The Dallas Stars did what the Dallas Stars do on Wednesday night. And it worked out just fine – this time – as Dallas Stars things are liable to do, especially during series with the Minnesota Wild. (What did that one guy say?... Sixty percent of the time, it works all the time.) In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark take a dive into the double-overtime victory in St. Paul. They discuss the...

The Dallas Stars won on Monday night, and all of a sudden the Minnesota Wild look like the team that needs to adjust. The Stars' depth is beginning to come through. Will the Wild respond by shortening their bench to about five guys? In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark go back to the blanket analogy: Whenever you cover one thing, you risk leaving something else exposed. They discuss how and...

There is nothing wrong with the Dallas Stars. Their systems work, and so does their lineup. And this Minnesota Wild team is still exactly what we thought it was. So how do we square these things with the...effort we saw in Game 1? To make sense of Saturday's loss, we needed to bring in the big guns. So Wes and Mark tackled the topic with NHL.com 's Taylor Baird – whom you also know as DBD's editor...

And here we are again. The Dallas Stars will face the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs — which probably says more about the NHL's desperate need to revise their postseason format than anything, but that's a question for another time, and at any rate it's beyond the scope of this recording. Rather, Wes and Mark would like to talk about how the Stars will approach t...

With around 300 man-games lost to injury this season, the 2025-26 Dallas Stars have been fortunate to get quality reinforcement from their AHL squad. Which, predictably, left their AHL squad struggling as players fought to adapt to the depletion of their own team. So it's especially satisfying that the Texas Stars have not just survived, but thrived as they prepare for a postseason run of their ow...

First of all, no: The Dallas Stars don't need to sit Jake Oettinger, and fans need to let go of that talking point. And no: It's not just because he tallied two shutouts in about a week. In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark talk about why the Stars have placed so much of their trust in Otter — and it has almost nothing to do with his future Vezina Trophy prospects. They also discuss what th...

The Dallas Stars have visibly struggled with late-season injuries in the past couple of weeks. And nowhere has this been more apparent than in the depleted forward corps. How do you rotate lines when the second line is missing? In this episode, Wes and Mark talk about this in depth. They discuss whether Michael Bunting needs to play on the first line, the possibility that Tyler Myers has a Jordie...

What's the most important thing about These Dallas Stars? Maybe it's the two most important things – the players who are Him, and the players who have that Dawg in them. OK, make that the three most important things, because of the players who are both Him and Dawg. If you're a regular Stargazing listener, you may know that Wes and Mark like to talk about this, as well as the associated stat they...

The Dallas Stars got a big defender and a left wing before the NHL shut down for the final run toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs. How does this help, exactly? Wes and Mark have their ideas. In this edition of Stargazing, they talk about how the Central Division will play during bonus weeks, what the Stars' lines and pairs could look like, and why the most interesting signing may not be the one you t...

The Dallas Stars brought quite a bit of hardware home from the 2026 Winter Olympics. They also brought a couple of concerning injuries and at least one troubling illness. And now that Tyler Seguin is officially out for the season, does the front office have to make a move before the March 6 NHL trade deadline? Wes and Mark have been pondering this question for quite some time. In this edition of S...

There's very little like three straight victories over the St. Louis Blues to get Dallas Stars fans buzzing. So how do we talk about this team now that the mood of the Victory Green faithful has swung back from "Will they ever win again?" to "Let's start the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now !"? Fortunately, there's very little like a Winter Olympics break to facilitate some midse...

A fair number of Dallas Stars enjoyers have perceived that fan fave Thomas Harley has been doing more, but with less to show for it, since the 2025-26 NHL season began. Is this a problem with his defensive partners? The lingering effects of his injury in November, and the missed games that resulted? The predictable struggles of a still very young blueliner? Something more concerning? Or less? ...I...

A blowout, followed by a shutout...the Dallas Stars are still all over the map. Did the momentary absence of Mikko Rantanen really doom the Victory Green Gang against the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference? Wes and Mark think it's not that simple...or is it? In this episode of Stargazing, they talk about the impact of beast mode, the cold comfort of outplaying an opponent and missing by t...

Do you remember what a power play goal looks like? The Dallas Stars have had a hard time getting out of their own way for the past...little while, and it seems as if their opponents have figured them out. Or is it the typical winter doldrums conjoined with an Olympics-compressed schedule? Wes and Mark understand complexity, especially when it comes to the Victory Green Gang's problems. In this epi...

The Dallas Stars vs. the Minnesota Wild is a practically guaranteed first-round matchup at this point. So why play all this hockey in the meantime...? No, Wes and Mark aren't serious about that. But they do have quite a few ideas about how the Stars can become the best version of themselves before April. In this edition of Stargazing, they discuss the tradeoffs the Stars make for an elite power pl...

The Dallas Stars are winning again, more or less, which means it's time for more unbridled optimism about the stretch run to come. Right? ... Right? Regression got the Victory Green Gang, at least for the period of their regularly scheduled post-holiday swoon, and Our Gang probably told you so. Wes and Mark may even now be chatting with David Castillo – owner and operator of Stars Stack and its au...

It's a new year bringing the same old worries for Dallas Stars fans. Every mistake is a harbinger, every loss is a world-ender. Have we gotten too used to the good times? In this episode, Wes and Mark invited David Castillo to talk about the Victory Green Gang's underlying stats – and, candidly, to talk them down from the rickety ledge of Stars positivity. And they had so much to talk about that w...

The rise of advanced stats in hockey has taught us that much of what we know about the Dallas Stars is bad. Just look at them: 31st in the NHL in shot share, 24th in expected goals...so how in the world do they just - keep - winning? Wes and Mark have decided that this year's Stars were built this way on purpose. And in this edition of Stargazing, they make the case. They discuss the type of shots...

The Dallas Stars are having themselves a season, injuries and roster holes and recent losses notwithstanding. But this year, that success has come at an organizational cost — and their brethren in Cedar Park have often been the ones paying it. Mark Zimmerman loves discussing the Texas Stars , and even more so when he can enlist Stephen Meserve to talk with. Late last week, the founder of the go-to...

With Tyler Seguin's season-ending injury, the Dallas Stars face a challenge above and beyond even their other well-documented woes in the man-games-lost department in 2026-27. The question now is how they will try to fill his roster spot...unless, perhaps, the real question is whether they need to at all. Any time there's this much money involved, Wes and Mark know what to do — and that's to call...

The Dallas Stars are a better team now than they were a month ago...and they're still not as good as they project to be with a healthy lineup. In the spirit of the season, it's time for some thanksgiving. As it turns out, Wes and Mark know all about being grateful for the bounty in Big D. In this edition, they discuss Jason Robertson's record-setting heater, Tyler Seguin's creativity, Mikko Rantan...

Somehow, the Dallas Stars have become one of the NHL's most dangerous power-play teams with only one power-play unit. And that's not the weird part. Wes and Mark are always looking for the worst explanations for the Stars' best performances — and even they're going to the "special teams mean nothing during the playoffs after the refs swallow their whistles" take at this point. That said,...