Stargazing: A Dallas Stars Puckcast | Defending Big D

Good news! The Dallas Stars' power play is every bit as dangerous as it looks. Now if only they could score at even strength.... There's so little flexibility in the Victory Green lineup right now that it's easy to hang all one's hopes on the regular roster players who are surely coming back any day now . And however much false hope may trouble Wes and Mark, their take on the Stars' status is...pr...

The Dallas Stars have had a slower start than many fans wanted this season. Yet the team is still one point out of the Central Division's top three, which also means they're four points from the top of the league in general. Is the roster working as designed, despite new systems and old injuries? And is their progress sustainable through a playoffs run, or next year...or five years from now? For t...

Four Dallas Stars scored last night! Unfortunately, two of them were playing for the Los Angeles Kings. That left Our Team with one point, another loss, and a lot to contemplate. We here at Stargazing acknowledge our fault in this, mainly by making this season's Doom Cast so much longer than...well, every other cast we've done so far. In this episode, Wes and Mark pull back a little. There's plent...

Welcome to Stargazing's annual celebration of the signal pastime of true Dallas Stars fans: obsessing over every bad turn the season takes. And even we have to admit, the Victory Green Gang's scheduled loss to Thatcher Demko sure did set this one up. For the 2025 Doom Cast, Wes and Mark pull out all the stops. From the gaps at left wing, to the lack of depth at goalkeeping, to why the best path to...

It's autumn, everyone. Can you feel it in the air? ...that utter conviction that This Is The Dallas Stars' Year, This Time For Real? Wes and Mark are here to stoke that fire. The 300th episode of Stargazing — and our umpty-umpth Brightside Cast — is dedicated to that unquenchable spirit of optimism. And here's the thing: There's evidence to back it up. Join us for a discussion of the new roster an...

We have one last chance to make predictions about the Dallas Stars before our musings start getting overtaken by events. Stargazing is ready. Again. As usual. Wes and Mark wanted a deep dive into the 2025-26 season, so they invited D Magazine contributor David Castillo — who's also the founder of Stars Stack (for Stars news and views) and Sticks and Salvos (for the NHL in general). In this edition...

Our brothers and sisters in ice, we are eating good. The Dallas Stars have started the 2025-26 NHL preseason not just with three consecutive wins, but with fancy stats suggesting that their good form is sustainable. Shot totals doubling up the competition, possession numbers off the charts, pucks actually going into the net – what could possibly go wrong? Right?... For once, that's a conversation...

It's late July, and the Dallas Stars are in submarine mode: making moves in the deep that we can't see or fully explain yet. And yet they're still giving us plenty to talk about, so it seems like the perfect time to call for backup. Friend of DBD and recurring Celebrity Guest Juraj Kralik is here again, and this time he joins both Wes and Mark to think about the future. In this edition, they talk...

The Dallas Stars are probably going to have a pretty boring draft this year. It's the rest of the offseason that is shaping up to be a ride, and many fans are afraid it will be a dark one. But how much do we really have to fear, with the NHL salary cap rising and Jim Nill at the helm? Mark knew who he wanted to talk to about it, so he contacted self-described stats nerd and friend of DBD Juraj Kra...

The Dallas Stars are this close to the mountaintop. It's not close enough. What will they do to get their next Stanley Cup, and will they have to change their entire team identity to cover that last mile? Wes and Mark want to know, too. Their latest talk covers everything from Jason Robertson trade rumors to the new two-way contract for Rémi Poirier, with a few stops at the salary cap situation ju...

The Dallas Stars' season is over, and we're all left to contemplate what happened to their Stanley Cup hopes. Was this an Edmonton Oilers problem, or a symptom of something bigger that an occasional explosion of elite talent could only hide for so long? Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman sat down after the end (and before the news of Pete DeBoer's departure) to examine the strategy...and why we might...

The Dallas Stars are back in town, and they're really really going to need help from the home crowd in Game 5 against the Edmonton Oilers. The Oil are a tough team – but that doesn't absolve the Stars of their deficits on offense, nor of their dumb-penalty problem. So the question is, who will step up to ensure they get a Game 6? Wes and Mark discuss the dangers of over-passing, the importance of...

The Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers have won their way to the Western Conference Final by working each other's side of the street. The Stars have gotten all-time performances from their superstars, while the Oil's goaltending and depth scoring have come through for them in a big way. So what does this tell us about the rematch we've all been waiting for? Wes and Mark worked After Dark to fash...

It sometimes seems as if the Dallas Stars are only permitted to have one player get hot at a time. But do you need Mikko Rantanen to score a hat trick every game when Mikael Granlund can go off in his stead? A lot has happened in the past five days, and Wes and Mark want to talk about all of it. In this edition of Stargazing, they examine the advantages of having two No. 1 defensemen, compare and...

The Dallas Stars won a Game 1! This is the best thing to happen since 2020, when they won Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning...hey, wait a minute. We know everyone loves a doomcast, but at this point we're constantly on the lookout for reasons to believe. So Wes and Mark worked through the night to find sustainability in the Stars' current good fortune (you know, the kind that doesn't involve...

The Dallas Stars are about to begin the fight for another Central Division championship – and to get there, they only have to knock off the team that earned the 2025 President's Trophy. (Oh, is that all?) Brad McDonnell joined Wes and Mark to examine how the Stars match up with their Dirty Central cellmates, the Winnipeg Jets. In this edition, they discuss how Mason Marchment can help (and hurt) b...

The Dallas Stars did it. They won a Round 1 against the Colorado Avalanche that, in a better world, would have been a Western Conference Final. It wasn't easy, or pretty, or predictable – but the Victory Green Gang gave themselves the chance to win a Central Division title with all their elite players healthy and back on the ice. And if Game 7 taught us anything, it's that sometimes you need to re...

Good news! The Dallas Stars can close the Round 1 deal on home ice. Bad news: The Colorado Avalanche can finish them off in their own barn. How do you play those match-ups? Wes and Mark worked After Dark to put their thoughts together, and in this episode they discuss the advantages of shortening the Stars' bench, the dangers of relying on Pete DeBoer's playoffs streak, and why it may be a good id...

The Dallas Stars keep defying the doomcast. After a stunning Game 4 bellyflop, they came back with a dominating performance in Game 5. Now the Round 1 outcome is once again in their hands – but it will proceed on the Colorado Avalanche's home ice. Can they finish the job before the series stretches to seven games? Wes and Mark met up After Dark to pore over the possibilities. In the process, they...

We did ask what would happen when the Colorado Avalanche got desperate, and it appears the Dallas Stars gave us an answer. A terrible answer, true, but they did provide one. In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark had plenty of dark thoughts about the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But, as usual, they also found a couple of reasons to believe this game was an outlier. In the middle, they discussed...

Is this 2025, or 2015? The Dallas Stars won another nail-biter against the Colorado Avalanche, and it was largely thanks to Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. Yet the team continues to get contributions from up and (mostly) down the lineup. What is possible when everyone is That Guy? In the latest episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark got together After Dark to pore over the Stars' first road victory of t...

You have to give the Dallas Stars credit: They know how to add extra thrills to their wins. They evened up Round 1 with a victory in overtime. Now they'll take their game on the road and look to grab another W in the Colorado Avalanche's home barn. Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman have gone over the data from the Stars' 4-3 win on Monday, and they're happy to remind you that they put Colin Blackwel...

The Dallas Stars are really dependable about losing Game 1. The good news has always been that it isn't necessarily predictive, until it is. Wes and Mark took a few hours to process the good and the bad in the Victory Green Gang's 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. What they found was some surprisingly good news about structure and puck luck, and one or two shrieking warning sirens (fourth line,...

The Dallas Stars won their position in the 2025 Stanley Cup race relatively early. Then they skidded into the end of the regular season on a seven-game losing streak unprecedented during head coach Pete DeBoer's tenure. So what happens now that this team is supposed to be all in? To survey the first-round ice, Stargazing welcomed back longtime Colorado Avalanche writer Evan Liu, now of Hockey Moun...

The Dallas Stars are pretty good at winning. They've even gotten good at winning games in which they didn't play as well as their opponents. That's one reason why it's so frustrating to see the Stars' vices become their manners...especially when they drop games that were in their reach. What does it mean for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs? Wes and Mark needed backup for this one, so they invited DB...