Texas Stars Report: Tripped Up on the Road

The Texas Stars Report on Defending Big D...

The Texas Stars (20-20-1-2, 43 pts, #13 Western Conference) saw their three game winning streak come to a crashing halt this week with two straight losses on the road. Friday night's game saw six goals against and the first pull for Andrew Raycroft on the season. The surging San Antonio Rampage (Florida Panthers) became winners of six straight with the W. League leading Oklahoma City (Edmonton Oilers) beat up on Texas on Saturday, throwing 44 shots at Raycroft for a 3-1 win.

As the Stars hit the All-Star break, it is clear that there is a huge amount of parity in the bottom half of the standings. Only four points separate eighth from fifteenth in the West; in the East, it's just five. Absolutely no one is out of the playoff race at this point.

By my math, the Stars need forty points in their final thirty-three games to keep pace with the current eighth place finisher. That's a record of 20-13, assuming no OT or SO losses, which have been rare for Texas this year anyways. Among those 33 games are 17 against the division, and only ten are against clubs not currently on pace to make the playoffs. The going's about to get real tough.

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(Image credit: Steven Christy)