A November to remember: Stars’ historic month further emphasizes early season success through adversity

There really is nothing like this time of year.

As temperatures begin to dip (or plummet) and holiday decorations line store shelves and front lawns, a yearning for a refreshed perspective arises. It is usually accompanied by helpings of gratitude and goodwill as we simultaneously prepare to reminisce on auld lang syne and ring in a new year ahead.

It’s a warm and welcoming feeling that can’t be found elsewhere on a 12-month calendar.

The Thanksgiving holiday kicks it all off as the three F’s (family, food and football) take center stage, helping remind us of just how good we actually have it when you get down to the brass tacks of life.

Directly alongside the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, however, sits another Thanksgiving tradition: taking stock of the NHL standings.

The Thanksgiving-Stanley Cup Playoffs Correlation has been revered by analysts and fans alike for the better part of two decades. Since 2005, NHL teams in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving end up making the postseason the following spring about 77 percent of the time. The same number holds true since the division and playoff format change in 2013, so this is hardcore scientific data we’re talking here.

Last season, 12 of the 16 (75 percent, for all you math whizzes out there) playoff-positioned teams at Thanksgiving made it to the dance.

And while this theory is fun to follow for teams on the bubble, it also provides an extra vote of confidence for those near the top of the League standings. That includes the Dallas Stars.

But being at or near the top at Thanksgiving is nothing new for Dallas. In the past three seasons, they never entered a Turkey Day lower than sixth in the Western Conference standings. They also sat first in the Central Division two times.

And if you feel like the Stars’ past three campaigns had a Groundhog Day theme to them, you may be onto something. Each season, they finished in the top three of the Central Division with 106-plus points, won a thrilling six-game series and a nail-biting seven-game series in the first two rounds of the playoffs before eventually bowing out in the Western Conference Final. Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz tormented defenses on a nightly basis. Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley and Esa Lindell logged heavy minutes while making sizable impacts on both sides of the ice. Jake Oettinger and his right-hand backup of Scott Wedgewood or Casey DeSmith stymied the opposition game in and game out.

But while the consistent success was fascinating, it felt a bit cyclical, which in turn made the yearly WCF shortcomings all the more frustrating.

This season, however, feels like a new journey. While the roster is very similar to that of years past and the coaching staff has new characters in Glen Gulutzan and Neil Graham, something feels significantly different.

This new wind of change was largely prevalent during the team’s 6-1 demolishing of Ottawa on Sunday evening. The Stars cruised to a second straight win in their new “The ‘99” jerseys (which fittingly pay homage to the only Stanley Cup-winning team in franchise history) to push their record to 17-5-4, good enough for second in the NHL.

“It was probably our most complete game for me of the year,” Gulutzan said. “The big four - goaltending was great, the PP was great, the PK was real solid and I thought our 5-on-5 play was the best of the year defensively. When you get those four things all working, it’s hard to beat.”

And boy, are those big four things firing on all cylinders right now.

Dallas put a nice bow on an 11-2-2 record in the month of November, the third-best mark in the NHL. The 11 wins are tied for second-most in a single month in franchise history. Meanwhile, their 4.13 goals per game (2^nd), 2.47 goals against per game (7^th) and 35.3 percent power play rate (1^st) all finished in the top 10 of the League ranks.

In the last dozen games alone, they are a whopping 10-1-1 while outscoring the opposition 51-24. To put it plainly, they’re a freight train (or a wagon, depending on which generational metaphor you prefer).

“Confidence is a hell of a drug, and it’s definitely been fueling us for a bit now,” Johnston said after Sunday’s win.

But the basic statistics don’t tell the full story. It’s not only the fact that the Stars have been winning almost nightly, but it’s also how they’ve won. For instance, their eight comeback wins are tied for third-most in the NHL. Going one layer deeper, their five comebacks by multiple goals is tied for the League lead. In the past seven games where the Stars have faced a 2-0 deficit, they are a staggering 5-0-2. The ability to climb out of large holes, mixed with the knack for steamrolling past teams by 4+ goals (which they have done in four of the past nine games), makes for a truly dangerous team.

They also own an NHL-high 11 wins by 1 goal and the third-best record in 1-goal games at 11-1-4. This Stars team is demonstrating an ability to win any number of ways, making them the ultimate riddle for opponents to solve.

But their depth, perhaps more than any other early-season accolade, has been their biggest weapon. In years past, the Stars have managed a relatively sturdy bill of health. Coaches often talk about the element of luck that goes into a run at the Stanley Cup, with a large chunk of that centering around keeping the lineup stable and intact. Aside from surgeries that kept Tyler Seguin and Heiskanen sidelined for most of last season, the team stayed healthy for most of the previous three years.

This season, however, has been a different animal. Dallas has already used nine defensemen this season. After a promising start to the season, Nils Lundkvist has missed the past 22 games with a lower-body injury. Harley played through a lower-body injury before being shut down on Nov. 15 and is labeled week-to-week. Ilya Lyubushkin returned Sunday after missing the previous six contests, and Lian Bichsel’s status is up in the air after limping off the ice during Sunday’s game.

Up front, Matt Duchene has missed all but four games with an upper body injury after posting 50 assists (career-high) and 82 points last season and signing a four-year extension in June. Captain Jamie Benn suffered a collapsed lung in the preseason that caused him to miss the first 19 games. To top it all off, Hintz missed a five-game stretch that included games against four of the NHL’s top 11 teams last year.

But, as all great teams do, the Stars have found a way to not only survive, but also thrive through the adversity. On the blue line, Alexander Petrovic, Kyle Capobianco and Vladislav Kolyachonok have taken on larger roles. Petrovic’s plus-6 rating is second among Dallas defensemen, Capobianco has three assists in the last five games and Kolyachonok scored the game-winning goal in Seattle on Wednesday. Up front, the trio of Justin Hryckowian, Oskar Bäck and Mavrik Bourque (“the QueBack line” as fans have dubbed them) are putting up points on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, Robertson, Johnston and Mikko Rantanen are climbing the NHL leaderboards. They currently occupy the top three spots in power play points, with Johnston boasting a five-goal advantage on the power play goal leaderboard.

All of these parts have come together to keep the momentum train chugging along at a wicked pace.

All in all, 17 different Stars scored a goal in the month of November and all 22 skaters used tallied a point. That surge helped push them to 22 different goal scorers on the season, tying Anaheim for most in the NHL.

Depth has arguably never been more prevalent and impactful in StarsLand, and it’s a large reason as to why this team is humming at the level they are here on the first day of December. The same goes for the results. The Stars’ 17-5-4 record is the second-best mark in Dallas history and third-best in the franchise’s 58-year history through 26 games.

Considering all that the team has endured, persevered through and prevailed over, it feels like nothing short of a little pre-Christmas miracle.

“I didn’t expect the record to be like this, but we are figuring it out,” Gulutzan said of the early season success. “I would say if you mark the time right after we played Edmonton for the first time here at home, I could see our team start trending up.

“Now you’re seeing everything come together a little bit, but it’s one night. The problem with the league is it’s an everyday league and you have to do it night after night. We’re getting there.”

And when you think about it, “getting there” is a pretty special place to be as the holiday season gets underway.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Josh Clark is a writer for DallasStars.com. Follow him on X @Josh_Clark02.