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 advan…

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…

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…

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 taug…

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 DeB…

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 …

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 …

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 Da…

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'r…

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 …

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 Colo…

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 M…

The officially playoffs-bound Dallas Stars always seem to have one player or another going off these days. If it's not Wyatt Johnston racking up points like a veteran elite forward, or Jason Robertson regaining his scoring touch with a vengeance, then it might be Thomas Harley making a late run at the postseason awards with all the offensive-defens…

By the time you listen to this, the Texas Stars will have already punched their ticket to the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. Turns out Victory Green is a fun color in Austin Metro, too! The Stars in Dallas benefit greatly when the Stars in Cedar Park succeed. So to take the measure of the T-Stars' prospects, Mark once again calls on the expertise of Ste…

The book has been written, and quite literally: The Dallas Stars are now co-favorites to win the 2025 Stanley Cup, and it's down to the deal that brought Mikko Rantanen into the fold. How does this team look for a deep playoffs run, especially if Tyler Seguin returns in his early-season form? Is it ridiculous to put so much faith in this lineup so …

In case you haven't checked the NHL.com top page this afternoon, the Dallas Stars made a bit of news today. The deal to bring Mikko Rantanen to Big D, which seemed all but dead last night, came roaring back to life this morning. And less than three hours before the NHL trade deadline, we learned that the Carolina Hurricanes were getting top prospec…

This season's Dallas Stars are...really, really Stars-ing. Right now, that's largely for the better. That doesn't keep any of us for looking for where they can be better still...but at what cost? What impact can the right forward have? Can even the most dynamic forward compensate for not having another difference-making defender? At what point, if …

The Dallas Stars picked the week before a big road trip to go on a bit of a tear, winning-wise. Four consecutive victories, three of them at home, felt like a great holiday gift that arrived just a couple of days late – at once a delight and a relief. Which means it's a great time for Wes and Mark to start rolling sports takes. In this episode, the…

The Dallas Stars are still in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs race, but they're not ranked as highly as we all thought they would be. If that feels like a big fat lump of coal in your Christmas stocking, well, you're probably a longtime Dallas Stars fan. Wes and Mark make the case that we're not seeing anything we didn't expect from a team on a learn…

History tells us how the Dallas Stars embarked on their fateful 1999 Stanley Cup run, and now we will, too: It was a time of magic and fantasy, brought to you by hard work and hard decisions. Few have forgotten that the deal that brought the Stars Joe Nieuwendyk also cost them Jarome Iginla. And fewer would take that trade back – even knowing the f…

It's never a bad time to overthink your Dallas Stars opinions. But with a new year just around the corner, and the Stars looking like an inevitable playoffs contender once again, it's a good time to fire up the special holiday hot-takery bakery. Wes and Mark are on the case, but then again, they're always on the case. In this episode, they discuss:…

As a team, the Dallas Stars are building a fine season. But as an organization, they're building fine seasons in all their affiliates, and over time as well. And a couple of times a year, we like to take a closer look at how that's working for them. In case you've just met Mark Zimmerman, he can talk about the Texas Stars all day – but it's more fu…

The Dallas Stars are in a pretty good place right now. They're in Stanley Cup playoffs position as Thanksgiving approaches, if that old measuring stick still means something. But even so, are they living up to their own outsize expectations? As the only podcast that didn't get invited to Finland last week, Stargazing has been stewing in its long-di…

October is over for the Dallas Stars. They're sitting comfortably near the Central Division's top spot. They have an appointment on the world stage with the 2024 Stanley Cup champions. And this may not even be as good as it gets this season. So...what's wrong with this picture? As we wait with bated breath for the NHL Global Series, Wes and Mark to…

The Dallas Stars begin their regular season today! It's the perfect time to talk about (almost) everything that could go wrong. Wes and Mark have something of a feel for adversity, and in Stargazing's annual Doomcast, they let most of their darkest thoughts roam free in the pre-Halloween hellscape. We do have rules, sort of. We'll never include inj…

As of this posting, the Dallas Stars are 3-0 in the 2024-25 preseason. And here we were thinking Victory+ might be the best thing to come out of September. It's a great environment for Stargazing's annual Brightside Cast, and Wes and Mark are definitely feeling it this year. In this edition, they talk about: the Stars' preseason style and what it m…

It's September, and the Dallas Stars are back on the ice. You can almost smell the "Mr. Brightside" in the air, can't you? Wes and Mark are firing up the Victory+ and getting ready to watch some hockey. And on the eve of the Stars' preseason opener, they have so, so, so much to share with you. In this episode, they discuss: how the new contracts fo…

We made it! September is here, and as if by magic, the wait for more Dallas Stars hockey has grown ever so much shorter. It's time to start making appointments. Or setting alarms. Your choice. Wes and Mark check the milestones up ahead and point out the landmarks you don't want to miss: the Traverse City NHL Prospect Tournament training camp, and t…

Summer means fun, and fun starts with the youngsters. And as Dallas Stars fans, we're all about the kids in the team's development system. Who's ready for the big league? Who's still cooking? Derek Neumeier, assistant director of scouting with McKeen's Hockey and longtime Friend of DBD, is back on the mic with Wes and Mark. With th 2024 NHL Draft o…

The 2024 NHL Draft is over, free agency is in full swing, and the Dallas Stars are right in the thick of it. But are they making the moves that will matter next season? NHL.com contributor and DBD editor-in-chief Taylor Baird joined Wes and Mark on the first day of silly season to sort through the Stars action. On this week's episode of Stargazing,…

The Dallas Stars had a good postseason showing. They took down the past two Stanley Cup champions before injuries, exhaustion, and the risks of playing five defensemen caught up to them. Now it's time to think about what the summer will hold. In our final 2024 episode of Stargazing After Dark, Wes and Mark discuss the issues that may be keeping you…

The Dallas Stars gave up their traditional Game 1 loss. Does this mean the rest of their Western Conference Final is proceeding according to the script? It's impossible to discount the Edmonton Connors Leons Oilers at this stage, but the Victory Green Gang keeps doing what it does best – which is find ways to win. Wes and Mark are back from their l…

It's turning into A Very Special Throwback Series for the Dallas Stars. They took Western Conference Finals-style revenge on the Vegas Golden Knights. They struck down a longtime foe and legendary rival in the Colorado Avalanche. And now that the Stars have gone through last year's Stanley Cup champions and their most lethal sibling in the #MurderD…

The Dallas Stars earned some much-needed rest this week – but here at Stargazing, we never sleep. It's time to assess what went right (and wrong) in Round 2, and get ready for a really big show in the Western Conference Finals. In this episode, Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman discuss how Chris Tanev countered Nathan MacKinnon, the art of overtime p…

The Dallas Stars keep finding ways to win over the Colorado Avalanche. How long until the Avs find a countermove? We've all been thinking it, because we're Stars fans, and we can't have nice things. Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman actually sat down to talk about it. In this edition, they go in-depth into what the Stars are doing right, the likeliho…

The unstoppable road team met the immoveable home team, and we saw who blinked first. The Dallas Stars copped a big win off the Colorado Avalanche over the weekend, and now, it seems, we're getting somewhere. It's OK, Stars fans, you still have time to panic. But Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman took a long look at a game the Avs were supposed to wi…

The one period of Game 1 in which the Dallas Stars should have expected more goals than the Colorado Avalanche was overtime – i.e., the period in which they ultimately lost the match. It's just one of the infuriating twists that the postseason will throw at you, if you get that far. Settle down – this isn't a doomcast. But Wes and Mark do have some…

The Dallas Stars have won their way into Round 2 – and a throwback series with their #MurderDeathKill Division siblings the Colorado Avalanche. (Or, if you prefer, from the 2023 Stanley Cup winners to the 2022 Stanley Cup winners.) This time, we welcomed Evan Liu of our 4Fans sister site Puck Yeti. He sat down with Wes and Mark for the usual roundt…

The Dallas Stars have staged a pretty amazing Round 1 comeback – and they have not one, but two opportunities to finish the job in the next few days. It hasn't always been pretty, and pretty hasn't always meant victory...but is this team for real? Really, really real? Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman are Stars fans, so they're always looking over th…

The Dallas Stars don't need to do something extra, they just need to be who they are. That's how Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman see the state of play after the Victory Green Gang – against all odds, as it were –evened up Round 1 in Vegas on Tuesday night. In this episode, DBD's cast-masters bring the discussion on everything that matters – includi…

The Dallas Stars are in the series against the Golden Knights now, in large part because Wyatt Johnston can put the team on his back now that he's (almost) old enough to partake of adult beverages. But what will they need to quiet the house in Vegas again? Well, for starters, Wes and Mark would like a sixth defenseman who can get more than eight mi…

The Vegas Golden Knights have the opportunity to close out Round 1 on their own ice. The only thing that can stop them is the best team in the Western Conference. And yes, that's still the Dallas Stars. But the Victory Green Gang still needs to find a way to bring its best against a team that has committed to doing what it does best. Wes Lawrence a…

Whether you think the Dallas Stars have already lost this series, or already won it...you're right. Last night's narrow Game 1 defeat can support almost any preconceived narrative of your choice. So why even bother to watch the rest of them? ...Well, let's not go that far. Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman have had a few hours to assimilate everythin…

The Dallas Stars' Stanley Cup quest begins tonight. And Stars fans everywhere are both ecstatic and apprehensive that their team's first meeting is against last year's nemesis, the Vegas Golden Knights. How should one feel about that? ...No, really? For this assignment, Stargazing wanted to go straight to the source – so we sought out 4Fans' reside…

The 2023-24 Dallas Stars really are that good. Is it OK to just enjoy it for a few days, for cryin' out loud? Here at Stargazing, we say...prrrrrrobably? Wes and Mark sat down on Eclipse Day 2024 to bask in the totality of the past week, good and bad. And as always, they have plenty to say about our Stars and what they have revealed to us. In this …

The 2023-24 Dallas Stars are sitting on top of the world – or at least the Western Conference. Although you might be forgiven for not knowing it, because it seems hardly anybody wants to talk about a team with three (or four) scoring lines. That leaves a select few, including Wes and Mark, to find the discussion points in this particularly well-bal…

The Dallas Stars are out for the last long road trip of the season. It's time to start talking about the Stanley Cup playoffs battles that are, at this point, certain to come. Wes Lawrence and Mark Zimmerman are back from spring break, and they have plenty to discuss, mainly about the Stars' state of readiness for the fight ahead. What's going righ…

This week's podcast is part two featuring Rafael Jimenez, President, and Kyahn Mata Secretary of Lone Star Community College organization Pizza and Politics. We turned the tables and let them ask us the questions. Hosts Julie Kornegay, Emily Spivak, and Brent Veazey, with Rafael and Kyahn, discussed a variety of topics, including:What it looks like…

The Dallas Stars have pulled the trigger on a major trade-deadline move, and soon (no, really, soon) top-four blueliner Chris Tanev will wear Victory Green. So...anything else happen since last week? Oh, mercy. Wes and Mark have watched all of it, and they have...thoughts. And a few scorching-hot takes. Join us for a little Stargazing as they discu…

The Dallas Stars have gotten used to scoring their way out of their troubles. So what do they do when the goals get fewer? Wes and Mark took a look at a long, long road week and found a few spots that the line blender might solve – and a few that the NHL trade deadline might help. Join us for a little pre-game Stargazing, won't you? Which forward l…