Stargazing: A Dallas Stars Puckcast | Defending Big D
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From Defending Big D: Dallas Stars news, opinion, and everything you love about the South‘s most popular NHL franchise.
Episodes
- Golfing Season
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…
- Round 1, Game 4 Reactions
In Stargazing: A Dallas Stars Puckcast, Wes and Mark react to the Game 4 overtime loss in Minnesota. They discuss Nils Lundkvist's injury, Thomas Harley's impact, the top line's performance, and Michael Bunting's potential role.
- Round 1, Game 3 Reactions
Stargazing hosts Wes and Mark review the Dallas Stars double-overtime win against the Minnesota Wild. Topics include special teams performance, 5-on-5 play, puck luck, potential series-deciding fouls, and predictions for Game 4.
- Round 1, Game 2 Reactions
Wes and Mark discuss the Dallas Stars' Game 2 victory over the Minnesota Wild, focusing on depth scoring, team adjustments, and the impact of an early lead. The hosts analyze the tactical implications for the remainder of the series as it…
- Round 1, Game 1 Reactions
The Stargazing podcast reviews the Dallas Stars' Game 1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, discussing lineup effectiveness, player effort, and the team's history of losing opening playoff games. NHL.com's Taylor Baird joins hosts Wes and Mark for…
- First-Round Preview: Stars vs. Wild
In this episode of Stargazing, Wes and Mark preview the Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild playoff series. They discuss which players have the most to prove, how matchups and home-ice advantage will shape the series, and highlight Wyatt Johns…
- Texas Stars Spring Update 2026
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 dep…
- Goalie Goals
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 abo…
- Dropping Lines
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 epi…
- You're The Man Now, Dawg
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…
- Post-Deadline
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…
- Push Play
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…
- Olympic Break Score Sheet
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?"…
- Harley Kick
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 o…
- Everything/Nothing
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…
- Incremental
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 doldru…
- Know Your Limits
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…
- Built This Way, Part 2
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 schedule…
- Built This Way, Part 1
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 t…
- Features, Not Bugs
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 a…
- Texas Stars Fall Update 2025
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…
- Numbers Game
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..…
- Give Thanks
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…
- If You Think You're Done...
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 performance…
- Really Special Teams
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…
- Money Talks
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…
- Net Positive
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…
- Doom Cast 2025
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 t…
- Brightside Cast 2025
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…
- Technical Weirdos
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 Magaz…
- Corsi Monsters: Preseason 2025
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 Lineup And Its Future
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…
- Dealer's Choice
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 N…
- Real ID
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. Th…
- Cut Short
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 hid…
- Western Conference Final Update
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 t…
- Western Conference Final Preview
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 dept…
- Round 2 Weekend Update
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…
- Round 2, Game 1 Reactions
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…
- Stars vs. Jets: Round 2 Preview
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…
- Round 1 Wrap-Up
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 chan…
- Round 1, Game 6 Reactions
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…
- Round 1, Game 5 Reactions
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 h…
- Round 1, Game 4 Reactions
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 th…
- Round 1, Game 3 Reactions
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…
- Round 1, Game 2 Reactions
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 h…
- Round 1, Game 1 Reactions
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…
- First-Round Preview: Stars vs. Avalanche
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…
- Intrusive Thoughts
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...especiall…
- That's Offensive
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 ven…