The Dallas Stars fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night and have now lost three straight games after a solid start to the 2025-26 regular season.
Dallas has fallen to a record of 3-3 following three straight losses, with the team falling to the Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues, and the Vancouver Canucks in consecutive matchups.
These losses come after the 3-0 start to the regular season, with the Stars now collecting a record of just 3-3 on the season and sitting in 12th place in the NHL Western Conference standings.
The Stars have struggled to find a defensive rhythm early in the year, allowing at least three goals in five of their first six games.
This slow start defensively has the Stars ranked 24th in the NHL in total goals against this season, with 23, along with Dallas ranking 30th in the league with a penalty kill percentage of only 65%.
Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said he is not focused on the team’s actual record to open the season, instead pointing to the team currently being ranked outside the top eight teams in the conference.
“I don’t see being .500,” said Gulutzan, per NHL.com. “I’m just looking at how we’re playing, and it’s not good enough to be in a playoff spot. So you’ve got to find that quickly.”
The Stars will likely need to improve on both offense and defense as the season continues to find themselves back in the playoff hunt, as the team has also struggled to consistently generate offense at times to open the year.
Dallas currently ranks just tied for 19th in the league with only 19 total goals scored, which is seemingly correlated to the team also ranking just 21st in the NHL with 26.2 shot attempts per game.
Naturally, more shot attempts will result in more scoring opportunities for an offense, meaning Dallas will have to increase its overall attempts to find a real scoring punch on offense.
Looking ahead, the Stars have two more home matchups before they begin hitting the road again.
Dallas will take on the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday at 8 p.m. and the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at 7 p.m. before traveling to take on the Nashville Predators on Sunday at 6 p.m.