from Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas News,

With three straight defeats, it's admittedly not a great time to be touting the Stars.

Playoffs? You kiddin' me, playoffs?

Momentum isn't exactly on the Stars' side these days, but the numbers certainly are. If you can't follow the money, at least follow the math. Even after a rather dismal 1-3-1 road stretch before Tuesday's home defeat, the Stars benefit by calling the Western Conference home. The Eastern Conference has 13 teams over .500. The West has seven, and Dallas -- 29-25-5 -- is one of them.

Barring the kind of skid that hasn't been seen around here since, well, OK, technically we saw one a year ago that cost Ken Hitchcock his job, but forget that. Put the collapse possibility out of your head, at least for now. Even with its scoring deficiencies, the club's standard of play and its record suggests the Stars will be playing games in late April. A wild-card invite might not be the ultimate goal around here, but for a franchise that has missed eight of the last 10 postseasons, it's a fresh start....

As things stand, Dallas would be the first wild card in the West, drawing Winnipeg in the opening round. That's not the worst thing, given the Stars' 2-1 record against the Jets, but I wouldn't exactly label Dallas as "the team no one wants to face" or anything of that nature.

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