Mike Heika, beat writer at the Dallas Morning News, had a nice post up on Monday afternoon where he picked through the pieces of an incredibly ugly start for the Stars, one that has created a great deal of consternation from the faithful in Big D.

Heika preaches patience, and I tend to agree with him:

I'm conservative in the ways of the NHL, so I would ride this out until forced to do otherwise. I believe the Stars can make it to the playoffs, and can win once they get there, so I would keep Turco, keep Tippett, let the contracts for Lehtinen, Zubov and Boucher go until the summer (any of the three could be signed to an extension after Jan. 1), and then react at that time.

But I'm ready to listen to other arguments. If you have a better plan, convince me it's better.

I'm not sure there is one, at least not for this season. And I agree that 2008-09's not quite lost.

After all, the stats tell a tale of a team that should be far, far further behind the 8-ball than Dallas currently is.

The Stars are tied for 15th in goals for, with 2.93 per game, but dead last in goals against by a large, large margin (3.86). Next worst is Atlanta at 3.67. Dallas is also dead last in team save percentage (.858), which isn't a surprise given how rotten both Marty Turco and underused (and inexperienced) backup Tobias Stephan have been.

Other teams getting goaltending almost that poor include Nashville, Toronto, Colorado and Philadelphia, all of whom have a save percentage between .871 and .881.

The good news for the Stars is that they're still 5-7-2, and 12 points at this point is really not all that bad. Dallas is just five points from the fifth-place team in the conference, a difference that can be made up in relatively short order.

The bad news is that, to get to last season's 97 points, they will need to post a 40-23-5 record over the rest of the season.

The West is going to be a dogfight, again, and it's no fun battling from the bottom. But they're, amazingly given the goaltending, in the race.

The other interesting part of Heika's post is a look at just where things went wrong for the Stars, who were one of the favourite dark horse picks to come out on top in the Western Conference in the preseason after a terrific run in the playoffs in May.

Gone from that team are Mattias Norstrom, third in minutes played on the blueline in that postseason before retiring in the summer, and key role players like Stu Barnes, Niklas Hagman and Antti Miettinen.

They've also had to make due without Sergei Zubov for all but two games so far this season (but his absences are quickly becoming the norm).

Trevor Daley's picked up big minutes this season and is minus-6, but there haven't been a lot of other "big-minute" players that have changed this season. Sean Avery's only getting 14 minutes a game and hasn't been a huge liability. Hagman and Miettinen, meanwhile, have both done quite well in their new homes, so perhaps what's missing more than anything is the versatility the Stars had deep in the lineup in 2007-08.

The biggest single roster-related mistake Dallas has made to this point, however, was not putting any emphasis on the backup role, spending way too close to the cap and handing the reins to a goaltender who doesn't appear ready for the duties. All that's done is forced Turco — who is almost completely untradeable at this point — to continue to struggle his way out of the worst stretch of his career.

It's been ugly to watch, and another couple of weeks of this and there'll be no coming back for the Stars.

The light at the end of the tunnel? Turco's been good his last two starts and Tuesday and Thursday are winnable games against the low-scoring Kings.

My guess is the climb back to respectability has already begun.