It hasn't been an easy season for the Dallas Stars.

A weeks-long COVID delay to start the season because 17 players tested positive during training camp. A statewide deep freeze that caused even more delays. Multiple important players missing the entire season. Scheduling jam-ups that forced them to play 40 games in 70 days.

If ever you needed evidence that the current season is one from which we should draw absolutely no conclusions, the Stars have overcome all of the above and remain very much in the Central Division playoff race. On Saturday, they lost in overtime on the road against the Predators, the team with which they are directly competing for the fourth and final playoff spot in the division. It was their fifth overtime loss to the Preds in eight games.

(That, of course, is the same