A lot was expected from the this season, but after winning just nine of their first 26 games they were easily one of the biggest disappointments in the early going. That slow start put them in a deep hole in the Western Conference playoff race and digging out seemed impo sible. But as the season has progre sed the Stars have started to resemble the team they were supposed to be when the season began.Exciting. High scoring. And pretty darn good.They have elite offensive players in and . They are one of the highest-scoring teams in the league and are in the top half of the NHL when it comes to puck po se sion. They've even found a couple of upgrades to their previously questionable defense. The emergence of prospect and the in-season addition of in a trade with the San Jose Sharks (along with the removal of Sergei Gonchar from the roster in a separate trade with Montreal) have done wonders for a blue line that was a major weakne s at the start of the season. It's still not Travis Shaw Jersey a great unit, or even a very good one, but it's definitely better and has helped spark a second-half turnaround.But there is still one major weakne s on this team that might be too big of an obstacle to overcome in the playoff race, even as the team has put together a 14-8-3 run over the past 25 games to work its way back into playoff contention.Goaltending.Since joining the Stars during the 2009-10 season, has been, at worst, a solid starter who has given his team average to slightly above average Ken Giles Jersey play. He has never nece sarily been a guy who is going to steal games and put the team on his back like a Carey Price or Henrik Lundqvist, but he hasn't really been the type of goalie who is going to single-handedly sabotage the chances of an otherwise good team. He has been a guy with whom you can win. That is, until this season.Entering the weekend Lehtonen is struggling through what has been by far his worst season as a pro, with a .904 save percentage through his first 44 appearances. Among the 42 goalies that qualify for the league lead in save percentage, that puts him 33rd in the NHL. That is simply not good enough, and Stars coach Lindy Ruff has made it a point to make Lehtonen aware of it.Ruff said Friday, via the , "one day at a time," and that "we need Lehtonen to be better. There's no masking that point. It seems like every night, the other goalie is outdueling us."The problem the Stars are going to face is that, as the roster is currently constructed, there really isn't a better in-house option to make handling it one day at a time any better of a situation. Lehtonen's backups, and , have been even worse in their limited action (.869 save percentage in seven starts between them) while Lindback has consistently been one of the least productive goalies in the league over the past couple of years. Turning to one of them is not likely to fix things, and if anything, could make things worse. We saw a similar situation happening recently in Minnesota Bo Bichette Jersey , where the Wild's goaltending was a clear Achilles heel and holding back a team that probably wasn't as bad as its record or place in the standings. Instead of doing what everybody thought was Derek Fisher Jersey inevitable and making the coach, Mike Yeo, the fall guy for everything that was going wrong, they went out and grabbed from the Arizona Coyotes and have since started winning games with competent goaltending.Is there a similar move to be made for Dallas?Unle s a team like Ottawa decides to move a guy like , the options could be slim because a lot of the teams that are out of the playoff race and in seller mode are likely there, in part, becaues their goaltending is a problem. And a player like Anderson, if he was even available, would probably cost a significant amount of a sets for a team that is currently on the playoff bubble and already has a goalie (Lehtonen) under contract beyond this season.It would almost certainly have to be a smaller move along the lines of Minnesota's deal for Dubnyk where you're basically buying a lottery ticket and hoping your numbers hit. It seems reasonable to a sume that Buffalo's duo of and could be on the trade block given that team's place in the standings, and while neither one has had a great season or played up to what he has done in the past, it's almost impo sible for a goalie to succeed in that situation playing behind that team.There is also the po sibility that Lehtonen could have a second-half surge and start to play Josh Donaldson Jersey closer to what is normally expected of him. Goalies are inconsistent monsters who can regain their form as quickly as they seemed to have lost it, and given Lehtonen's track record in the NHL he shouldn't be bad and he shouldn't be expected to be this bad forever.Sitting five points out of a playoff spot with 31 games to play in the regular season, the Stars are in a pack of seven Western Conference teams (with Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Colorado and Los Angeles) fighting for what are e sentially three playoff spots. The Stars are still very much in it, and they have enough weapons that they should be a major factor in that race. But unle s they start getting better goaltending, whether it's from Lehtonenor somebody not currently on the roster, it's going to be awfully difficult to emerge from that pile and secure a postseason spot for the second straight season.