Try to remember the Dallas Stars have only played five games

It’s October 18 and the sky is falling for the Dallas Stars.

Or at least that’s the social media reaction I saw after the Stars lost 3-2 to the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.

The Stars power play is a woeful 1-for-17, fourth-worst in the NHL so far and only better than the Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, and Anaheim Ducks.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Stars have conceded 59 high-danger chances so far this season and generated 53 themselves in all situations. When you isolate the Stars game to just even strength, it’s been a 49-41 advantage in high-danger chances for opponents.

Watching the Stars, like the game last night against Washington, it’s pretty clear Dallas has struggled with time of possession. On two of the three Capitals goals, the Stars had forwards out on extended shifts, most notably Wyatt Johnston failing to pressure Taylor Raddysh and screening his own goalie on the end of a 76-second shift that turned out to be the game-winning goal.

The Stars’ process hasn’t looked great and everyone in the organization, the coaches and players, are well aware of that.

The Stars also happen to be 4-1 and leading the Central Division early.

So what’s the truth here? Are the Stars a flawed team destined to implode? Or are they are what their record says and one of, right now points wise, one of the best teams in the NHL?

Good news is that they don’t award the Stanley Cup on October 18. They also won’t hand it out on November or December or January 18.

The reality, and this is a good thing, the Stars are both the victim and beneficiary of internal and external expectations. A team fresh off back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Final and a trendy Stanley Cup championship choice should look like a well-oiled machine.

They should be steamrolling opponents, hurdling all problems, and just re-establishing each game that those lofty expectations were earned.

That’s the narrative, but it’s also not how the NHL works. It’s an 82-game slog, and because of the tribal nature of the sport, fans rarely look outside the scope of their own team.

The Nashville Predators are 0-4, the Edmonton Oilers power play is just as bad as the Stars (1-for-13), and the Colorado Avalanche are 0-4 and have a goalie that can’t stop much of anything.

If the sky is falling in Dallas, it’s also falling for half of the Western Conference contenders.

Which is why jumping to conclusions five games into an NHL season, which has only featured one loss, doesn’t make much sense.

The Stars have played six percent of their season so far, making sweeping conclusions on anything good or bad after five NHL games is the equivalent of judging an NFL team’s entire season after one game.

So the sky isn’t falling, there are also flaws the Stars need to work on. But no one within the organization is ignoring that fact, in fact the Stars players and coaches have been harder on their process than anyone hitting “post” on social media.

So let’s see what happens, the Stars host the Oilers on Saturday in a re-match of the most recent Western Conference Final. Both teams are flawed, both teams have frustrated fan bases right now, yet both teams are still on track to meet in a playoff series late May once again.