Complete Preview for the Dallas Stars' 2014-15 Season

People seem to love the Dallas Stars. I do. They are fun and fast, and most people love things that are fun and fast (interpret that however you wish).

Tyler Seguin. Jamie Benn. Valeri Nichushkin. The addition of Jason Spezza for an expired bottle of barbecue sauce and the signing of Ales Hemsky. Speed, talent, speed, scoring, fast, fast, fast, fun. 

But how much love is too much love?

At the Star-Telegram, Mac Engel has the Stars contending for a top-three seed and perhaps even a championship. People began tossing around the word "contenders" a whole lot this summer.

"

Benn-Seguin-Hemsky Nichushkin-Spezza-Ritchie Garbutt-Eakin-Roussel Horcoff-Fiddler-Sceviour Holy crap, the Stars are legit contenders.

— Brandon Worley (@brandonworley) July 3, 2014"

It's been quite the whirlwind summer for Dallas. Perhaps it's been so windy that people have forgotten the Stars made the playoffs thanks partly to Arizona Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith missing the final three weeks of the regular season with a knee injury.

What We Learned in 2013-14

Picture it. Dallas. April 2014.

Trevor Daley, Seguin and Ryan Garbutt put an end to five years of playoff futility by scoring goals in a 3-0 win against the St. Louis Blues at whatever the name of the corporate-sponsored Stars home arena is. Ten-gallon hats were tossed in the air, cows were branded with Dallas Stars logos and other stereotypes about things that happen in Texas.

It was a great end to a great season that infused excitement into fans who had been sorely lacking for a very long time.

Glenn James/Getty Images

The Stars finished 28th in attendance last year, drawing 14,658 per game; that's down about 3,000 per game over the shortened 2013 season when attendance was abnormally high league-wide but up about 400 per game over the 2011-12 season. But in the wake of a playoff trip and later the additions of Spezza and Hemsky, the Stars have sold an additional 3,000 season-ticket packages since the start of last season.

The Stars averaged 18,000 per game in 2007-08, the last time they reached the playoffs, and they could be heading toward that number again.

And there's reason for excitement in Dallas.

General manager Jim Nill lit the fuse during the 2013 offseason by landing Seguin in a trade with the Boston Bruins. Seguin finished fourth in the league in scoring with 84 points in 80 games and helped Jamie Benn hit a career-high of 79 points (34 goals) in 81 games. They were the catalysts of a team that finished 10th in scoring, the Stars' best finish since they climbed to ninth in 2007-08 behind the offense of Mike Ribeiro, Brenden Morrow and the great Niklas Hagman.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

As exciting as the offense was, another reason for last year's playoff trip that some may have overlooked was Kari Lehtonen's good health and outstanding play. His 65 starts were the third-most in his career, and his .919 save percentage was his second-best mark. 

It wasn't all rodeos and steak parties (I've never been to Texas) last season, however.

There was a stretch in January when the Stars dropped nine of 10, eight of the losses coming in regulation. The Stars sat at 21-20-8 at the end of that skid, nine points out of a playoff spot.

You may have figured this out, but the Stars righted the ship by closing 19-11-3 and slipping into the playoffs as a wild-card team. They were dispatched in six games by the second-seeded Anaheim Ducks as Seguin was held to one goal, and there wasn't enough secondary offense to pull the upset.

Over the summer, Nill made sure to remedy that problem.

Outlook for 2014-15

On July 1, the Stars traded for Spezza, and, as his conference call with the media was winding down, the team announced it had signed Hemsky to a three-year contract.

When informed of the Hemsky signing, Spezza giggled with delight that a player with whom he had great chemistry in Ottawa would be brought into the fold in Dallas.

Those other giggles were from Stars fans over their dynamic group of forwards.

Left wing	Center	Right wing
Jamie Benn	Tyler Seguin	Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel	Jason Spezza	Ales Hemsky
Erik Cole	Cody Eakin	Ryan Garbutt
Shawn Horcoff	Vernon Fiddler	Colton Sceviour
Rich Peverley, Patrick Eaves

Spezza and Hemsky instantly make the Stars, a respectable offensive team a season ago, a legitimate two-line threat. Last season, after Seguin's 84 points and Benn's 79 points, the next-highest scoring forward on the Stars was Alex Chiasson, who had 35 points in 72 games and was dealt to Ottawa for Spezza.

Tied with Chiasson is Cody Eakin, who has yet to sign as a restricted free agent.

The one area in which the Stars failed to improve was on defense, although they have just about everyone (except Stephane Robidas) who helped them reach the playoffs in 2014.

Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski displayed their top-four chops a season ago, with Goligoski serving as the team's third-leading scorer. The undrafted Brenden Dillon was solid in his second season, averaging 21:05 of ice time in 2013-14, but is still an unsigned RFA. Jordie Benn is back, as is Sergei Gonchar, the highest-paid Stars defenseman at $5 million but perhaps the biggest liability.

Left defense	Right defense	Goaltenders
Alex Goligoski	Trevor Daley	Kari Lehtonen
Brenden Dillon	Jordie Benn	Anders Lindback
Kevin Connauton	Sergei Gonchar
Jamie Oleksiak

Kevin Connauton and perhaps 2011 first-round pick Jamie Oleksiak could round out the unit, which is clearly the soft underbelly of an otherwise very talented team.

The backup goaltending spot isn't solid either, but Anders Lindback won't have to do much, ideally, with Lehtonen making around 65 starts.

There's enough scoring here to get the Stars back to the playoffs, but it's important to remember how close they came to missing the playoffs last year. It wouldn't take much to derail this train that is filled with so much hope and barbecue sauce and high school football and cattle.

Seriously, I need to visit Dallas someday.

All statistics via NHL.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.