DLLS Dallas Stars Podcast

As a die-hard Stars fan I was so pumped for regular content. The show is great. Owen, Luds and the other personalities are awesome, except for Sean. His ego, heavy breathing and inability to share the spotlight brings the rating down to a mediocre level. Here’s to hoping Sean ‘graduates’ to another opportunity, maybe covering the Red Wings or beer league hockey, and we can give the pod a 5 star rating.

I started listening to DLLS during the pre-season and really appreciated their discussions then, as they helped me get oriented with the team/expectations for the season as a new Stars fan. They are the only Dallas Stars podcast that posts content regularly with decent production quality, which means they hold a sort of monopoly on discussions around the team. As the season has gone on, though, it’s become clear to me that their main source of data for discussion is their eye test. It appears they do very little consideration of analytics, and instead just focus on surface-level observations from the game highlights. It also seems like they aren’t interested in being objective, and instead are happy to parrot the same talking points back and forth between the hosts and the viewer chat, which to an outsider can feel bewildering and out-of-touch, as they don’t actually align with underlying numbers and team statistical trends. The Stars have implemented a new system this season with the new head coach which has meant defencemen offense has fallen off across the board. I haven’t seen these guys mention that once, or discuss what specifically is causing that, but instead have spent a shocking amount of time discussing individual players’ shortcomings without asking themselves *why* there have been sudden drop-offs in performance. To me it says they don’t respect their audience enough to do actual critical analysis and think they will be placated with slapdash emotions-driven talk. Or perhaps, the hosts are more interested in the income they make from AI-designed t-shirts and venting, frustrated fans giving them “super chats” in order to feel heard, rather than having any actual curiosity about the team’s performance. Listen to this podcast if you want emotional validation about how the team is playing, breakdowns of individual plays (which they do quite well!), and a few vaguely misogynistic jokes here and there. If you want insight about trends in team analytics and thoughts on what the team needs to change in order to do better, you will be sorely disappointed.