This resulted in the oddity of Dallas, a city near the longitudinal center of the contiguous United States and in the Central Time Zone, having none of its major professional sports teams in a "Central Division" despite the fact that all of the then-established major leagues at this time had divisions with some form of that name.
This would temporarily change when the Dallas Burn of the then-new Major League Soccer were placed in a newly-formed Central Division in 2000, but MLS reverted to an Eastern and Western Conference format without additional divisions after only two seasons.
The Stars finished the regular season with the NHL's best record and first overall in goals against, with just 168.
They also tied the St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks for fewest short-handed goals allowed, with 4.
[2] [3] Note: CR = Conference rank; GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points Bolded teams qualified for the playoffs.