ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Tyler Seguin was a little confused when asked if Ken Hitchcock's style of hockey is too defensive.

The Stars center, who has already tallied a career high in goals at 39, said he has found out this season that Hitchcock's plan is based on getting the puck into the offensive end of the ice and keeping it there.

"For our coach being a defensive coach, he talks a lot about offense," Seguin said. "He stresses puck possession in the offensive zone, and most of what we do in practice is puck possession in the offensive zone. So I hear about our coach being a defensive coach, but I think he's more of an undercover offensive coach. He stresses puck management, and the D getting the puck up into the forwards' hands quickly, and the forwards getting possession in the offensive zone."

Hitchcock said he believes in a style that reduces scoring chances against by creating scoring chances for. It's what he has used for most of his career, and he believes it can work for the current Stars.

"It's requires hard work, but once you get that, I think the results are there," Hitchcock said. "We're going through the process this year."

In Hitchcock's five full seasons in St. Louis (2011-16), the Blues had the best regular season record in hockey at 230-110-36, ranked 12th in goal scoring, and second in goals against.

Hitchcock said the commitment to puck possession allows his team to control games, and said even during this most recent slump, the Stars still are doing a lot of things right. They have seen shots on goal slip slightly from 31.8 per game to 30.6 over the past 22 games, but the real drop comes in shooting percentage. Dallas was hitting at a 9.4 percent clip (11th in the league) before Feb. 11 and was 33-20-4. Since then, they are scoring on 6.7 percent of their shots on goal (30th) and are 6-10-4.

That collapse has put them on the edge of missing the playoffs.

"Really, we're getting chances, but we're just not bearing down and scoring on them," Seguin said. "A lot of these games are one-goal games and you look back and we have a chance to make it 1-0 or 2-0 early and we don't do it. That adds up, and it makes it tougher later in the game."

The Stars have several concerns, including injuries to center Martin Hanzal and goalie Ben Bishop, as well as a 14-18-5 road record. They have been outscored by 15 in the third period over the span of the season, so there is more to this than just lack of scoring.

But a team that is averaging just over two goals a game for the past 22 has to wonder what is going wrong.

Several of the depth scorers are really struggling, as Antoine Roussel has just five goals, Brett Ritchie seven, Jason Spezza seven and Devin Shore nine -- a combined drop of 28 goals from last season. However, Seguin has a career-best 39, Alexander Radulov a career-best 26 and Mattias Janmark a career-best 19. John Klingberg, who has tallied a career-best 62 points (including 55 assists), said he likes the style of hockey Hitchcock has brought in. He said the transition from a more aggressive style under former coach Lindy Ruff has been challenging, but worth it.

"You look at what we did under Lindy's system and we took a lot of chances and we gave up a lot," Klingberg said. "So, really, I would rather play a 2-1 game than a 6-5 game, because it is easier to defend than it is to create and catch up. We just need to find the right place in the middle."

And Klingberg believes they can do that. He acknowledged that the team does dump and chase more under Hitchcock, but said they aren't married to those decisions every time up the ice.

"We do dump it in a lot, and I think that can be a problem, because I think sometimes we have the time and space to skate it in, but we dump it in anyways," Klingberg said. "But, honestly, that's a decision for the players to make. If we think we can skate it in and if we think that's the smart play, then we need to do that. You just have to make the right read."

But with just five games left in the regular season and the Stars' playoff chances hovering around 1 percent, is it too late to be adjusting?

"I don't think teams are coming in and saying we're playing boring. They say we're hard to play against," Seguin said. "As of late, we just haven't been staying patient with our chances. Some games we should have won, some games we deserved better, so you do get frustrated and you do get impatient. We just need to stick with the game plan, and I think it will work."