DALLAS -- Jamie Benn will open a season coming off a playoff series victory for the first time in the Dallas captains career, while Patrick Sharp hardly knows any other way.Together, theyre trying to take the Stars beyond the second-round exit of last season, which ended with a humbling Game 7 loss to St. Louis.If Tyler Seguin can stay healthy alongside Benn, his fellow high-scoring All-Star forward, and Dallas can find a way to make a two-goalie system with Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi work a little better, the Stars should be in contention.It was fun last year, Sharp said of his first season in Dallas after spending 10 years with Chicago and winning three Stanley Cup titles. I think we broke through in a lot of areas and proved to ourselves and the league that we can be a top team. If everybody improves a little bit and we commit to what we did last year, good things can happen.Benn didnt make the playoffs his first four seasons before Dallas lost in the first round to Anaheim in 2014. He won the league scoring title a year later when the Stars missed the playoffs.Dallas finally broke through with a Western Conference-leading 109 points (50-23-9) last season and a six-game victory over Central Division rival Minnesota to start the postseason.Just needed to get out of the first and you didnt make it through the second, so we know how hard it is, said Benn, who signed an eight-year, $76 million contract extension in the offseason. I think we go into this year with that mentality of a playoff team and play like a playoff team and just try to build and keep getting better.Things to consider as the Stars go after their first extended postseason run since 2008, when they lost to Detroit in the West finals:EARLY INJURY BUGSeguin has been out in the preseason with a hairline fracture of a heel sustained while getting ready for the World Cup. Thats after missing all but one playoff game last season because of an Achilles injury. Hes expected to be ready for the opener Oct. 13.Another center, Cody Eakin, will miss at least the few weeks of the regular season after injuring a knee in a camp practice, and promising forward Mattias Janmark could miss the season after surgery for a joint disorder in a knee. Radek Faksa, another young forward, is dealing with a concussion.Its better to get those out of the way now, said Benn, who was eased into preseason work after abdominal surgery in the offseason.TWO GOALIES AGAINLehtonen and Niemi split time in the regular season and the playoffs, and coach Lindy Ruff doesnt think the approach will be much different. That includes using both to manage the busier parts of the schedule. While the system helped boost Dallas to the top seed in the West, it failed them in the playoff finale when Lehtonen gave up five goals in the first two periods of a 6-1 loss to the Blues.I think it took us a long time to kind of learn when youre not playing and when you are playing last year, Lehtonen said. But now we know what to expect so I think thats going to be easier. Still never know how its going to go.SETTLING INSharp, a forward, and defenseman Johnny Oduya were getting used to a new home a year ago after winning a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks. If Jason Spezza is any indication, theyll be more productive. Spezza struggled his first season in Dallas two years ago after 11 seasons in Ottawa, then almost doubled his goals last season.Much more comfortable, much more feel at home, Sharp said. The guys were very welcoming last year, but being 10 years in one spot, its tough to move.YOUNG DRuffs biggest concern is the consistency of a young group of defensemen highlighted by budding stars John Klingberg and Stephen Johns. The Stars believe in their youth at the blue line enough that they traded the rights to nine-year veteran Alex Goligoski to Arizona. Dallas gave Oduya a fellow veteran in the group by adding Dan Hamhuis in free agency.Weve got the platform to build off as long as we can get our young defensemen in the right place, said Ruff, going into his 19th season after spending his first 15 as a coach in Buffalo. 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South Sydney are hopeful of having halfback Adam Reynolds back next week as their finals hopes lurched into crisis territory for the first time in Michael Maguires reign.Reynolds suffered a freak quad injury while warming up and was a late scratching from the Rabbitohs 30-10 NRL loss to Brisbane at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.It continued the halfbacks wretched injury run, having been sidelined for most of the first two months of the season with a broken jaw before missing State of Origin III with a shoulder problem.Coach Maguire said he believed the injury wasnt serious and was upbeat about Reynolds chances of facing Manly on Monday week.Unfortunately prior to the warm up he was doing a bit of kicking and just strained his quad so he wasnt able to get out and join us tonight, Maguire said.Were facing a few different pieces of adversity but through this adversity theres a lot of character growing within individuals.My leaders are starting to show some real strenngth around what were doing and we need to keep doing that.ddddddddddddThe Rabbitohs now look set to miss the finals for the first time since Maguire took over in 2012.They need to win seven of their last seven to make the eight and must contend with a horror draw.They face five top-eight sides - including ladder leaders Cronulla and second-placed Melbourne - in the run home.Sam Burgess said the side was being let down by the fundamentals, in particular their poor completion rate, and was at somewhat of a loss when asked how they could turn it around.Its not great is it, Burgess said.Were not completing with the ball and were making it very hard for ourselves.I felt like we were in that game but if you look at the scoreboard it was 30-10 but there were some tries we should have stopped and a few early errors that set us back 18 points. 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