Dallas Stars Face Tragic Results And Little Time To Work
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars may have walked away with a valiant 2-0 victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday night in Dallas; but when you weigh out the positive with the negatives, it turns out to look like a severe loss for a team that is doing everything in its power to get back into the playoff hunt.
After an early lead that would stand the rest of the contest was snagged in the first period, followed by a second period with not much action, the third period looked like a severe dogfight. This dogfight seemed purely against the Dallas Stars, and they will now suffer as a result of it.
The Stars lost three of their top six forwards Friday night. First off, Ales Hemsky left the game unnoticed from the bench after only skating for 2:10. He was deemed to have suffered a lower-body injury and did not return for the rest of the game. The other two injuries happened in the third period.
“It’s a dirty shot. It’s just something that ends up taking your best player out of the game. Not only out of the game, it is taking him out of the lineup for a little while for us. (We will) just let the league deal with it. I used to yell and scream about it but that doesn’t do any good. It’s just a shot that didn’t need to happen.” -Lindy Ruff
With just 6:58 left in the final frame, Dallas Stars leading goal-scorer and points-getter Tyler Seguin was bringing the puck across the blue line and into the offensive zone when he was cheaply and dangerously leveled by Panthers D Dmitri Kulikov. Kulikov skated into Seguin’s path and bent low to the ground, looking like he was ready to lay a hip check. Instead, he bent much lower than he was supposed to and delivered the blow to Seguin’s knees, who proceeded to buckle over and gingerly writhe in pain on the ice after the collision. If you did not see the game, here is the video:
This play resulted in Seguin being helped into the Dallas Stars locker room by the medical staff and Kulikov being handed a 5-minute major for clipping and being tossed from the game under a shower of boos from Stars fans. The Stars went on the power play for the next five minutes with a two-goal lead.
Less than 50 seconds later, John Klingberg had the puck on the power play attack and sent a high wrist-shot towards the net. Patrick Eaves, who usually plays the screener down low on the power play and cleans up any loose rebounds, was unsuspecting that the puck was up in the air and aiming for him. Eaves turned at the last second to shield his face, and the puck had a heavy collision with the right side of his face. Eaves sank immediately to the ice and looked dazed at first, indicating a good chance at a concussion. After about two minutes, Eaves was helped up onto his skates and escorted off the ice by his teammates. Eaves face was gashed and dripping blood, and had already swelled up a good bit before he left. If you missed that highlight clip as well, here is the video:
The Dallas Stars lost three of their top six forwards in a matter of 50 minutes of gameplay. Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff, after venting about the unnecessary and unbelievable hit by Kulikov, said that Seguin and Hemsky would be out for “some time.” Eaves on the other hand was headed to the hospital for x-rays and tests by the time the game had ended. So all three prime offensive threats for the Stars will be missing for a while. Not to mention the absence of Antoine Roussel for one more game due to a suspension he is currently serving. The final game of his suspension will be served Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
“It’s somebody else’s opportunity. It’s tough but we’ll call a couple of guys up. We’ve got (Curtis) McKenzie here so he’s in. We’ll call a couple of more up and they’ll both be going in and we’ll put some lines together. In my career coaching, I’ve seen where sometimes this can make a team stronger. It can give another guy an opportunity and you don’t use it as an excuse you use it as an opportunity. There’s injuries on every team.”
The Dallas Stars are now absent three forwards and in need of answers fast before a critical game against a Central Division rival in less than 24 hours. The Stars have only one ace in the hole, being Curtis McKenzie, who served as the healthy scratch in Friday’s game. The other two will have to be called up and make their way to Colorado in time for the game. The two favorites as of now are Brett Ritchie and Travis Morin, both of whom have played in Dallas this year.
Either way, the Stars have little time to make the best decisions and little room for error over the next few games. Life just became a lot more difficult for the club, and these next few games will show the true face of the Dallas Stars when faced with an ultimatum such as this.