Dallas Stars Have A Lot Of Things Go Wrong vs. Ottawa

Tuesday night marked a significant night for many reasons in regards to the Dallas Stars:

They would be facing off with the Ottawa Senators for the first time this season. They would meet up with former Star Alex Chiasson. It was their last scheduled game before a two-day break for Thanksgiving, and they were looking to go out with a bang.

Instead, a lot of things happened for all the wrong reasons.

Jason Demers ended up sitting out for the game and must be the defense’s lifeblood considering their discombobulated performance in his absence. Kari Lehtonen is also out and no one knows for how long. He will be evaluated today at practice. Among all the other disappointing things, the Stars dropped a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators to close out the season before Thanksgiving break.

Overall, it was an exact replica of the 2014-2015 season, with the Dallas Stars dominating on offense and somehow still finding a way to lose. It’s a rough scenario to witness, especially considering the Stars were having so much success and seemed to have left those demons behind in the past.

But they still found a way to creep back in. The Stars ended up outshooting the Senators by a margin of 37-20. Even then, the Senators still found a way to build a three-goal deficit. Does any of this sound like last year?

It all started with 12:50 to go when Bobby Ryan scored the opening goal of the game. John Klingberg committed a costly turnover in the Stars own zone, giving Ryan an easy chance to bury his eighth of the year. The beating continued with 1:11 to go when Milan Michalek scored to make it a 2-0 lead.

The Stars attempted to build a comeback with Patrick Sharp scoring early in the second period to cut the deficit in half. But the Senators would prevail with a pair of goals, including one on the power play. They took the 4-1 lead at the end of the second period.

Kari Lehtonen initially subbed in for Niemi after the Senators’ third goal. He only played for 8:32 before being involved in a collision with Klingberg which forced him to leave the ice for concussion testing. It would be a tough loss for the Stars if Lehtonen has to miss time considering his hot start to the season has kept the Stars in a lot of games.

The Dallas Stars third period was painful yet comforting, if that makes sense. After the Senators scored a shorthanded goal on Niemi who had just subbed back in, the Stars took a look at the 5-1 score and decided to do something about it. Jamie Benn received a beautiful feed from his brother Jordie down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal. Moments later, Tyler Seguin scored on a wicked wrist shot to make it a 5-3 game.

There was hope once again for the Dallas Stars squad who had already fronted a few entertaining comebacks in their 2015-2016 campaign.

But it was crushed rather quickly as the Senators scored another goal to bump their lead back to three goals. Benn tried to get them back in it by scoring late to make it 6-4. But an insane, “never could they do it again in a million years” play turned up and the Senators scored a full-ice empty net goal.

The Stars were 0/2 on the power play and 2/3 on the penalty kill. They gave the Senators a total of 20 shots on goal the entire game. That means that Ottawa shot 35 percent from the field, and that statistic held true or somewhere near that for the entire game. Meanwhile, the Stars took an impressive 37 shots on net, but could only capitalize on four.

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So bad defense and bad goaltending make for a loss. If we did not learn that in the 2014-2015 year, I do not know what else we learned so consistently and at such a high degree.

The most influential stat of the night is what both Benn and Klingberg called “embarrassing”. Out of the Senators seven goals, one of them was an empty-netter. But five of them were scored off of petty turnovers in the Stars defensive zone.

The improving defenders on this Dallas Stars blue line should be above committing these ugly turnovers, especially at as high of a velocity as they did.

It’s a rough way to go before the holidays, but every team has their hiccups. The Stars are still 17-5-0 and continue their streak for the best start in franchise history. Also, they are still atop the NHL with the best record.

Next: Stars Fall To Senators, 7-4

They will look to shake it off come Friday when the Vancouver Canucks visit town.