Dallas Stars Dominate Oilers, Continue Proving Their Abilities
The Dallas Stars looked like a brand new team on Saturday afternoon. They dominated the Edmonton Oilers and showed that they can still be a dominant team when they put their mind to it.
Wow. If the Dallas Stars didn’t just liven up your potentially restful Saturday afternoon, nothing will.
That was an exciting game. The Stars welcomed the Edmonton Oilers to town for their second matchup of the year. It was also the Stars’ first afternoon game of the 2017-18 season.
The first meeting between the two teams had not gone all too well for Dallas. The Stars coughed up a few different leads throughout the night in Edmonton and eventually dropped a 5-4 decision.
This game meant a lot to Dallas. They needed some sort of positive charge after losing three straight games on the road and posting a record of 0-2-1. The Stars gave up a combined 15 goals during the trip and looked lost and confused for most of the trip.
Dallas Stars
That’s why Saturday was so important. Dallas was back at home, where they hoisted an impressive 6-2-0 record. The Stars had two straight games scheduled on home ice and needed to make the most of each one. At a record of 9-9-1, each game was beginning to become more and more crucial in regards to the entire season.
They definitely started the homestand on the right foot. In a game between two teams struggling to live up to their preseason expectations, the Dallas Stars took advantage, crushing the Oilers 6-3.
A lot of things went right for the guys in green. After another shuffle of the offensive lines, the Stars saw some of their typical “depth players” get on the scoresheet, including Antoine Roussel and Radek Faksa. Devin Shore scored his first goal of the season, Jason Spezza tallied his second, and the superstars (like Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov) chipped in with their fair share of pressure as well.
On defense, things started leaky but got sizably better as the game went on. The Stars gave up two goals in the first period after taking a 2-0 lead and also gave up a third early in the second. They went down 3-2 and had to pull starter Kari Lehtonen in favor of Ben Bishop, who took a beating in Thursday’s 6-1 loss.
But Bishop showed no remnants of that loss today, stopping 18/18 in 39:14 of play. The team also shored up their blue line effort, giving up minimal chances over the final two periods while the offense rattled off four unanswered goals.
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It was a good team win all around and something that Dallas can build on while they await their next game against Montreal on Tuesday night. But this win also brought up some new question marks.
Why don’t the Dallas Stars always play like this? Is it something about the air in the American Airlines Center?
The Stars showed today that they can dominate their opposition when they are prepared. They have the talent and the lineup to make some serious noise around the league.
In today’s game, the Stars showed remnants of the team that people expected them to be in the preseason. We may be 20 games into the season, but Dallas is still trying to find their identity. Once they find it, they must latch onto it and continue using it. They definitely found it on Saturday afternoon.
Next: The Stars Are In Trouble Right Now
The Stars are now 7-2-0 at home and 10-9-1 on the season. Even though we’ve said it ten times (literally) this season, we’ll say it again: if the Stars play like they did today on a regular basis, they will win a lot more than they lose.
What a way to get your Saturday rolling. Let’s see if they can capitalize on it.