The Dallas Stars finally broke their losing streak last night, and they did it with some help from depth forwards.
It’s no secret that the Dallas Stars have seriously lacked in depth scoring, so it was a nice change of pace for some new faces to score.
The issues with depth scoring are by no means fixed after last night, but two players got their first goals of the season, meaning 10 players have now scored this season.
Two depth players even had multi-point nights in the 4-2 victory over the Kings.
More from Blackout Dallas
- Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
- Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
- Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
- Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
- Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs
Blake Comeau got his first goal with the Stars to open scoring up in the first period. He wasn’t brought in to be a goal-scoring forward, although that’s what the team needed to sign in the offseason, instead being added for his penalty killing.
The goal wasn’t Comeau’s only flash of offensive skill last night. He had 4 shots, and almost added his second goal in the third.
Tyler Pitlick also scored his first goal of the season. Pitlick wasn’t exactly a depth player last night, since he was hand-picked by Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn to join their line with Alexander Radulov out, but that top line hasn’t been scoring either in the past few games.
Jason Spezza‘s first goal of the season was the lone Stars goal in the 3-1 loss to the Wild last Friday, but he added his second against the Kings. He also had an assist on Comeau’s goal, putting him at 7 points on the season. He only had 8 goals and 26 points last year, but he’s on pace for 20 goals and 72 points this time around. He doesn’t look exactly like the old Spezza yet, but he’s looking so much better in Jim Montgomery’s system than he did in Ken Hitchcock’s.
Devin Shore also had a multi-point night, grabbing assists on the goals by Spezza and John Klingberg. He scored the Stars’ first goal of the season and then was absent from the scoresheet until last Friday when he finally grabbed a second point with an assist on Spezza’s goal. At this point, Montgomery should keep Shore and Spezza on a line together and see if they can keep that momentum going.
Justin Dowling and Jason Dickinson looked great in last night’s game, and each grabbed their first points of the season. Dickinson has been in and out of the line-up, but he made a great case for himself last night, while Dowling showed that maybe they made the right call pulling him up from the Texas Stars instead of Denis Gurianov.
With the status of both Radulov and Valeri Nichushkin still up in the air, the Stars may still call Gurianov up, especially after going with just 11 forwards last night and scratching Gemel Smith.
This team still has a long way to go for the depth scoring to get to where they need to be, but it’s a relief to see some production from players outside of Benn, Seguin, Radulov, and Klingberg.