The Dallas Stars squared off with the best team in the NHL on Tuesday night. And though you might not notice it when looking at the final score, the Stars put on a strong and admirable effort. For the first time in a while, the effort was there.
Going into Tuesday night, the Dallas Stars were in a tough spot.
They were riding a two-game losing skid that included flat performances against the Flyers and Blues, had started a six-game homestand on a losing note, and had completed a trade on Monday for Andrew Cogliano in hopes of boosting their offensive play. In addition, they were also in danger of falling back into the wild card picture after the Colorado Avalanche won on Monday night.
To top it all off, they were preparing to welcome the best team in the NHL to the AAC. The Tampa Bay Lightning arrived in Dallas with a record of 34-9-2 and were looking to bounce back from a loss on Sunday night.
So, it was a tall hill to climb for a Dallas Stars team marred with inconsistency and an inability to generate consecutive strong performances.
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They ended up taking on a third consecutive loss after dropping 2-0 to the Bolts. With the loss, Dallas fell to 23-20-4 on the season and is now back in the first wild card spot.
And yet, this loss is both less and more deflating than the others. That’s because when stacked up against the best of the best, the Stars actually rose to the occasion and even set the tempo for the majority of the game.
Unlike their ugly performances in Philadelphia and at home against St. Louis, this is a game that the Stars actually deserved to win. When a team has two bad breakdowns against the Lightning, they will more than likely find themselves with two goals against; that’s just how effective they are.
But besides a nifty pass from Steven Stamkos that set up an Ondrej Palat goal and a Mikhail Sergachev snipe through traffic from the blue line, the game was very much Stars-centered.
From the opening puck drop through the final few minutes of the game, the Stars found themselves with an opportunity to win the game. That was all due to their game plan and execution.
First and foremost, the Dallas Stars did a good job at getting an early jump in the game. Tampa Bay is known for starting fast and keeping the pace quick throughout their games, and the Stars did a good job at weathering the storm. Dallas generated a few good scoring chances in the first period and finished the frame with a 13-13 tie in shots on goal. In the final two periods, the Stars outshot the Lightning 22-8.
And that’s where the focus needs to lie. The Stars controlled the tempo for the second period and much of the third. They were faster than Tampa, generated consistent possession time that included plenty of offensive chances, and countered almost every Lightning rush with a rush of their own.
Blackhawk Up
The Stars earned six different power play opportunities on the night. For a team that entered Tuesday’s game dead last in the NHL in terms of power play opportunities, that was big. And while they generated ten shots and couldn’t find a goal, it was encouraging to see their speed and effort turn into advantages after lacking heavily in that department through the first half of the season.
Up until the Lightning’s second goal of the game with 10:45 to go in the third period, it really felt as though Dallas would find a way to tie the game up. And, even though Sergachev’s goal seemed to deflate the hype balloon, the Stars didn’t give in until a too many men penalty that stemmed from confusion put them in a hole with 2:01 left on the clock.
Simply put, they went toe-to-toe with the best team in the NHL and proved that they can be a dominant team when they want to be.
“I thought we had a good game,” Stars head coach Jim Montgomery said following the game. “We played a good brand of hockey, we’re just struggling to score a goal right now. We just have to keep with it, keep playing like that. The way we’re skating, the way we’re creating really good looks, we’re going to end up on top in a lot of games. Our process was really good tonight.”
Now, this is only a small first step in the right direction. It was a great effort for game 47, but it’s also an effort that has been practically nonexistent through the first 46 contests.
The Stars’ have a long list of problems that have stockpiled through the first half of the season. Slow starts in the first period, a lack of scoring and even generating offensive chances, and a need for some sort of spark to take the team from playoff fledgling to contender. They showed that the potential is there throughout Tuesday night’s game.
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But, as many of the players alluded to following the game, it wasn’t good enough. The power play went 0/6. The Stars were shutout for the third time this year. The offense has scored eight goals in the past six games. And even though the effort was there, they still missed passes, couldn’t cash in on great chances, and looked a step behind at different times.
“There were good things,” goaltender Anton Khudobin, who stopped 19/21 shots, told Sean Shapiro of The Athletic. “We can build off that. At the same time, we still lost. There’s something not good enough. I think guys played really well, we just couldn’t get the puck to the net. That’s not an excuse.”
In theory, this was the Dallas Stars’ best performance in a while. Since the start of the new year, they relied on Miro Heiskanen and Tyler Seguin to beat the New Jersey Devils, beat the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues though they may not have deserved it based on their effort, and fell flat against the Winnipeg Jets, Philadelphia Flyers, and St. Louis (in their second meeting of last week). On Tuesday night, they looked like a completely different team. They even looked like a team ready to run with the best in the league. And yet, they still lost.
It goes to show that it was a good first step towards finding a consistent effort that can translate into wins and points in a tightening Western Conference playoff race. But, bringing that level of effort to the table in one game isn’t going to do the trick, especially when they can’t even scavenge a point from it.
Still, Tuesday night’s game showed that the Dallas Stars still know how to play an aggressive and fast-paced style of hockey. Sure, there were some kinks in their execution and they were absent from the scoresheet, but the effort was visible and present.
They need more of that on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings. It’s a struggling opponent coming to town and a chance to break a lingering skid and get a homestand win streak started. That all starts with consistency.
And with the way the standings are fluctuating, it’s something that the Stars could desperately use right now before a long break.