There were a lot of kids this afternoon that went home very sad after the recent Dallas Stars loss on Kids Day. The Stars gave a very disappointing effort late in the third period which led to the Tampa Bay Lightning winning 3-1. You do have to have to give credit to Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for shutting down the Stars offense today. But that’s not the disappointing part of todays loss. Let’s take a look at the three takeaways of the game against the Lightning.
Dallas Stars vs Tampa Bay Lightning Recap: 3. Stars “turtled” in the third period
The Stars did the one thing that you can’t do against the Lightning, turtling. After Wyatt Johnston had possession of the puck with 5:31 left in the third frame, the Stars remained in their own zone for the remainder of the game trying to get to overtime to at least earn a point. The Lightning have a lot of good scorers on their team and remaining in your own zone especially for five minutes is a recipe for disaster. Let’s try and not do that against Boston on Valentines Day.
"When you let a good team like that hang around by not sticking pucks in the net when you get looks, things like that happen."@ATT | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/PWd3uNF2Ir
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) February 11, 2023
Dallas Stars vs Tampa Bay Lightning Recap: 2. Power Play was terrible as well
The Stars’ power play was just as terrible against the Lightning. The Stars were 0-4 with the extra man advantage this afternoon. The Stars need to get back to making their opponents pay for committing penalties. If the Stars even converted half of their power plays, this afternoon might have been a different outcome. I know power plays have their ups and downs throughout the season but the Stars needed to capitalize on them today.
Dallas Stars vs Tampa Bay Lightning Recap: 1. Scott Wedgewood did a good job today
Scott Wedgewood was really good against the Lightning this afternoon. He really deserved the win but his teammates failed to get him some goal support. Wedgewood made this amazing save on Steven Stamkos breakaway opportunity in the first period to keep it scoreless. Wedgewood is a solid backup goaltender for the Stars. The team needs to realize that they can’t score a goal and be content. Wedgewood can only do so much and needs some goal support to get him a win.
https://twitter.com/DallasStars/status/1624482515313479680?s=20&t=6boxdBUCa5FPuUUS_EsV3g