Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' third straight loss to top opponent

The Dallas Stars completed a forgettable week with a 5-3 loss to the red-hot Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night and now prepare for a four-game road trip in the east.
Here are some ruminations on a game -- and a week -- that wasn't, and a look ahead to a road trip that promises to be a significant test of this team's character.

1. Lost week with more tests to come

You've heard of a lost weekend. Well, this was a lost week for the Stars.
Seems like 10 years ago, the Stars had won five in a row and talked with enthusiasm about facing Western Conference powers Nashville, St. Louis and surprising Vegas this week.
But when the dust cleared on those three "test" games, the Stars had gone 0-3-0, been outscored 13-5 and now face the sobering reality that they really aren'tas close as their record and play might have suggested just a few days ago.
"Humbling," said Stars center Tyler Seguin. "Looking in the mirror, if I look at myself the last few games against the big dogs, wasn't big enough. So, (I have) got to be a lot better."
So, now what? With games against the solid Rangers, offensively-powerful Islanders, surprising Devils and slowly-rebounding Flyers, there are no obvious places of rest for the embattled Stars over the next week.
"Well, this league doesn't forgive teams that aren't playing well, so it just gets tougher," said Jason Spezza, who had one of his best games of the season, scoring his fifth goal in a wacky second period that saw four scored in 3:37 -- three by the Golden Knights.
"I think that's a challenge for our team. We have to understand the magnitude of the trip, what it means before we hit a pretty good home stretch. We have to put ourselves in a good spot, but there's no doubt, this league doesn't forgive when you're playing bad and losing games.
"You have to find your game and regroup as quick as possible, because other teams are chomping at it to try and win games, too."

2. If it's not this, it's that

At some point, it's not about whatline combinations head coach Ken Hitchcock comes up with, but the fact that the players cannot close the deal.
We very much liked the Spezza, Alexander Radulov, Mattias Janmark combination employed Saturday. Dangerous all night, they combined for eight shots on goal and produced the second Dallas goal.
The team actually got even-strength goals from their three top lines, which is positive. But even though they had 70 shot attempts, including 39 actual shots on goal, they could not find a way to score when it mattered most.
Like in the final minute of the second period. the Spezza line had possession, but a pass to Esa Lindell -- open at the side of the net -- ended up going off his stick, which pretty much summed up the offensive side of things on this night:
Lots of smoke. Not nearly enough fire.
"I think we're kind of dangling with the line of frustration and patience," said Seguin, who had an assist and a team-high five shots on goal.
"There's a line in between there of just bearing down. That's where kind of I feel I'm kind of hanging out."
For Hitchcock, it was less about the offense and more about the defensive breakdowns.
"This is a really disappointing game," the coach said. "This is fight back, give it away; fight back, give it away. When you're as poor as we were early in our own end, it really puts you in a tough spot.
"To work hard to come back, and then just kind of give it away the next shift, is really disappointing."
Hitchcock was referring to the frantic stretch in the first half of the second period that saw Vegas take a 2-1 lead, Dallas tie it and then give up two more quick goals to give the Golden Knights a two-goal lead that Dallas could not broach.
"I would say we over-worked in the offensive zone and underworked in the zone that really counted, and we paid dearly for it," Hitchcock said. "I don't know what it is right now. We're giving up too many chances where we've got people in the right spot and we're just standing around.
"We got outmuscled on pucks for three of the goals right in the slot."

3. Special teams letdown (again)

For the fourth straight game, the Stars could not come out ahead in the special-teams battle.
And while it wasn't as pronounced as Thursday's loss in St. Louis -- when they gave up seven power-play opportunities, allowing the Blues to score twice while getting just two man-advantage chances with one of those in the last minute of the game -- Saturday was not appreciably better.
They gave up a power-play goal to David Perron in the second period. He outdueled Seguin for a puck in at the circle and then could not capitalize on three opportunities, including a critical opportunity with just over seven minutes left in regulation, and trailing 4-3, to run their streak of power-play futility to 0-for-11 in the last four games. They have scored a power-play goal just once in their last 10 games.
On the plus side of the ledger, they only took two minor penalties.
Small victories against larger defeats.

4. Opportunity squandered

We're well past folks taking the Golden Knights for granted as they refuse to behave like any expansion team the NHL has seen, well, maybe ever.
Saturday's win was their fourth in a row, and they are a handful. Well-coached, disciplined and relentless, they are full value for their 19-9-1 record.
Still, for the second time this week, Dallas could not take advantage of the opportunities the schedule presented.
The Golden Knights were coming off an emotional shootout win in Nashville the previous night. They were using former Dallas prospect Maxime Lagace in goal, who entered the game with a 3.85 goals against average and .866 save percentage.
As has happened on more than one occasion this season, the Stars made Lagace look a little like Jacques Plante.
"It's nice to get a win," Lagace said after moving his record to 6-6-1. "It was a great team win. Really nothing to complain about."
Not to take anything away from Lagace, who stopped 36 of 39 -- including a handful of memorable saves on John Klingberg and Radek Faksa among others -- but this was a game the Stars should have dictated, not chased.
"Obviously, it's a game we've got to win," Spezza said. "It's a home game after losing two in a row. It's a game that there's lots of plays out there to be made, we just didn't make them. That's how we lose the game."
The game was, in that sense, a mirror image of Tuesday's disappointing 5-2 loss to Nashville when Juuse Saros played in the second of a back-to-back situation, with the Predators having played Boston the night before. But they still managed to take advantage of Dallas letdowns and miscues to secure the victory.

5. Benn's breakthrough a hollow victory

It has not been an easy time of late for Dallas captain Jamie Benn, who has struggled to find his scoring touch in recent weeks.
Benn entered Saturday's game having gone nine games without a goal. That drought ended at 4:16 of the third period as he ripped a high, hard shot over Lagace to make the score 4-3.
But Benn took little satisfaction from the goal, given the outcome of the game. He acknowledged he is struggling now, and that if the team is to emerge from this funk, he will have to be better.
"It starts with myself -- it's just not good enough," Benn said. "You got to lead the way if you're going to be the captain. I'm not doing it right now. I don't know who the team is supposed to follow if I'm not doing it."
He admitted there will be some solace in hitting the road for the next week as the team tries to sort through its issues.
"It will be nice to get on the road with the guys and stick together," Benn said. "We're in this together. We got to find a way to win on the road now."
Like his teammates, Benn said the three losses this week were a reminder of just where the Stars are at right now, or rather, where they are not.
"It just shows us that we've got a lot of work to do if we're going to play with the best teams in the league," he said. "We can either be there, or keep doing what we're doing.
"We're kind of stuck in the middle here, so we got to figure it out."
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.