Stars get rest and a reset before Monday's game in Philadelphia

The Stars could use a reset.
After a wild three games in four days, Dallas would love to get back to "Dallas Stars hockey," but there's a bit of a challenge with that. Bottom line, the last two games revealed a few solutions.

Dallas lost a 5-3 home game to Montreal on Tuesday but tossed a season-high 110 shot attempts at the net. They trod a similar path Thursday in Buffalo and ended up winning 5-4 in regulation. Then, they exchanged punches with Detroit on Friday and found a way to win a 5-4 game in overtime. It's not exactly how the coaching staff drew it up, but there was some excitement about the ability to create scoring chances and score goals.
"Listen, we're certainly not happy giving up four goals, but we're certainly happy that we scored five," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We have to tighten it up. We're trying to find ways to win 2-1, 3-2, and if we can score four or five goals, that's the object obviously."
The team took Saturday off and went through a practice Sunday that emphasized the defensemen getting up in the play so they can continue to add to the offensive production.
"Just more offense, getting the D involved, trying to score more off the rush, a little more creativity," Bowness said after practice to get ready for Monday's game at Philadelphia.

But getting that offense means doing it the right way. Bowness said the defensemen and the forwards have to read off each other and support each other. That's how the team can avoid some of the golden scoring chances against in the past three games.
"The D have to make better reads on when they can and cannot go down the wall. It's a little both of both the defense and the forwards," Bowness said. "It goes back to building that trust with each other."
Can they do that and still maintain the improved offense they've seen in recent games? Well, that's the plan. The loss against Montreal featured some incredible scoring chances and not near as many against, and that's the plan for games going forward.
Of course, the Stars have to find ways to score. They did that by pocketing four power-play goals against Buffalo and then did it again with a key power-play strike in overtime to beat Detroit.
Splashed in there were key goals for players like Jacob Peterson, Joel Kiviranta, Esa Lindell and Ryan Suter. The latter two are key reasons why the coaches feel the defense has to be involved more. Plus, getting scoring depth from the likes of Peterson and Kiviranta also is huge.
Tyler Seguin has moved back to center and that's helped the second line. The top line continues to produce with some of the best in the league, so if Dallas can sprinkle in goals from depth players, it makes a difference.
"We finally have two lines scoring with Seggy at center. It was nice to see Kivi score and our defense," Bowness said.
Seguin is up and flying, shaking off the doldrums that was caused by surgery last year. Alexander Radulov was out with COVID, but also has a chance to add to the scoring mix. If players like Peterson, Kiviranta and Radek Faksa could chip in, then maybe the Stars really are over a stretch that saw them score five goals in six road games.
Still, they have to be cautious and find a way to score goals while not giving up too much.
"We've got to tighten it up. There's too many goals going in our net," Bowness said. "We'll keep getting our defense up and trying to score goals, that's what we're trying to do, but not at the risk of getting into a 5-4 game every night."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.