Heika's Take: Loss to Canadiens has Stars inching toward do-or-die mode

DALLAS -- For just one game, there was much to digest Tuesday.
The Stars lost a 5-3 home contest to the team with the worst record in hockey, which was playing on the second night of a back-to-back. They now are 1-4-0 in their past five games and losing ground on a vicious battle for playoff positioning in the Western Conference. And they continue to struggle to convert golden scoring chances as they get ready to head out on the road, where they've tallied five goals combined in their past six games away from home.

Let's just say it wasn't a feel-good night at American Airlines Center.
"We made some bad decisions with the puck at the blueline, but we were all over them," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We had 30 scoring chances and we haven't done that in a long time. The mistakes we made ended up in the back of our net because they were just bad puck management. They capitalized on every chance they got, and we didn't."

Dallas is now 18-16-2 on the season, nine points behind Minnesota for fourth place in the Central Division, and the Wild have a game in hand. It's a tough breath of reality for this team right now and losing to Montreal really puts things into perspective.
Yes, the Canadiens worked hard and earned this win, but Montreal is 8-15-5 on the season. This was only its third road win. It entered the game last in goals scored per game and last in goals against per game. These were two points the Stars really needed.
Mix it in with two losses to 30th place Ottawa and a game that was squandered in the final minute at St. Louis, and there are a lot of places fans will be able to look if the Stars miss the playoffs.
"They all hurt," forward Tyler Seguin said. "They're all opportunities wasted and can come back to bite you at the end of the year. We lost to Ottawa a couple of times this year and lost to Montreal."
Now, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Dallas has played just 36 games, so we haven't even hit the midway point yet. The Stars head out on a four-game road trip against some of the weaker teams in the East, and they definitely have plenty of motivation after Tuesday's defeat.
"Hopefully this is just a blessing in disguise in a way that we have no choice but to get our act straight on the road coming up going on a long road trip here," Seguin said. "There's no excuses. We're getting down to not do or die but the urgency has to be very high."

Seguin scored a goal and finished with nine shots on goal. He was both frustrated and excited by the performance.
"It felt like we had tons of chances," Seguin said. "I don't know how many there late in the third. It was just one bad bounce here and there. I'll have to look at the clips to see if he was making great saves or if we were just missing. But obviously the shot volume was great, and the chances were great. You'd like to see more of those go in, and they definitely should. If you play the right way and get your chances, they'll go in. We'll have to try and take something from that."
Likewise, Joe Pavelski had nine shots on goal and Roope Hintz had eight. Dallas finished with a season-high 51 shots on goal and a league-high 110 shot attempts (on goal, blocked and missed the net). That should be encouraging, and Bowness did say he liked the effort and energy of the team.
Jake Oettinger allowed five goals on 19 shots and was pulled for his second consecutive start. He hadn't been pulled in his NHL career before that. However, Oettinger has allowed four goals or more in four of his past seven starts and appears to have lost the edge he enjoyed when he was called up from the minors earlier in the season.
"That's hockey, and that's goaltending," Oettinger said. "It's not always going to be easy. I want to be a big part of this team and help this team win. I know I can do that. No matter what happens out there, I believe in myself. I know I can help this team win. I'm going to do everything in my power to get my game back to where it needs to be, and then help this team win."

The Stars will have to do the same thing. They head out to Buffalo and Detroit for back-to-back games Thursday and Friday. Jason Robertson (lower body) and Alexander Radulov (COVID protocol) might be available on the trip, but the Stars say they just have to role with whatever is presented and focus on one shift at a time.
"You can only say that so much," defenseman Ryan Suter said when asked about "learning" from the losses. "We can work harder. When you're not scoring goals, you dig in and get dirty and find ways to score. They don't have to be pretty goals. You have to will the puck into the net. That's what we need to focus on moving forward."

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.