Heika's Take: Stars make a statement in all the wrong ways vs. Devils

DALLAS --The Stars sort of made a statement Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't something anyone wanted to hear.
In losing a 3-1 game to the New Jersey Devils, Dallas squandered an opportunity to pick up points in a heated playoff race, and even more importantly, looked horrible in doing so.

"We didn't look like a team that wanted to make the playoffs, I'll tell you that," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "Let's be honest, what do our eyes tell us? There wasn't near enough desperation in our game. It's as simple as that."

Dallas played a Dallas-like game, staying slightly ahead of the Devils for much of the day. However, New Jersey took over in the third period, tied the score 1-1 early in the third, and then scored twice in the final minute and change. The Stars were outshot 9-6 and had no quality scoring chances against a New Jersey team that's been among the worst defensively in the league. The Devils also entered with the worst road record and entered on a five-game winless streak.
It was a wasted opportunity for Dallas.
"It obviously wasn't the game we needed to show up and play," said defenseman Ryan Suter, who scored the 100th goal of his career. "They came at us, they came hard, and we weren't ready for that."
Suter said the Stars have to respect every team. They'll turn around and play the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday at United Center, and while the Blackhawks won't make the playoffs, they still can keep the Stars from making it.
"Every team in this league is good," Suter said. "The teams in the playoffs are obviously there for a reason and the teams that are out, guys on those teams are playing for jobs next year, for pride. There's no easy game. When you're out of the playoffs, you go out there and try to spoil a team's season, and we have to know that, have to make sure we're prepared for [Sunday] because they're going to come hard."

The Stars had the opportunity to put up a few more goals, but they didn't get to the net enough and they didn't force Devils goalie Nico Daws to scramble enough. In the end, that opened the door for an impressive comeback from New Jersey. Not only did the Devils shut down the Stars in the third period, but Nico Hischier also made a great play to score the game-winning goal. Hischier outbattled Tyler Seguin while cycling in the offensive zone and then stuffed in the puck with 1:11 left on the clock.
"I expect a little more intensity," Bowness said. "Knock him on his butt, and we didn't."
Instead, the Stars were knocked on their butts with the loss. They can make up for it by winning games down the stretch, but it's still a wasted opportunity to build a cushion. Dallas hasn't really had that luxury this season, and it doesn't look like it will any time soon. But the Stars are still in the mix, and they still control their own destiny in terms of making the playoffs or missing.

"We've got to. We have no choice," Bowness said of bouncing back against Chicago on Sunday. "If we play like that, we're going home in three weeks. It's as simple as that. That's what I told them after the game, `You play like that, three weeks from today, we're going home.' You can say all the right things all the time, but it's not what you say. It's what you accept. It's what you do."
Defenseman Esa Lindell returned to play after missing five games with an upper-body injury and played 18:52. Jacob Peterson also returned. Denis Gurianov was a healthy scratch, but Bowness said the team could be making some lineup changes on Sunday.

"The other lines were all good for two games," Bowness said of the decision to scratch Gurianov, who was returning from an injury. "All of a sudden, you got a stinker, and it's easy to second guess it now. But the last two games, the lines have all been good. They have been. And Saturday], they were all bad."
*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*.