'I haven't seen enough': Bowness sends message to Stars' top players

Stars (1-1-0, 2 points) at Senators (1-1-0, 2 points)

The Stars are opening the season with a four-game road trip and are 1-1-0 with games against the Rangers and Bruins, so they don't want to overreact to any negative stats so far.
That said, they've been outshot 73-54 in those games and have an even worse differential on shot attempts at 138-97. Those are numbers that help determine possession analytics, and they're in stark contrast to what the Stars produced last season, when they were top 10 in most possession stats. So, as they head into their third game in four nights Sunday against Ottawa, there's plenty to work on.
"We haven't found our team game yet," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. "We will. I'm very confident. It's a good team in there, a couple of guys haven't found their game yet. A couple of guys need to find their game."
Many of those guys are at the top of the lineup. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov haven't been good as a line and were broken up Saturday. Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz haven't sparked their chemistry yet. Hintz had a rare bad game Saturday with a key giveaway and a 2-for-7 night in the faceoff circle in 14:29 time on ice.
Asked about his top forwards, Bowness said he'd love to see more today.
"I haven't seen enough," Bowness said. "We need them to produce offense. Our top guys haven't found their game on a consistent basis. There were some good shifts, but there were too many shifts where they're not involved in the game enough, they're not making a difference in the outcome of the game. There are guys who haven't found their `A' game yet, and that applies to that group, and we need them to quickly find it."

Dallas was 0-for-6 on the power play and was outshot 17-5 in the first period. They need to find a way to cash in with the man advantage and they need to have a better start. Once again, those are things they'd really like to address against the Senators. After all, a Tuesday game awaits in Pittsburgh, and the Penguins are off to a 2-0-1 start.
"The guys want to win," said defenseman Ryan Suter. "It's early. Guys are working hard and we're trying to find our way. We'll get there. It's definitely a process."

What to watch

Anton Khudobin gets his first start of the season in net. He came on in relief to get the win in overtime against the Rangers, stopping six of six shots. Braden Holtby left the game with dehydration, so the challenge was tough for Khudobin. But the man who has served as a backup goalie for much of his career seems to have the mindset to play as a partner with Holtby or as a 1B.
"The role of a backup is a difficult role, but for most of the career that's what his career has been," Bowness said. "He's had that role before, and he knows how to handle it. He knows how to prepare himself and he knows that at any second that you could be thrown in. That's your job as a backup, you have to be ready for the unexpected."
As for Sunday, well a big game for Khudobin would be quite timely. He is 8-0-2 in his career against the Senators with a 2.17 GAA and .935 save percentage. Khudobin went 12-11-7 last season with a 2.54 GAA and .905 save percentage. He battled injury and COVID, and that contributed to his numbers being down.
"He knows he was off last season, and it was a disappointing season for him, and I think he did everything he could over the course of the summer to get himself in much better physical shape," Bowness said. "When he reported to camp, he was 10 pounds lighter and in very good shape, so when you do that, you're showing your commitment. You're working very hard physically, and it's also good for the mind to remind yourself how hard you have to work."
Also worth watching will be Miro Heiskanen. John Klingberg missed much of the first game and all of the second, and as a result Heiskanen is seventh in the NHL at 27:25 in average time on ice. Klingberg will be out again Sunday with a lower-body injury, so Heiskanen will likely be played with several partners and in all situations.
"He's been great. He had a great training camp and he's been great the two games we've played," Bowness said. "We love his poise, but we also love the fact that when the game is one the line - you're up a goal, you're down a goal - he wants to be on the ice. He wants the ball to run with it. He loves that, and he raises his game. Elite athletes have the innate ability to when the game is on the line to take your game to another level. If you watch Miro late in games, he's trying to be a difference-maker."

Lineup updates

Because Klingberg (lower body), Jason Robertson (upper body) and Blake Comeau (upper body) are out with injuries, Dallas doesn't really have the option to change the lineup. The same 20 players who played Saturday will play Sunday, but Bowness might juggle them up.
He started with this forward line grouping Saturday:
Benn-Seguin-Radulov
Peterson-Hintz-Pavelski
Raffl-Faksa-Gurianov
Kero-Glendening-Kiviranta
And eventually moved to this:
Kero-Glendening-Kiviranta
Benn-Seguin-Gurianov
Peterson-Hintz-Radulov
Raffl-Faksa-Pavelski
Bowness said the Glendening line had the best game, and that's why he kept them together. As for the rest, we'll see.
"You like the Glendening line, so at this point you try not to break that up because they've been playing very good," he said. "We try to mix some wingers up last night to get things going. But it's only two games, so the chance of us starting the game tonight with the lines we started with last night are pretty good. But then we'll have to make some adjustments if we don't like what we're seeing."
Robertson and Comeau have remained behind in Texas and have been working out on their own. Either could fly to Pittsburgh for Tuesday's game, but both could also stay home and wait for the team.
"We'll find out in the next 24 hours," Bowness said. "I would be hopeful that one of them could play on Tuesday, but I'd say 50-50 at best."

Numbers

#

98

Hintz has 98 career points and is closing in on 100. Heiskanen has 97 career points.

Plus-12

Suter is plus-12 in 20 career games against the Senators. He has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in that span.

14

Benn has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 17 career games against Ottawa.

He said it

"The good thing about today is that Ottawa has the same schedule. They're playing Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 5 o'clock, same as us. Last year, there were too many games where we were playing those four in six and we were playing a rested a team that didn't play the night before." -- Bowness when asked if playing such a condensed schedule last season will help this year when the Stars have three games in four days
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.