Braden Holtby's first appearance against his former club turned into a rough performance, as the veteran netminder allowed five goals on 27 shots in front of a frustrated sold-out crowd of 18,532. Holtby lasted two periods and was replaced by Jake Oettinger for the final 20. But as head coach Rick Bowness put it in his postgame interview, no one on the ice had a good game.
The club's performance was even more disappointing considering who was in the house. Along with Zubov, who was met with a thunderous applause as he was introduced prior to his ceremony and again when his No. 56 was raised to the rafters, former Stars including Mike Modano, Derian Hatcher, Brett Hull, Ed Belfour, Craig Ludwig, Brenden Morrow, Marty Turco and Trevor Daley were on hand.
The Stars entered the game with four consecutive wins - all on the road - and had five victories in their past six at home. They had two full days between games and were jostling for playoff positioning. In other words, the Stars had so much going for them leading into Friday's game.
It seemingly started off on the right foot when Joe Pavelski's shot crossed the stripe just 42 seconds into the game. But upon further review, the play was deemed offside. That's when things started to unravel.
The Stars immediately found themselves in penalty trouble, and the Capitals made them pay with two power-play goals from Tom Wilson and John Carlson.
Before the first period ended, the Stars were trailing by three goals despite a handful of quality scoring chances of their own.
When they came up empty-handed on a four-minute power play in the second period, the Capitals promptly responded with two unanswered goals from Connor McMichael and Nicklas Backstrom to put the game away for good.
Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Don't miss your chance to see the Stars continue their homestand Sunday against the Boston Bruins at 6 p.m. Get your tickets now!
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.
