First Shift 🏒
On one hand, the Stars’ challenges could get even tougher on Monday night in Utah.
On the other hand, the NHL is a complex riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
On paper, the Stars were supposed to clean up on a recent six-game run at American Airlines Center where they entered as the best home team in the league. But in reality, they went 3-3-0, including losing the final two games. On paper, Dallas is 6-8-0 on the road and playing a Utah Hockey Club that is 6-0-2 in its past eight games and playing its best hockey since moving from Arizona in the summer. In reality, the Stars took a 2-1 win at Delta Center three weeks ago and looked good in the process.
So while coach Pete DeBoer understands the need to break down the details of home vs. road or getting his stale power play moving, he also believes the answer can be a little more straightforward.
“We’ve just got to go in and win a game,” DeBoer said Sunday. “Whether we play at home or on the road, we have to go stop the bleeding.”
Even the bleeding is a relative term. Dallas played two very fine games against the Maple Leafs and Rangers and lost – in large part – because the opposing goalies stopped a ton of shots. Joseph Woll made 36 saves in a 5-3 win for Toronto on Wednesday. Igor Shesterkin came up with 41 saves on Friday in a 3-1 win for the Rangers. The Stars held the Leafs to 19 shots on goal. They had a 42-30 advantage in shots on goal against the Rangers. Analytically speaking, they did a lot of good things. But analytics don’t win games, goals do. And right now, the lads in Victory Green are struggling to put the puck in the net.
On Friday, Dallas had 17 minutes of power play time and fired 21 shots on net with the man advantage. That’s the third-most in a game in franchise history since the NHL began tracking power play shots in 1987.
“I don’t even know how many we had, but a lot and we didn’t score,” said center Hintz. “I think we had some looks, but still, at the end of the day, that’s not good enough when you get that many power plays and you don’t score. We have to find a way to generate more goals on the power play.”
Again, it doesn’t make sense, but the Stars’ power play is worse at home, where the team is winning, than it is on the road, where the team is losing. So could Monday bring a strange change in fortune? The Stars on Sunday worked on “compete” drills to find ways to show both urgency and poise at the front of the net.
“Just scoring, just finishing,” DeBoer said of the rationale. “I think our underlying numbers are good, we’re creating enough chances, just finishing here recently has been an issue. Every team goes through those peaks and valleys during a season where everything you shoot goes in or nothing you shoot goes in, you hope throughout a season it balances out.”
Dallas lived on its balance last season. It set a franchise record with eight different players scoring 20 goals or more. But while that allows individuals to quietly go through slumps while still having a high goals per game average (third at 3.59 last season) for the team, it also means the top players haven’t been hardened by the pressure to score with more regularity.
“It seems like everybody has cooled off here in the last week or two,” DeBoer said. “Depth has to carry you at different points in the year. And I like our depth.”
That depth means that just getting a few players hot can fix a lot of problems. Mix in the fact Dallas sits fifth in GAA at 2.59 and you don’t have to get that many more goals to secure a few wins.
“Every opportunity is a new challenge,” said captain Benn. “We have to find a way to get it done here.”
