First Shift 🏒
Technically speaking, every game in the NHL is a chance to bank two points in the standings, and every game should be judged equally.
But there are some exceptions to that philosophy.
The Stars on Saturday will face the Edmonton Oilers, the same team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season, and the same team that might end up standing in the way again this season. So, yeah, that will be a different sort of challenge.
“You remember that they’re the team that knocked you out of the playoffs,” Stars captain Benn said. “Obviously, it’s a new year, but you still want to win pretty badly. There’s some fire there.”
Stars coach Pete DeBoer said that this is similar to starting the season against Central Division rival Nashville.
“They’re big. I don’t think it’s any bigger than the division game against Nashville, or those types of games,” DeBoer said. “Obviously, with the way the season ended last year, that’s still fairly fresh, but it’s a new year and a new group.”
The Stars went 0-for-14 on the power play in the six-game series against the Oilers and have gone 1-for-17 to start the year on the man advantage, and that will definitely be a topic of conversation before Saturday’s game.
“There’s definitely things we need to do differently,” Benn said. “I need to win the faceoff to start with. I don’t think I’ve won very many so far, and that can change a lot of things. It starts with the faceoffs, and then we need to start shooting and keep it more simple. It’ll come. We need to start outworking the penalty kill, and then it will come.”
Dallas lost a big part of the power play when Joe Pavelski retired in the summer. They also have been hampered by the fact that Robertson missed all of training camp following foot surgery and Johnston missed some of camp with a lower body injury. With Seguin also out with a lower body injury for the past two games, Dallas has had to adjust on the fly.
“I think we’ve fallen into a little bit of a trap where we’re squeezing our sticks a little bit too tight,” DeBoer said of the tendency to allow a slump to get into your head. “You’re seeing some frustration and it’s way too early to be dealing with that. We’re five games in, and you have to expect that there are parts of your game that are not going to be in a perfect spot this early in the year. For the most part, a lot of our game is in a really good spot, so that’s one area we’ve got to work on.”
Dallas enters the game at 4-1-0, coming off a 3-2 loss in Washington on Thursday. Edmonton is 2-3-0, but took a 4-2 win in Nashville on Thursday. Both teams are excited about the rematch.
"I think you just know that they're a good team,” goalie Stuart Skinner said. “You know what they're going to bring and the type of game that they play. They're very well structured, have great goaltending, and are obviously just a really tough team. So they're pretty well the same every single night.”
DeBoer said not only is there a direct challenge in playing the Oilers again, but also in responding to a loss. Dallas concentrated on avoiding consecutive losses last season, and that was one reason they had the second-best record in the NHL.
“I think for us, it’s about us having the same mindset where we don’t lose two in a row, we bounce back and find a way to play a good game,” DeBoer said. “There’s just a pride in our consistency of play and an honesty to the group to get things fixed to help us win games the next time around.”
