Heika’s Take: Stars endure harsh reality check in loss to surging Jets

After a 4-1 loss at Canada Life Centre on Saturday, the Stars now trail the Winnipeg Jets by 12 points in the standings.

But the difference on the ice seemed even greater.

In a game billed as a “measuring stick” for both teams, Winnipeg looked complete from offense, to defense, to goaltending and special teams. Meanwhile, the Stars looked like they still have plenty of work to do.

“I think when you look at these guys and Florida, they’ve exposed us,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We’ve got to be a lot better.”

The Stars have done a great job of handling non-playoff teams this season, and that’s one of the reasons they are in decent shape at 8-5-0. However, they lost two games in Finland to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, including getting behind 6-2 in the first meeting last Friday. So piling this performance on top of that sounds a couple of warning bells.

“It’s a game that has us all looking in the mirror, trying to figure out where we want to go from here and who we want to be,” said forward Tyler Seguin.

The Stars actually started the game well and looked ready to make a point. However, Dallas took two penalties in the first period and the hottest power play in the league went to work. Alex Iafallo converted seven minutes in, and then Rasmus Kupari converted a Matt Dumba giveaway into a goal and the Jets had a 2-0 lead after one period. Winnipeg had a 12-2 advantage in shots on goal at the time, and pretty much dictated play.

They got an even strength goal from former Star Vladislav Namestnikov and another power play tally from Nikolaj Ehlers eight minutes into the second period and had a 4-0 lead before the midway point in the game. The Jets went two-for-five with the man advantage and sit at 41.9 percent, best in the league.

The Stars, meanwhile went 0-for-4 on the power play and now rank 21st in the league.

“There are some things we could look at on our [power play],” Seguin said. “They’re aggressive, they move the puck around well, and we’ve got to do that too.”

In addition, the Stars’ respected penalty kill has allowed goals against in five of the past six games and have slipped to 11th at 83.7 percent.

“They’re a great power play, but we’re also a great penalty kill,” said forward Wyatt Johnston. “We need to make the plays that need to be done on the kill.”

And that goes for the entire lineup.

“It was a big challenge coming against the team leading the league,” Johnston said. “We obviously didn’t come out and play the way we wanted, but you can definitely learn from experiences like this.”

Winnipeg is now 14-1-0, the best record in the league. The Jets are getting good play from pretty much everyone and are led by goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who came really close to posting a third consecutive shutout. Roope Hintz was able to tally in the 58th minute of the game, and that provided the tiniest consolation, but Hellebuyck is now 11-1-0 with a 1.83 GAA and .935 save percentage. He has a clear path to be Team USA’s No. 1 goalie for the 4 Nations Face-off in February. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was hoping to make his case for the same spot, but fell short. While Oettinger received praise from his teammates, he allowed four goals on 15 shots and was pulled in the second period.

DeBoer said he was trying to light a fire under his team, and backup Casey DeSmith did a solid job the rest of the way.

“You’re looking for a spark,” DeBoer said. “That game wasn’t on Jake.”

While Seguin added, “Our goalie did nothing wrong. It’s unfortunate that we hung him out to dry a bit. We did it against Florida in Finland and again tonight.”

And that is something the team will take away from this stretch. Yes, Dallas is beating non-playoff teams, but it has yet to register a signpost win against a top contender.

“We’ve beaten the teams we should beat, but when we’ve had opportunities to play the top teams in the league, we haven’t risen to the occasion.”

Dallas follows this up with a game against the 6-8-2 Penguins in Pittsburgh on Monday, and it’s still very early in the season. This is definitely a rougher start than the Stars had in the last two seasons, and that is concerning for a squad many experts picked to contend for the Stanley Cup.

“I’m glad it’s happening now,” Seguin said. “Good things to learn from. We have a lot of time to get a lot better.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.