Heika’s Take: Stars fall victim to bad bounces, hungry opponent in loss to Panthers

Blame it on inconsistent play, blame it on bad luck, blame it on some motivated opponents . . . but the Stars are in a bit of a slump right now.

After a 5-4 loss at Florida on Wednesday, Dallas is 3-4-2 in its past nine games, including two regulation losses in a row for just the second time this season. The Stars fall to 14-7-3, and there are some trends they want to avoid.

“Tough game,” said coach Pete DeBoer. “You had two good teams going at it. I thought momentum shifted a bunch of times. We had a really good start, but they found a way to get the first goal and they grabbed it for a little while. We kind of pushed back, but it was tough.”

The Stars have allowed 20 goals in their past four losses, and that’s uncharacteristic for a team that was fifth in GAA last season.

“You can’t give up five goals on the road, so that’s a big ask to score that much, especially against good teams,” DeBoer said. “So that’s probably the one area where we dropped the ball. We were a little loose around our net.”

Jake Oettinger had some great saves and was exposed at times. The defense was scrambly at first and then just plain unlucky, as well. While the Stars definitely had a hand in creating the first three goals against, they battled back and tied the game at 3-3 in the third period on goals by former Panthers Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov.

Then a Florida shot took a funny bounce off of the back glass, and the Stars lost sight of it. The puck landed at the side of the net, and Aleksander Barkov punched it past Oettinger for the go-ahead tally.

“Really, we tie it up and they get the goal off the stanchion, that’s probably the difference in the game,” DeBoer said. “You get a bounce like that, that’s the fortune you need to win a game like that.”

But just as it was when they allowed the tying goal in Calgary on a fluke floater and lost in overtime, Dallas allowed the next goal in Florida. Evan Rodrigues scored to make it 5-3, and that left a late power play goal by Thomas Harley relatively meaningless. Yes, it was the sixth goal for the young defenseman, and yes it allowed the Stars to pull the goalie and put pressure on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, but the end result was just another regulation loss.

“They’re a good team. They went to the Final for a reason, they play the game hard,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said of a Panthers team that lost to Vegas in the Stanley Cup Final last June. “I like how we came back in the third. They got a lucky bounce on that fourth one. It happens, and we’ll move on.”

Dallas will play at Washington on Thursday to end a stretch of five-of-six on the road, so it would be good to put the bleeding – as small as it might be – to a stop. The Stars have had a history of bouncing back after a loss.

“It’s important,” Benn said. “It’s a big part of our team.”

The stat line on the game said the Stars were close Wednesday. They led in shots on goal, 34-31, trailed on shot attempts, 64-60, and won the battle of faceoffs (32-26), blocked shots (18-12), and hits (19-15).

DeBoer has juggled the lineup over the past few games and that might continue Thursday. The expectation is that Scott Wedgewood will be in goal, and there is a chance that defenseman Nils Lundkvist returns after three straight healthy scratches. Tyler Seguin left the game in the third period after a hit to the head, so there also is a chance Ty Dellandrea comes back in after a healthy scratch. Dadonov returned to the lineup on Wednesday after two healthy scratches and had a goal. DeBoer said he liked the response from the veteran winger.

“I thought he was good tonight,” DeBoer said. “He got better as the game went on, I thought he was much more effective in the third. That’s more of the game we need out of him.”

Dadonov said that missing games provides motivation.

“Sure, you don’t want to watch from the press box, you want to play games,” he said. “Hopefully, it refreshes your mind and you recharge a little bit. But it was tough for two games not playing.”

Now, he’s hoping to make a difference in the standings as the Stars have accumulated just eight of the past 18 possible points.

“I think we played well enough to get a point, but this is a tough league and they’re a good team,” DeBoer said.

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 Twitter @MikeHeika.