Heika’s Take: Oettinger’s return spoiled by disappointing loss to Predators

Jake Oettinger returned from a month-long injury absence and finished Friday’s game in good shape.

That was about all of the good news for the Stars in a 6-3 home loss to Nashville at American Airlines Center. Sure, two empty net goals made the score worse than it could have been, but Dallas was outgunned in a lot of ways. The Predators had a 38-22 advantage in shots on goal, a 68-56 edge in shot attempts and registered more than 30 quality scoring chances. What’s more, officials had team giveaways at 23 for Dallas and three for Nashville.

“We weren’t good,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Shots against, scoring chances, bad penalties, there were a lot of disappointing areas that lead you to the result you have.”

Oettinger officially allowed four goals on 36 shots faced, so he battled through his first game since missing the longest stretch of his career. Coming back from a groin injury, he said he felt healthy and wants to build on this going forward.

“I felt like I missed a whole season,” he said. “It sucks. Anyone who's missed time during the season knows how that feels. I’m thankful for our physical therapist, Nick [Andreas]. Without him I wouldn’t have gotten back as fast as I did. I wouldn’t feel as confident as I do right now in my body. I’m happy to be here right now. I feel like there’s some good stuff I can take from tonight.”

You could argue that Oettinger wasn’t responsible for any of the four goals. Two came when forwards seemed to miss coverage and allowed a rebound shot. One was on the power play when Filip Forsberg was left all alone. And one was when a shot deflected off the stick of a Stars defenseman. For the first game back, he definitely was able to process a lot.

“I was happy to get back in there,” he said. “There were things I could definitely be better at and there were some good things I did. I have to move on and take the good and learn from the bad.”

That goes for his teammates too. Nashville has done a great job this season keeping the Stars to the perimeter and keeping scoring chances down against their goalies. Dallas rallied for a last-second win in Nashville in December, but the Predators have taken the past two behind goalie Kevin Lankinen.

“They did a really good job,” said forward Wyatt Johnston, who scored his 11th goal of the season. “They blocked a lot of shots and that’s on us. Just getting it through and getting to those hard areas. It’s the cliché everyone says, ‘Get to the net,’ but we didn’t do a good enough job of that in the first two periods.”

The Stars have been good in recent games, routing a Minnesota team that has been battling illness and injuries. However, they are 0-3-1 in games outside of the Wild contests, with all four losses at home.

“We could probably execute a little better on breakouts to get more pucks in behind them and forecheck them to create offense out of that,” said defenseman Jani Hakanpää, who scored his second goal of the season. “Maybe a little detail here and there. We need to sharpen up.”

They’ll get that opportunity quickly, as they play at Chicago on Saturday. It will end a stretch of 11 games, where 10 of the opponents are from the Central Division. Dallas is 10-4-2 against the division, which is a big reason the Stars are 24-12-5 overall, good for 53 points.

With half the season in the books, this team is on pace for 106 points, just behind the 108 points they garnered last season. That total put them in second place, just one point behind Colorado. This year, they are trailing both the Avalanche (27-12-3, 57 points) and Jets (28-9-4, 60 points). That certainly opens your eyes when you ponder playoff seeding and possible matchups.

“We know who we are,” DeBoer said. “The only pressure is playing to our potential every night. We have played some really good hockey here. I think if your process is right and your foundation is right, and your game is in a good place, we’ll go on a run like that. You just have to stick with it.”

That starts on Saturday.

“I think the guys here want to get back at it as fast as we can and show what we can do,” Hakanpää said. “It’s going to be good for us to get one tomorrow right away and use this one as motivation to make sure we come out buzzing tomorrow."

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.