Loss to Blues provides Stars with chance to plan for what’s ahead

As far as warm-ups go, this one was lukewarm.

The Stars lost a 4-0 game to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in exhibition play at American Airlines Center. Those are the same Blues who will be back in town on Oct. 12 for the regular season opener, so there was definitely an “almost real” feel. But with St. Louis touting a high-level lineup and the Stars still working their way through injuries and a partial roster, there seemed to be plenty of room for improvement.

“There’s always things you can take out,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “When you look at the game, I didn’t like our first period at all. Then, the last 40 minutes I liked a lot of the things we did. We started to play and I thought we started to dictate more on both ends of the rink.”

The Blues came out firing while icing close to their opening night lineup against a Stars team that played maybe 12 expected regulars. Justin Faulk had a shot deflect in off of Stars defenseman Esa Lindell five minutes into the game, and that was the only goal through the first two periods. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger looked solid, but Blues starter Jordan Binnington matched him in a game that had some really good scoring chances, yet also a heavy dose of disciplined defense.

“We know their game, and we knew that’s how they were going to play and they executed it pretty well tonight,” Stars forward Ty Dellandrea said.

With Dallas missing centers Roope Hintz, Wyatt Jonston and Radek Faksa with injuries, players like Dellandrea, Matt Duchene and Mavrik Bourque stepped up in the pivot. It was an interesting test of the team’s center depth. Dallas did some good things, including winning 69 percent of the faceoffs and earning a 59-43 advantage in shot attempts. The game was a close one until the Blues added a second goal on a Robert Thomas shot that deflected in off Stars defenseman Thomas Harley. They cashed in on two power play goals in the final two minutes to seal the game.

Getting to see the Blues with a two-man advantage in the final three minutes was a plus from a scouting standpoint for the Stars.

“You’re gathering intel,” DeBoer said. “We play them in the first game of the season, so it was good to see. As tough as it was to get scored on and as bad as you feel for Jake because he played really well, it was good to see their power play.”

Oetinger made some strong stops, and was foiled by the “own goals,” but Binnington was solid himself. The veteran Blues goalie gave a sneak peek that this Central Division rival will be a tough out. St. Louis has a big defensive group and battles to keep the front of the net clean. And Binnington has the pedigree to take advantage of that.

“We had good chances and Binnington played good, so credit to him,” Dellandrea said. “I thought Jakey played good too. We had our chances, we had our looks, we’ve just got to capitalize and that’s the game.”

While DeBoer said the deflections were unfortunate, he added that the Blues did a good job of pushing the puck at the Stars early on in the game.

“We really don’t talk about the pucks actually going in. I think everyone on the bench understands those things are going to happen,” DeBoer said. “It’s more about our play, and if you’re playing well you can usually survive those bad bounces. But it’s funny, sometimes those bad bounces are a symptom of your game. I think that was the case early in the game, but I thought in the second and third we started to play better.”

Dallas will play its final preseason game on Saturday at Minnesota, and then will have four days off to get ready for the season opener. Perhaps their injured centers will be ready by Thursday to kick off the season.

But if they’re not, the Stars do feel good about their overall depth.

“We’ve got a lot of depth and you’ve seen a lot of combos throughout the lineup - different guys playing with different players on different nights,” Dellandrea said of a preseason that has revealed all sorts of new combinations and opportunities. “I think the coaches want to see what works and what clicks before the season gets going. So, if stuff happens during the season, injuries or stuff like that, you can move guys around.”

That season is coming fast, and the Stars are trying to make sure they can lean on a 4-1-1 preseason record as proof of preparation.

“Like all exhibition games, there’s good and there’s some bad,” DeBoer said. “I think what you can learn is that’s a good team. They’ve got a big veteran defense that makes it hard to get to the net. We’ve got to get to the interior to score and we didn’t tonight.”

But you can bet that tonight’s effort will help them in building a good plan for next week when the wins and losses start to count.

And just as Lindell said, “We need to get better than today.”

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.