Despite playing one of the better road games you will see, the Dallas Stars were shut out 1-0 by Jet Greaves and the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.
Different from recent losses, there were moments throughout the night where the Stars controlled and dominated play, but they just couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities. Yes, Greaves was incredible between the pipes, but the recent dip in goal scoring made Thursday night concerning nonetheless.
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With the loss, the Stars are now 3-5-2 in their last 10 games, and have won only three of their last 14.
Getting “Goalied” Is No Excuse For Recent Trend
As we’ve already touched on, Greaves was phenomenal on a night where the Stars were not starved for chances. The first period was mediocre for Dallas, but as the night went on, Greaves preserved his team’s one-goal lead time and time again, including during a three-minute 6-on-5 in the final minutes of the game.
Good for him. He deserves the accolades for his performance. For the Stars, however, it’s just more of the same. From Nov. 25 to Jan. 12 (29 games), the Stars scored less than three goals in a game just four times. In the last five games, they have already hit that number.
Sure, Mikko Rantanen has been out for the last two contests, but this team has more than enough firepower to make up for it in the short term.
A big issue for this has been their inability to consistently produce 5-on-5. The Stars are 15th in the NHL with 104 even-strength goals. Middle of the pack is fine, I suppose, but for a team with the skill that the Stars have, not to mention the playoff aspirations, it’s just not good enough.
They are third in the NHL with 38 power-play goals, and that statistic has saved them on many a night. The Stars have scored nine goals in their last five games (1-4-0), and three of them were on the power play. It should be noted that the total of nine goals in the last five games was inflated by a six-goal night against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
The discrepancy between power-play production and 5-on-5 is embodied by the production of Wyatt Johnston. The budding star has 26 goals and 54 points, and is on pace for career-highs in both categories. However, on the power play, he has 16 goals and 26 points. To help you with the math, that’s 10 goals and 28 points 5-on-5 in 51 games.
I only point out Johnston as an example. He’s had a good season, as the Stars have had as a whole. That being said, the power play should be a luxury. A bullet in the chamber. If you get only two opportunities, as they did on Thursday, that should not sink your night. But, more often than not, it does.
Casey DeSmith Continues Terrific Season
In a 1-0 game, the winning netminder typically gets the praise for the shutout, and rightfully so. But Casey DeSmith was phenomenal as well, 21 saves on 22 shots, and is continuing to be one of the best backup goaltenders in the league.
The lone goal against him was on a shot from Zach Werenski that was impossible for DeSmith to track due to the endless number of bodies that were in front of him.
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DeSmith is 10-4-5 this season, with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. When you have a star goalie like the Stars have in Jake Oettinger, sometimes you have to hold your breath when your backup takes the crease. That is not the case in Dallas. DeSmith continues to give his team chances to win hockey games, and in an Olympic season like this one, where teams are playing basically every other night, it’s a luxury to have a backup who you are confident in when your No. 1 needs a break.
Unfortunately for DeSmith and the Stars, it did not pay off on Thursday.
The Stars Are Searching For Answers
While it has been hard for the Stars to buy a win in the last month or so, they are currently reaping the rewards of a dominating start to the season. Heading into the Christmas break, the Stars were 25-7-6 (56 points) and on the heels of the Colorado Avalanche (61 points) for the division. At the time, the Minnesota Wild had 50 points, and the next closest team in the Central Division was the Utah Mammoth, which had 39 points.
Now, the Stars are 28-14-9 (65 points) and third in the division, two points back of the Wild. They still have a decent lead on the rest of the division, but the Mammoth now have 56 points and have won eight of their last 10 games.
It’s been a frustrating stretch, to say the least, and you can feel it coming from the locker room as the losses pile up.
“We just didn’t execute on some of our chances,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said after the game on Thursday. “You can see it was a pretty tight checking game, but we had a lot of looks. A lot of good looks even late, and breakaways, and some 2-on-1s. I thought their goaltender was really, really good. I thought ours was too.”
“It’s frustrating,” Johnston added. “You’ve got to work hard to get your looks and then you also got to work even harder to finish them and continue to get looks.”
If you take away the 6-2 win over the Bruins on Tuesday, the Stars have been a tough watch for almost a month. Games like last night, even in a loss, do have an encouraging element to them, and that rhetoric is coming from the team as well.
“A lot of good things, just didn’t get the win,” Stars defenseman Thomas Harley said. “I thought we created some offense tonight. I thought we defended reasonably well but we just couldn’t get one over the line.”
Plenty of Opportunities to Get Right
The good thing about this jam-packed schedule is the ability to get back on the horse quickly.
The Stars host the St. Louis Blues on Friday night, and have a few days off before playing the Blues again on the road next Wednesday.
