The glow of the Dallas Stars' resilient win over previously unbeaten San Jose faded over the weekend. The team dropped both ends of its California road trip to Los Angeles and Anaheim to fall to 3-5-0 on the young season. The Stars have lost four of their last five.
Last night in Anaheim, goaltender Jack Campbell deserved a better fate in his NHL debut. His final stat line in the 6-3 loss looked ugly, but the young netminder had little to no chance on five of the goals. Four were deflected, one was off a line rush with poor coverage and another (from future Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne) was from point-blank range.
Overall, Campbell was bombarded with 47 shots, including 23 alone in a second period that topped Pittsburgh's middle-period domination of Philadelphia last Thursday as the most lopsided periods of hockey I have seen this season.
The defensively challenged Stars, whose coverage gaffes and mismanagement of the puck have been horrific at times (even during the team's otherwise strong preseason), basically were human turnstiles for Anaheim as the game progressed. Dallas was stationary, the Ducks had their feet moving and the results were predictable.
As the match progressed, the Stars increasingly gave into frustration and lost any semblance of discipline. They put themselves shorthanded five times and yielded two goals to an Anaheim team than entered the game 1-for-the-season on the man advantage. Frankly, the Stars could have been called for a few more penalties, including what looked to be a charge by Ryan Garbutt (he left his feet) on an open ice hit on Dustin Penner. The Anaheim forward was basically out on his feet as he was helped to the locker room.
Last night's game was almost two matches in one. The first period more or less went according to plan for the Stars. After Selänne put Anaheim ahead early with a power play goal, the Stars roared back in the latter half of the period for three unanswered goals by Garbutt, defenseman Brendan Dillon and Shawn Horcoff (power play, double deflection).
Even in the first period, however, Dallas yielded a few too many good scoring chances for comfort. The Stars got slightly outshot, 13-12, in the opening stanza and Campbell had to make several tough saves among them. Still, it was obvious that the Stars 3-1 lead would not mean much if they didn't play better in their own zone.
It didn't happen. Corey Perry trimmed the deficit to one goal in the opening minute of the second period, and things just went downhill from there. At the 11:48 mark, Perry was credited with his second goal of the period, although it looked like Cam Fowler's power play point shot deflected in off Dillon without Perry getting a piece of the puck in front.
Emerson Etem put the Ducks ahead to stay late in the period on a shorthanded goal. He steered the puck home as Andrew Cogliano put the puck toward the net. Campbell got caught a little too deep in his net on that one.
Dallas had a power play chance opportunity in the third, but failed to capitalize. From there, Anaheim put a stranglehold on the game as the Stars continued their sloppy and undisciplined play. At the 4:26 mark, Ryan Getzlaf scored a line rush goal. At 15:12, Mathieu Perrault tacked on an additional insurance goal, deflected an Etem shot into the net.
Apart from the unacceptable number of defensive breakdowns, the Stars continue to take too many bad penalties.
Horcoff, who has taken seven minor penalties in eight games, got whistled for a pair of hooking infractions. Antoine Roussel, a player for whom there is a fine line between him helping and hurting the team with the penalties he draws and takes, got six minutes worth of minors plus a 10-minute misconduct by the time the game was done. Garbutt got called for kneeing early in the game (leading to the Selänne goal on the ensuing power play) but did not receive a penalty on the hit against Penner.
Jonas Hiller played the first period in goal for Anaheim, stopping nine of 12 shots. Frederik Andersen took over at the start of the second period and blanked the Stars the rest of the way on 24 saves.
The Stars now have three nights off until they host Calgary. I would not be surprised if Ruff makes changes in the lineup and shuffles around defensive pairings in the interim.
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