To become a high-speed team, Stars must play like one

The Stars are not a great passing team.
Heck, they might not even be a goodpassing team.
If you're looking for evidence, check out the 32 giveaways from Saturday night and the 23 from Tuesday. Both games ended in losses. Both games ended with almost no goal scoring.
So it's easy to get down on this team right now.

But there was a big difference between Saturday and Tuesday, and it's a big reason Stars fans should be encouraged. Dallas meandered against the St. Louis Blues, created little offense, and lost 3-1. The Stars came out on fire against the best team in the NHL Tuesday, had a 35-21 advantage in shots on goal, and lost a 2-0 game to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Clearly, there was progress and something to build on.
"I thought we had a good game," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "We played a good brand of hockey, we're just struggling to score a goal right now. We just have to keep with it, keep playing like that. The way we're skating, the way we're creating really good looks, we're going to end up on top in a lot of games. Our process was really good tonight."
It was. This Tampa Bay team is 36-9-2 and leads the league in just about every stat. The Lightning presented a challenge for the Stars (23-20-4), and in a lot of ways Dallas lived up to the challenge. After playing a couple of terrible games last week, and after Montgomery dressed down the team's effort and execution, this really was a great answer.
And yet…
If the Stars are going to become the team they want to be, then they need to play like this quite a bit more. They need to be aggressive offensively, they need to push the pace, they need to make plays at top speed. And they only partially did that Tuesday.

Yes, they created scoring opportunities. Yes, they counter-attacked and had the super-fast Lightning on their heels at times. Yes, they did a lot of things that will eventually lead to wins.
But they just seemed a step off too often. They seemed to miss on passes through the neutral zone. They seemed to miss on bang-bang plays at the net. They seemed to miss when they really could have made a play that could have changed the game.
The Lightning hit on their one, when Steven Stamkos read a defensive gaffe by the Stars and made a perfect pass to Ondrej Palat in the first period. It was a bang-bang play, and it gave Tampa Bay the cushion it needed to fend off the Stars.
Now, you can also credit Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for his 35 saves. You can credit the Lightning defense for having sticks in the passing lanes and breaking up plays. The Stars pointed out both.
"We went up against a good goalie," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "He could be the hottest guy in the league right now. I thought we had some good opportunities to score, but sometimes it goes like that."

While Montgomery added: "They did a really good job in their own zone, their goaltender did a really good job, and they did a really good job of clearing pucks from in front of their net."
And all that is probably true. But it's also true that if the Stars want to play this fast brand of hockey, they have to get better at it. They have to be able to make crisp passes, they have to be able to create scoring chances, they have to be able to score goals.
Maybe that element seems to stick out more during this stretch where the team has been able to score just two goals in three games. If you want to go back further, it's eight goals in six games. If you want to go back further, it's 28 goals in 14 games.
Bottom line, goal scoring is a problem. We can talk about Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov -- who have gone cold in recent games -- or we can talk about the lack of depth scoring, which has been lacking for a good long while. But the simple fact is this team needs to get better at possessing the puck, at creating scoring chances, and at finishing.
"Watching us lately you wouldn't say that's a strength of ours," Montgomery said of the passing game. "It's something that we're continuing to get better at. Passing has a lot to do with it, but when you're not scoring goals it can affect the passing of your team, as well. I don't think we're a poor passing team, but the two games before tonight, we didn't skate well so we're not making good plays and you start to lose confidence in your ability to make plays, which affects your passing."

It's a fantastic point, and one that could be a key to how this team plays going forward. Even with their six power-play opportunities Tuesday, the Stars still rank 30th in the league at 122. They have to possess the puck to up that number.
But, heck, they got sixpower-play opportunities. They earned that man-advantage time by possessing pucks, by driving to the net, by winning 50-50 battles. That's what a fast-paced game can do for you.
But once you get those power plays, you need to be better at taking advantage. That comes down to passing and chemistry and converting. It comes down becoming a team that is comfortable with the pace of the game.
The Stars on Tuesday showed glimpses of that.
If they're seeking an identity -- a speedyidentity -- they need to show a lot more.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.