ANAHEIM, Calif. --The Dallas Stars dropped their third game in their last four outings, a 2-0 defeat against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.
Here are some thoughts on a night where the effort and the opportunity didn't match the result -- not that anyone else in the Central Division or Western Conference is going to feel sorry for the Stars.
Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' 2-0 loss to Ducks
Dallas does 'a lot of good things,' but can't solve Anaheim's Miller in dropping the first leg of a back-to-back
1. Play well before you win
By most measuring sticks this was a much better, heck, even terrific road game for the Stars, especially when juxtaposed against their disappointing 5-2 loss to San Jose on Sunday night.
Shelled early against the Sharks (the Stars gave up goals on the first, third, fourth and fifth shots Sunday) to continue a trend of poor starts, the Stars were much more diligent against a Ducks team that has really started to roll and are now 6-1-1 in their last seven with four wins in a row.
Dallas limited Anaheim to just four shots in the first period and were the better team 5-on-5 throughout the evening. But one of those four first-period shots found the back of the net as Hampus Lindholm put home the rebound of a Ryan Getzlaf shot on the power play to give the Ducks all the lead they would need on this night.
Still, the Stars would end up outshooting Anaheim 41-17, thanks in large part to an extended stretch of 5-on-3 play in the third period. But they could not solve veteran netminder Ryan Miller, who was playing in place of injured Ducks starter John Gibson.
"The power-play goal that we got scored on, that's a hard one because the rebound was right on the guys' stick," Dallas head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I thought the rest of the time, we did a great job killing penalties. We created a lot on our power play.
"I think the big thing is you got to play well before you can start winning, and we weren't playing well and we got away with it. We won the game against St. Louis; we didn't play that well. We didn't play well the game before (a loss to Vancouver). We didn't play well in San Jose, and then tonight, we played well.
"So this is a first step. We've got to continue to build on this. It's a tough league and you pay for not playing well sooner or later, and that's exactly what happened. I think you know if we can build on this, then this is the step we're looking for and the guys can grow again."
Hitchcock and the rest of the Stars will get to find out quickly just how significant this building block was as they'll square off tonight with another team starting to gain momentum in the hunt for a playoff spot -- the Los Angeles Kings.
2. When opportunity knocks, answer
Weird time for Dallas when it comes to power plays.
The Stars didn't earn a single power play against San Jose, and in fact, had gone almost two full games without a man-advantage opportunity. Wednesday's game, however, was virtually gift-wrapped for them in the third period when Anaheim took four straight minors, including back-to-back delay-of-game calls that gave the Stars slightly more than two minutes straight of 5-on-3 opportunity.
They hit three posts, but could not find the back of the net.
Worse, at the end of the long two-man advantage, Getzlaf came out of the penalty box and beat Ben Bishop to a dump-in and scored into the vacated Dallas net to make it 2-0 with a shorthanded effort that really took the starch out of the Stars.
"We've got to capitalize there," Dallas defenseman John Klingberg said.
He pointed to a play that he wish he'd taken a shot instead of looking for a tip pass to Alexander Radulov moments before the Getzlaf shorthanded goal. But there were a handful of woulda, coulda, shoulda moments on that extended man-advantage situation.
"We should have capitalized on special teams," Klingberg said. "I think power play was pretty good, but we gave up one, so it's not that good."
Hitchcock said they had a quick look at the power-play chances that turned out to be a key moment in the game afterward, and he suggested delaying some of the perimeter shots to wait for more traffic in front of Miller might have been a better option than looking for rebounds at the side of the net.
"We were standing off waiting for the rebound, so (Miller) got to see, even though they were basically full slapshots from the top of the circle," he said. "He got to see those, and I think looking back on it, when we have the come around there, we're going to have to hold at net a little bit longer Other than that, I thought we did a lot of good things."
Not surprisingly, in the Anaheim room, those power-play moments were, likewise, seen as key.
"It was a gutsy job by our guys blocking shots. Our goaltender played phenomenal," Getzlaf said. "Those are turning points in hockey games for sure. When you have a full two minutes to kill a 5-on-3, it's not an easy task to ask."
3. That shorthanded goal
On the most basic level, the Stars lost the special-teams battle, giving up a power-play goal and a shorthanded marker. But the second goal seemed to illustrate the fine line between where the Stars were when they were pushing their way up the standings a few weeks ago and where they are now in a late-February funk.
After pounding puck after puck at Miller, Getzlaf came out of the penalty box and flipped the puck into the Dallas zone. Klingberg and Tyler Seguin were back checking after a long shift, and the puck, instead of bouncing toward Bishop in goal, sort of died as though it was a sand-wedge shot onto a green.
Bishop hesitated, and then, when he realized his teammates weren't going to get there, he charged after the puck, but not in time to prevent Getzlaf from chipping the puck past him and scoring the insurance goal.
"I haven't seen the replay, but from the way it didn't go anywhere, I started going, and once I saw it stop, I knew I was in trouble. I just tried to get a glove on it when he chipped it over me," Bishop said.
"The way he flicked it, I thought I'd be able to make a play on it. I think it might have stopped there. Once I committed, I kind of have to go there. It's just a matter of the guys being out there a long time, obviously two minutes, and just the back spin."
Klingberg said the initial angle made it look like Bishop would get to the puck. But then, it died.
"That's a really tough one to give up for sure," Klingberg said. "You can't blame Bish for that because he was coming out, but the puck just took a weird bounce."
Although he wasn't overly taxed, Bishop showed a nice bounce back after being lifted in San Jose, having allowed four goals on five shots against the Sharks. He had no chance on the Lindholm goal and stoned Corey Perry with a nice glove save on a breakaway.
In the end, though, it wasn't enough.
4. Speaking of finish -- or lack thereof
So, the Stars have managed four goals in the last four games, and were it not for Bishop's heroics against St. Louis last week, they'd be looking at a four-game slide.
But it's clear a lack of finish is costing the team points.
Even though they were much better in the first period, by not scoring and allowing the power-play goal, it marked the ninth time in the last 11 games the Stars have given up the first goal in a game. And with this team's fire power, there's no excuse for not capitalizing on the prolonged man-advantage opportunities.
"Our 5-on-3 has got to get it done, that's a deciding factor," captain Jamie Benn said. "Pretty plain and simple -- two minutes."
On the plus side of the ledger, Benn was as good as he's been for some time as Hitchcock moved him to center, playing at even strength with Radulov and Devin Shore. Benn had five shots on goal and was fully engaged, even if the finish wasn't there.
Still, if there was frustration, it did not reveal itself after the game. In fact, Bishop seemed quite Zen at not getting the kind of support that might have changed the night's outcome.
"You've got to do your job," Bishop said. "If you we're not going to get any, we've got to try and hold them to nothing. That's not always going to happen, but that's got to be your mentality. We've got a good group in here. They can put up seven, six (goals) any given night. So just one of those times we're not finding the back of the net right now, but it cycles throughout the whole year."
Big picture, Klingberg said the team needs to do a better job of creating havoc in front of opposing goaltenders.
"I think we played pretty solid. The only thing, I think we shot a lot of shots for sure, but were outside all night," Klingberg said. "I think (Miller) made like two or three really good saves, otherwise, I think he made some easy stops, so we've got to get in front of that, get in front of him and get more shots -- more hard shots for him. Good, quality chances."
5. More Hanzal woes
Beleaguered Dallas center Martin Hanzal played seven shifts for a total of 4:09 in ice time before leaving for the night with a lower-body injury. He will not play against the Kings on Thursday, and in fact, will head back to Dallas ahead of the team for further evaluation.
"We'll give you a further update in a couple of days," Hitchcock said.
Earlier in the day, Hitchcock had talked about the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the big center, who is so important to the Stars style of play, but who has battled myriad injuries literally since before the start of training camp. He defined him as "day-to-day" for the rest of the season.
Hanzal played against Vancouver and St. Louis and then was off for the San Jose game, but looked good in practice prior to Wednesday's game.
Now, this latest setback so soon after missing time cannot be viewed as anything but troubling as the team heads into the final days before the Feb. 26 trade deadline.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Scott Burnsideis a senior digital correspondent for DallasStars.com. You can follow him on Twitter @OvertimeScottB, and listen to hispodcast.
