Stars hope hardest lesson can be one to carry forward

DENVER --Trying to figure out the Stars right now is like trying to put together Christmas toys with instructions in Finnish.
It can be frustrating.
So as odd as it may seem to say that Dallas might have taken a step forward after one of their most disappointing losses of the season, it might actually be true. After blowing a 2-1 lead with three minutes left to play and losing in regulation, Stars players were ticked.
"I thought we battled in the third and we pissed it away after that," said captain Jamie Benn after a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

While veteran forward Blake Comeau added: "When we have a one-goal lead with five minutes left, we have to find a way to buckle down and get the win. There's no excuses, not at this level. You're based on results in this league. To come away with at the very minimum not a single point, stuff like that can't happen. It's just unacceptable."

And that's what makes Saturday's game a little different. This one stung. This one will be remembered. In the process of becoming a team under a first-year NHL head coach, the Stars went through an emotional evening here.
Coach Jim Montgomery was returning to the city where he coached for five seasons of college hockey, so he clearly wanted this. The Stars also were playing a Central Division rival that sat two points ahead in the standings, a Central Division rival that might be battling for the same playoff spot at the end of the season.
Had they been able to sneak in on the second night of a back-to-back and take a win in regulation -- especially a win where the Stars fought back valiantly and took control during a hectic third period -- these players would have been on Cloud Nine. But the fall from that place can be a hard one.
"They played their hearts out and they didn't come out on top," Montgomery said. "When you empty the tank, it hurts a lot more than when you don't empty the tank."
And that's an important difference for a team that has had discussions about a lack of work ethic.

Montgomery is 24 games into finding his path as an NHL head coach. Colorado coach Jared Bednar racked up Game No. 187 on Saturday. Bednar has done a masterful job of making the Avalanche competitive, but it's taken some time.
On Saturday, his team showed that steady hand down the stretch, bouncing back from a 2-1 deficit to score twice in less than a minute. J.T. Compher and his linemates were able to win battles along the board and in front of the net to score on a rebound at the 17:18 mark. Then, the top line in the league was able to convert a nice pass and get the game-winner at 18:04.
It was sort of matter-of-fact, which helped create the anger for the Stars. Colorado moves to 13-6-4 (30 points) and is a fast riser in the NHL. Dallas falls to 12-10-2 (26 points) and is a bit of an enigma right now.
But Montgomery said he saw the good things that happened for his team.
"I see growth tonight. This is the first time where we've had a setback where we competed for 60 minutes. For me, this is the first time where we lost where I'm excited about where we're going," Montgomery said.

"I always analyze things of where we're going as a team. That might have been our most selfless game as a team. Guys were changing quickly, they were changing at the right time, so it's coming."
And when you consider everything else, that's pretty impressive.
The Stars are missing John Klingberg, Marc Methot, Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop and Martin Hanzal because of injuries. They are playing two defensemen called up from the AHL and gave struggling Julius Honka just 9:52 in ice time against the Avalanche, who lead the NHL in scoring.
They leaned on a lot of role players in that third period, and that meant the game could have been a lot worse than it was.
But the Stars don't want to think about the excuses, they don't want to let themselves believe they are less than the Avalanche. They want to win games like this -- and that's a huge step forward.

"There are going to be ups and downs throughout the whole season, it's actually quite crazy that we've been dealing with the injuries that we have," said Comeau. "But when you get games like this, and you have a chance to steal a couple of points on a back-to-back in a really tough place to play against a really good team, you've got to find a way to do it."
That memory is fresh as this team continues a four-game road trip that will snake through Western Canada. It will be something they can build on when they come home for two games and then go back out on the road for four more.
It's not easy to talk about a stretch that includes 17 of 24 games on the road while you're missing half of your defense, and the Stars have tried not to. But what was interesting Saturday is they really felt their team should have won that game, they really felt they should have beaten Colorado. They weren't concerned with who wasn't there, they were concerned with who was.
And, for a first-year coach, that was a revelation.
"It was a great hockey game to be a part of," Montgomery said. "We're frustrated and disappointed that we're on the wrong end of it, but if we keep playing like we did tonight, I'm really optimistic about where we will end up."
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,and listen to his podcast.