5 things to know: Offensive woes continue as Stars fall to Kings

The Dallas Stars saw their losing streak hit four games as they fell to the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1, at American Airlines Center on Thursday night.
The Stars got off to a slow start against the Kings, and struggled for the first two periods, falling behind 2-0. Despite a strong effort in the third, they were not able to overcome the deficit.
Dallas, which has lost five of six games, dropped to 23-21-4 on the season. Esa Lindell scored the lone goal for the Stars. Former Dallas goaltender Jack Campbell stopped 29 of 30 shots in his first start against his old team.
Here are five things from Thursday's game.

1. Struggles on offense continue for Stars

The Stars continue to struggle to put pucks into the opposition's net. They have scored just three goals in the last four games -- all losses -- and have scored nine goals over their last seven games, during which they have a 2-5-0 record.
Thursday looked a lot like recent losses to Philadelphia and St. Louis. The Stars didn't generate much the first two periods, dug themselves a 2-0 hole and then stepped on the gas in the third.
But it was too little, too late.
In Thursday's game, the Kings took advantage of a power play in the first, scoring three seconds into it when Dustin Brown tipped in a Drew Doughty shot from the left point. In the second, Tyler Toffoli slipped by Tyler Seguin along the left boards and put a shot on net. Ben Bishop couldn't control the puck, and Carl Hagelin scored to make it a 2-0 game.
The Stars had just 11 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes.
"Not enough desperation in our play. We didn't play with enough passion," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery.
The Stars were all over the Kings in the third, outshooting them 19-3. The Stars hit three posts -- two by Radek Faksa and one by Jamie Benn -- but Campbell was sharp in goal until Lindell deflected an Alexander Radulov shot into the net with 1:04 left.
The Stars have scored one goal or fewer in five of their last six games. Tough to win that way.
"We'll just keep working at it," said Montgomery. "We'll show the clips that generate offense and where it starts from and what allows us to generate shots with potential rebounds. A lot of rebound opportunities in the third period bounced over sticks and/or hit us in legs.
"We've got to keep producing those type of attempts."

2. Radulov benched by Montgomery in first period

Radulov did not play the final half of the first period. Early speculation focused on an injury issue since he's been taking some maintenance days instead of practicing recently. But Radulov put the injury speculation to rest after the game when he said Montgomery benched him.
"I got benched. It was the right decision by the coach. I wasn't playing good and talked back with Monty, and he basically sit me until the end of the period," Radulov said. "It's the right decision. I can't do that. It's been an issue in my career, I've got to learn from it. I've got to be better and try not to make those mistakes again."
Montgomery didn't offer any reason for Radulov sitting the final half of the first period, but he did have this to say.
"Every decision we make is what's best for the Dallas Stars, and at that moment I thought that was best for the Dallas Stars," Montgomery said. "When you're struggling to score goals, it's hard to do with a player of that caliber."

3. 'Wasted opportunity' on home ice

A lot was made of what a good opportunity the Stars had to use the four games before their bye week and the All-Star break -- all of them at home -- to put themselves in a good position in the standings. Well, they are 0-3-0 so far in those games.
"It's a wasted opportunity, is what it is," said Montgomery.
The Stars, who seemed so tough to beat at home one month ago, have lost six of their last nine at AAC (3-5-1) and are now 14-8-2 at home.
The recent slide overall has teams creeping up on the Stars in the standings. The Stars, who are in the first wild-card spot in the West, are only one point up on the second wild-card spot, one point up on ninth place, one point up on 10th and two points up on 11th.
The good news is they are just percentage points out of third in the Central Division.
"I guess the only positive is that other teams around us are struggling right now as well," said Stars forward Blake Comeau. "But we can't keep counting on other teams to lose. We haven't been playing very good hockey at all lately, and it's up to the guys in the room to turn it around.
"We're the guys that are putting the skates on. We're the guys that got to go out and get the job done. Whatever your role is on this team we got to expect each other to bring that role and everyone to bring their best hockey."

4. Former Stars first-rounder Campbell stellar for Kings

Campbell made the most of his first opportunity to play against the team that drafted him into the NHL. Campbell, the Stars' first-round pick (11th overall) in the 2010 Draft, was superb in net for the Kings Thursday, stopping 29 of 30 shots.
"It means a lot to do it with this group," Campbell said of the win over the Stars. "We need points right now, and I thought everyone played great. It's just great to get a win."
Campbell spent four seasons in the Dallas minor-league system and played one game for the Stars before being traded to Los Angeles for defenseman Nick Ebert in June 2016. Campbell turned his career around in Los Angeles and he has been outstanding this season, leading the league with a .932 save percentage and ranking second with a 2.13 goals against average.
The win over the Stars was special, and Campbell got some big hugs from teammates at the final horn.
"I'm pretty sure that everyone in the hockey world knows my story and how it didn't work out here and wanted it for me," Campbell said. "They are a great group, but I wanted a win because we needed it. Everybody battled so hard, and it was fun. It means a lot.

5. Pitlick leaves game with injury

Stars forward Tyler Pitlick did not play in the third period of Thursday's game due to an upper-body injury.
"Felt like he could have come back, but I actually liked the eleven forwards and the way it was rolling in the third. We didn't want to put him in a situation where he might re-injure himself," Montgomery said.
The Stars outshot the Kings 30-19 and had an 81-54 advantage in shot attempts. ... Scoring chances were 34-15 in favor of the Stars, according to naturalstattrick.com. High-danger chances were 11-4, Dallas. Seguin led the Stars with eight shots on goal, 12 shot attempts, and five high-danger chances. ... The Stars were 0-for-2 on the power play and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill. ... The Stars won 26 of 61 faceoffs (43 percent). Jason Spezza won 9 of 14 faceoffs for Dallas (64 percent). Anze Kopitar won 15 of 24 for the Kings (63 percent). ... Miro Heiskanen led the Stars with 29:48 of ice time. ... Heiskanen also was tops on the Stars with six blocked shots.
Here is the lineup the Stars used to start the game along with scratches and injuries.
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Andrew Cogliano - Jason Dickinson - Jason Spezza
Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Roope Hintz - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Connor Carrick - Taylor Fedun
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Julius Honka
Injured: Valeri Nichushkin (upper body), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.