Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' 4-2 loss to Canadiens

MONTREAL --The Dallas Stars let another critical pair of points slip through their collective fingers Tuesday night, dropping a 4-2 decision to the road-weary, injury-depleted Montreal Canadiens.
Here are some mutterings from a second straight loss on this crucial six-game road trip.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Canadiens highlights]

1. You play with fire, you get burned

Let's be very candid: This was a game that the Stars simply could not afford to lose, and it was a game which was virtually gift-wrapped for them -- a game that cried out, take two points and move on.
Instead, the Stars ended up being the ones who did the giving -- as in giving the game away through a lack of discipline and carelessness, allowing Montreal, a team that had scored just once on the man advantage in its last six games, to find the back of the net three times on the power play.
Montreal, playing without starting netminder Carey Price, captain Max Pacioretty and defensive star Shea Weber, had played the night before in Columbus, losing 5-2. Long out of the playoff race, the Habs should have been ripe for the picking by a team that is -- or should be -- desperate to collect points for their own playoff pursuit.
But after taking a 1-0 lead on a nice tip by Radek Faksa of a Greg Pateryn point shot, Dallas could not put the Habs away. Instead, Dan Hamhuis took a double-minor for high sticking seven minutes, 44 seconds into the second period and the game tied at 1-1.
The Habs scored on the first minor, and then Faksa was caught for a trip in the neutral zone, giving Montreal a long 5-on-3, which it scored on immediately to make it 3-1.
While the Stars closed the gap with a power-play goal of their own late in the second, Pateryn took a roughing penalty after a controversial hit by Andrew Shaw, and the Canadiens scored their third power-play marker of the night to put this one away.
For the Stars, this marks a second straight game on this road trip where mindless penalties cost them. They also gave Pittsburgh five man-advantage opportunities in a 3-1 loss on Sunday.
"Two games in a row now, we've had careless sticks, and it's hurt us," Dallas head coach Ken Hitchcock said.
Stars players agreed that those kinds of plays can't happen -- not at this stage of the season and with a playoff berth hanging in the balance.
"(Like the) game in Pittsburgh, same thing -- second period killed us, those penalties killed us, and it's on us," said Alexander Radulov, who earned the primary assist on Jamie Benn's power-play goal in his first game back in Montreal since signing with Dallas in the offseason.

2. Cracks in the wall

If you're a cynic, you might ask: If you can't beat Montreal, given all the issues confronting that team, then who can you beat? And the Stars will get precious little time to ruminate over this wasted opportunity as they head to Toronto to play a well-rested Leafs team on Wednesday night.
Hitchcock admitted that the pressure of playing in a high-stakes, high-pressure playoff race has revealed some cracks in the veneer of the Stars psyche.
"I think this time of year, it's really revealing one way or the other," Hitchcock said. "There's lots left in it, by the way. We're not dead yet. But it is very revealing, so by the end of this season, we'll have a really good evaluation of what we did.
"We've improved dramatically. We've gone from basically the outhouse (last season) to getting involved in this thing now, but we're going to have to finish the job if we expect to get in."
Part of that is on the coaching staff to allow the players to work through the pressure of this kind of hockey -- hockey that is new to many of the players on the roster.
"I think the thing that concerns us is that we've shown some cracks that we haven't shown when it was in the middle of the season," Hitchcock said. "Now, the temperature's gone way up and we've shown some cracks, so we've got to help the guys get through that stuff.
"It's not being mad at them or anything. It's a new experience for a lot of guys, and you're seeing some guys, quite frankly, not wear the pressure very well right now, and we've got to help them through. That that's our job. We've got to make sure that they're comfortable when it's really uncomfortable because, right now, it's really uncomfortable for everybody, and it's kind of fun, to be honest with you."
In some ways, it was a terrifically refreshing look at a disappointing outcome. And Hitchcock is right: It is kind of fun to see just how the team works itself out of this funk.
If they can.

3. What do the players think?

Certainly, there wasn't much in the way of excuse-making in the Stars' locker room after this one, which is gratifying in and of itself.
"I think it's all on us," Pateryn said. "It's not anything about what they did. We're shooting ourselves in our foot out there. We're paying for it on the scoreboard."
Pateryn expressed frustration with team's approach to the game. This was the second time in a little more than a week that the Stars have lost to an Eastern Conference team well out of the playoff race, having dropped an overtime game to Ottawa on March 5.
"I think also just our play and our attitude towards the game, I think that's frustrating, too," Pateryn said.
Benn, who, along with linemates Radulov and Tyler Seguin, was denied on multiple quality chances, both at even strength and on a late 6-on-3 power play with netminder Kari Lehtonen on the bench for an extra attacker, noted that giving up three power-play goals, "that's not going to win you any hockey games at this time of the season."
"We've got to move on, we've got to learn and learn quick," the captain continued. "We've got a big game again (Wednesday), so we've got to clean up our act pretty quick here."
When it was pointed out to him that the team has failed to deliver a complete game in several weeks, Benn said tersely, "I guess we'll have to play the perfect game then."
Whether he felt the nerves or not, Radulov did not seem his usual crisp self on this night, and there's no doubt he'll be pleased to put this emotional moment in his rear-view mirror.
"Well, it is bad," he said. "I mean, we need points. We're in a playoff race and we didn't get it done. We put ourselves in that position. Nobody else. It's our fault, so we've just got to regroup. We've got a big one (Wednesday) and we'll try to get it done (Wednesday)."

4. The Pateryn play

The third Montreal power play came as a result of a sequence that began with Shaw launching himself at Pateryn, a former Habs defenseman -- the second heavy hit Pateryn sustained in this game.
The play likely should have earned Shaw an interference penalty as Pateryn had played the puck well before contact. And Shaw hurled himself at Pateryn, his head colliding with Pateryn's.
The minor penalty was assessed after Pateryn gave Shaw two shoves while Shaw was on the ice, but Pateryn backed off as he saw Shaw was in distress.
"I thought he took a run at me. I mean, I'll take a look at it again, but it seemed like his head hit mine," Pateryn said. "There's a reason a guy like that gets four or five concussions a year, and I think his play speaks for itself.
"He was knocked out as soon as he hit me. He knocked himself out when he hit me, and I didn't realize he was knocked out until he was on the ice and his eyes were in the back of his head. So, I mean, you play like that, that's what happens sometimes," Pateryn added.
He declined to say whether he thought Shaw should have been penalized, and Hitchcock said only that they did not agree with the call.
Regardless, it turned out to be a significant moment in the game.
Lest we give the impression the Stars got jobbed by the officials -- that wasn't the case. In fact, they earned their power-play goal after Brett Ritchie rammed Noah Juulsen into the boards from behind, but escaped a minor penalty on the play, during which the Canadiens ended up with the extra minor penalty.

5. Medical matters, plus a bright spot

The Stars played for most of the last two periods without veteran defenseman Marc Methot, who blocked a shot during the 5-on-3 and suffered a cut on his hand that required stitches. He played 7:32 in total.
Hitchcock said there were also a number of other players dinged up in the game and their availability for the second leg of the back-to-back would be determined Wednesday.
On a positive note, thought the Faksa, Antoine Roussel and Tyler Pitlick unit had one of its best games in recent days.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Scott Burnside is a senior digital correspondent for DallasStars.com. You can follow him on Twitter @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his podcast.