Lopsided loss to Lightning gives Stars a hard lesson to learn from

TAMPA, Fla. -- Talk about heartless …
The Stars on Thursday lost for the ninth straight time on Valentine's Day, and they left a trail of stomped flowers and crushed candies in the process.
Dallas was trampled 6-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and now they have to go about putting this relationship in the past. Yes, they wanted to learn something from playing the best team in the NHL, and maybe they did.
But it was a hard lesson.

"Every time we made a mistake or a bounce went their way, they made us pay," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "You've got to tip your hat, that's a good hockey team."
They are that.
To be fair, Tampa Bay entered on a 5-0-2 run and is now 21-5-2 at home. They are the best team in the NHL, lead the league in scoring at 3.84 goals per game, and also rank first in power-play success at 29.6 percent. If that's not enough, the Lightning rank fifth in goals against at 2.77 and second in penalty kill success at 84.2 percent.
The Stars knew they wanted to stay out of the penalty box, but didn't. They knew they wanted to slow things down, but didn't
"We had a game plan, but we didn't follow it," said defenseman Roman Polak. "We need to learn from that and go forward."

Dallas started fine, even when it took a penalty just 2:41 into the game. The fifth-ranked penalty kill looked fantastic, and the Stars appeared to have learned their lesson and also gained a bit of confidence during the kill.
But, Mattias Janmark doubled down and took a hipping-style trip 7:11 into the first period for the team's second penalty. Eight seconds later, Steven Stamkos scored from the left circle, and the rout was on for the Lightning.
Mikhail Sergachev lifted a shot past Anton Khudobin, who was scrambling in and out of the net, at the 12:39 mark, and then Tyler Johnson flipped a puck past Khudobin as the goalie was caught in no man's land.
That brought Landon Bow into the game, and pretty much made the statement this wasn't going to be Dallas' night.
Montgomery said he told Khudobin he would go back in the game to start the second period, but by then it was 4-0.
Tampa Bay scored twice in the second period, including one more on the power play, and then Khudobin took a seat to get ready for the possibility he might play Saturday at Carolina. Plus, Bow got some good ice time against the best team in the league.
And as hard as it was to look at the positives in this one, that was exactly what Montgomery said he wanted to do.
"I liked our effort. I didn't like our puck management, but we'll get better from this, we'll learn from this," Montgomery said. "When you get your rear end handed to you from the best team in the league, you learn and you get better, and we will get better.
"This time of year, we focus on the positives, and it's about building the right way, and that's what we're going to do."

It was a heck of a challenge, a huge test, but the Stars failed miserably. Add to that the fact the Blues have won eight in a row, so they are making up ground even with Dallas going 6-2-1 in its past nine.
St. Louis sits in third place now, because it has played one game fewer than Dallas. That's important, because the Stars would love to find a way to finish third in the division, and can definitely use this race as motivation.
But the Stars say they need to block out the distraction, and concentrate on the Carolina game and finishing this part of an odd three-game road trip on the right foot.
"We have to learn from it and we have to get better from it," said forward Jason Spezza. "This time of the year, whether you win 6-0 or lose 6-0, it's important that you dissect the game and you move forward.
"The next game becomes really important for us because we can get four out of six points and go home in a good spot."
That said, it's never fun to have a sad Valentine's Day.
Asked if the Stars should forget this game or remember it, Polak had the perfect answer.
"A little bit of both," he said. "We're going to watch a couple of clips, see what we have to do better, why did it happen, why we didn't battle back. We'll see it on the video probably tomorrow or maybe forever, and then get ready for the next game."
It does feel like forever at times like this, but there is always tomorrow.
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.