Heika's Take: Poor puck management dooms Stars in shutout loss to Leafs

TORONTO -- Erik Kallgren added his name to the likes of Sam Montembeault, Filip Gustavsson, Scott Wedgewood and Charlie Lindgren on Tuesday.
The rookie goalie made 35 stops and posted a 4-0 win in his first ever NHL start as the Toronto Maple Leafs pushed the Stars' current losing streak to three games, and kind of stole the show.

On a night when the focus was supposed to be on the first meeting between brothers Jason and Nick Robertson or the fact the NHL's leading goal-scorer Auston Matthews was out on a two-game suspension, Kallgren was the hero. A Toronto defense that had been allowing better than five goals a game for the past 10 stiffened up thanks in large part to the 25-year-old netminder.
The Stars seemed to be a pretty good band aid for the ailing Leafs.
"It's frustrating because we looked slow tonight because we kept turning the puck over," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "Our puck management was terrible all over the ice. They looked a lot faster because their puck management was right on. Their passes were on the tape in full stride. We were putting pucks in skates, bouncing pucks over sticks."

Dallas has been struggling all season to find scoring depth past the top line of Robertson, Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski, and Bowness was hoping to tweak things by putting Alexander Radulov back on the second line with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. The trio has had success over the past four years, but Bowness has preferred Denis Gurianov on that line in recent months.
The coach said he'd know early on if Radulov could click once again because the line would play in the offensive zone and create chances instead of giving them up. Instead, the line was minus-2 in the first period, and could've been minus-3, Bowness said. The trio was broken up almost immediately.
"Seguin, Rads and Jamie were minus-2 right away and they should've been minus-3," Bowness said. "They gave up a third chance. That was enough."
Asked what the coaching staff must do now to find the right combinations beyond the top line, Bowness said everything is on the table. "We're going to have to look at everything right now."
That's particularly frustrating for Benn and Seguin, who are team leaders and have been counted to score for most of their careers. Benn has 31 points and is on pace for the lowest total of his career. Seguin is still fighting back from missing most of last season with injuries but seemed to be making progress. Tuesday was a setback.
"It's something everyone's been stressing all year," Seguin said when asked about depth scoring. "On the road is when it's crunch time, you go through the lineup. Tonight wasn't great."

Benn said he believes in the team and its ability to fix things, but said the line has to contribute in a lot of different ways.
"We just have to find a way to be better," Benn said. "It wasn't good enough tonight. Going to have to dig in and step up. I think it starts with competing, playing the right way and being hard to play against."

Seguin said he felt better when the line was playing with more speed. Bowness said the line has to be good at puck possession and defense, so it doesn't get caught in its own end. That's a long list, but one the group sees as doable.
"We looked a lot slower than they did," Bowness said of the entire team. "A lot of it has to do with puck management. We weren't physical, nearly physical enough. So you take those two areas, and if you correct those two areas, the rest of it will correct itself."
It's also a pretty good formula for beating a goalie who might not have that much experience. The Stars have "left points on the ice" in several games that could be really handy right now in the pursuit of a playoff spot. They likely will see more inexperienced backstops going forward and will need to be able to take advantage.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was coming off a "hiccup" game Saturday against the New York Rangers. With Braden Holtby nursing a lower-body injury, Oettinger had to bounce back and raise his game. The Stars must regroup and find a way to squeeze some points out of Montreal on Thursday.

"It's going to be huge," Benn said of a potential positive reaction. "Roope's line can't do it every night. I think it's on myself, Seggy and whoever we're playing with to step up and be better."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.