Heika's Take: Another inconsistent night bites the Stars

The Stars have completed their first 11 games, with eight of them on the road.
They've traveled from sea to shining sea, starting in New York and finishing in Vancouver Sunday night.
And along the way, we really have no idea who this team is.

Statistically, the Stars are 4-5-2 after a 6-3 loss to the Canucks. They've had six games go past regulation and have won four of those. They're the last team in the NHL that still doesn't have a regulation win, and their most recent performance is both disappointing and confusing. Dallas was riding an 11-game point streak in Vancouver (9-0-2) and was playing a Canucks team that was struggling on the power play.
So what did the Stars do? They handed out six power-play opportunities and watched Vancouver score on them of them. It was a similar bugaboo to the five power plays they gave up in Calgary on Friday, but Dallas was able to get by that. Likewise, the Stars again struggled in the second period, where they've been outscored 16-6 on the season, and where they spend far too much time in their own zone, which of course leads to a lot of the penalties they're taking.
"We're not even close to being the Dallas Stars that we need to be," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said after the game.

On Sunday, Dallas battled through a competitive first period on the road and exited with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Joe Pavelski power-play goal. However, Vancouver earned a power play to start the second period and scored 2:19 into the period. The Canucks tallied another power-play goal a few minutes later, and then added an even strength goal to make it 3-1 eight minutes into the second period.
Luke Glendening scored for the Stars to make it 3-2, but Vasily Podkolzin finished off a 2-on-1 to make it 4-2, and that really was a hard moment for the Stars.
John Klingberg was trying to make something happen after the Stars killed a 5-on-3, but his turnover led to the Podkolzin goal.
"The guys did a great job on the 5-on-3, everything is going our way, and then we turn the puck over at the blueline," Bowness said. "We're beating ourselves. When you do those things, you're making it too easy for the opposition, and that's what we did tonight."
The problem is that the team is making different mistakes at different times, and simply seems to be out of sorts. The Stars are very controlled for 10-minute sections, and then chaotic for the next 10. They can't seem to find any consistency.
"Obviously, we're all very disappointed," said defenseman Ryan Suter. "We show glimpses of being good, but we haven't put together a full game."

The Stars are hoping they'll have that opportunity for the rest of the month. They'll play nine of the next 11 at home with several two-day breaks between games. They're flying back to Dallas on Monday and then will return to practice Tuesday before playing Nashville on Wednesday at American Airlines Center.
"We'll take a closer look, and we'll have to address this Tuesday morning when we go back to the rink," Bowness said. "We're going to have to fix the penalty kill, we're going to have to fix the discipline, we're going to have to fix the consistency with which we play the game."
That's a daunting task, but the players say they believe it can be done.
"Going home, we need to make sure we're ready to go and start putting some full games together," Suter said. "We have the skill on the team, the goalies are great, guys are starting to score now, guys are starting to skate well. We're close, we've just got to put it together now.
"It's such a long year, but yeah we've got to get to it sooner than later," he added.
Pavelski added: "It's a great opportunity. We need to go earn some wins and get a good feeling."
Getting a regulation win might be a good start. While points are the main measuring stick in the league, regulation win total is the first tiebreaker in the standings, and the Stars stand dead last in that category.
"That's not good. It's crazy to think that," Pavelski said. "So that's on each and every one of us. We've got to find a way to be better. We've got to win a 1-0 game, a 2-0 game, we need that mentality. We've got to be a little more patient. For whatever reason, there are nights when you're trying to do too much. We need to really settle back into our team game and work out of this together."

While the shaky start on the road was difficult, there's a way to use it in a positive way.
"I think you can learn from this kind of stuff," Glendening said. "Frustration is a little bit of wasted emotion because these games are already over, but we do have to learn from them and we do have to start playing better. Tonight, we didn't bring our `A' game, and it definitely showed. But we have to keep working together as a team. We're going to get it done, but it's going to take all of us."

Don't miss your chance to see the Stars battle the Nashville Predators in the opener of a three-game homestand at American Airlines Center on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Get your tickets now!
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.