5 takeaways: No goals, no good as Stars fall flat in loss to Capitals

DALLAS -- No sugarcoating this one. It was a rough night all around for the Stars, who lost 5-0 on Friday to the Washington Capitals.
It should've been a momentous night from start to finish. It certainly started off that way as a boisterous crowd welcomed back beloved Hall-of-Fame defenseman Sergei Zubov for his jersey retirement ceremony.

Unfortunately, that's when the fun ended for the Stars.
Here are the five takeaways of the game.

UGLY OPENING 20

The turn of events immediately following Joe Pavelski's no-goal turned the game upside down. Moments after the play was deemed offside after a review, the Capitals buried a power-play goal to take a 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later, on another power play, they doubled the lead. Then, the Capitals made it 3-0 with under 10 minutes left in the opening frame.

ROUGH NIGHT FOR HOLTBY

It wasn't the type of night Braden Holtby wanted facing his former club for the first time. Though he gave up five goals on 27 shots, Stars coach Rick Bowness said everyone - goalie, defensemen and forwards - had a bad game.
Holtby was drafted by Washington in the fourth round (93rd overall) of the 2008 NHL Draft and spent 10 seasons with the Capitals from 2010-11 to 2019-20. He appeared in 468 regular-season games as a member of the Capitals, posting a 282-122-46 record, 2.53 goals-against average and .916 save percentage. He was awarded the Vezina Trophy in 2015-16 as the league's best goaltender and won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018.

SPECIAL TEAMS EYESORE

The Stars had a chance to get back into the game when they were awarded a four-minute power play. Down 3-0, it could've gotten the Stars back to within two, and - had they scored within the first two minutes of it - would've had two more minutes to get another one.
The penalty kill wasn't much better, giving up the first two goals of the game to drain the energy from the sold-out crowd.

ZUBOV RETIREMENT CEREMONY

The highlight of the night was seeing Zubov's banner raised to the rafters. His no. 56 joins Neal Broten (No. 7), Bill Goldsworthy (No. 8), Mike Modano (No. 9), Bill Masterton (No. 19) and Jere Lehtinen (No. 26) as the only numbers retired by the franchise.
Zubov spent 12 of his 16 NHL seasons as a member of the Stars, registering 549 points (111 goals, 438 assists) in 839 regular-season contests. Among franchise leaders (1967-present), the blueliner ranks third in assists and plus/minus rating (+103), fifth in games played and seventh in points.
Zubov is the franchise leader among defensemen in numerous statistical categories including points, goals, assists, games played, power-play goals (60), plus/minus and shots on goal (1,694).
He won two Stanley Cups in his career, once with New York in 1994 when he finished tied for seventh in the NHL and ranking second among league defensemen with 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) in 22 contests and again with Dallas in 1999.

#

FLUSH IT AND PREPARE FOR SUNDAY

The Stars need redemption in a big way and that comes Sunday against the Boston Bruins. They'll need to get their act together in a hurry with this being a stretch of six consecutive games at American Airlines Center.
Don't miss your chance to see the Stars continue their homestand Sunday against the Boston Bruins at 6 p.m. Get your tickets now!
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.