First Shift: Stars look to break losing funk in road trip finale against Hurricanes

For the better part of the past three seasons, the trio of Roope Hintz with Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski has been one of the best lines in the NHL.

The “Top Line,” the “Avengers,” whatever you want to call them, not only scored a lot of goals, but they carried the Stars to a ton of wins. That pace has slowed a bit this season, and especially in the month of February. After posting career bests last season, the top line this season has taken a step back. And in the month of February, as the Stars have gone 4-3-2, they have been pretty mortal.

Through nine games, Robertson has 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) and is minus-2. He leads the group with 20 shots on goal in that span. Pavelski has 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists) and also is minus-2, while Hintz has just 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) and is also minus-2. Pavelski has 18 shots on goal, and Hintz has just 14 over the span.

That’s a pretty big drop off when you consider the numbers from last season. Robertson was among the league leaders in scoring with a points per game average of 1.33. He’s at 0.97 this year. Hintz was at 1.03 last season and is at 0.89 this year. And Pavelski was at 0.94 and is at 0.83 this season. In addition, Pavelski has gone from plus-42 to plus-1, Robertson has gone from plus-37 to plus 11, and Hintz has gone from plus-31 to plus-18. The numbers this year are still pretty good, but the drop is worth noting.

Ironically, the Stars as a team have seen their scoring increase. They currently sit third in the league in goals per game at 3.64 after finishing seventh last season at 3.43. A lot of that is because free agent signee Matt Duchene has helped push his line forward with Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment, and depth scoring has improved thanks to Evgenii Dadonov, Sam Steel and Craig Smith.

But that underscores just how much better the Stars could be if the top line got rolling again. Coach Pete DeBoer has split up the trio at times this season, moving Pavelski to a line with Steel and Jamie Benn, and pulling up Wyatt Johnston to play beside Hintz and Robertson. Last game, in a 4-1 loss at Ottawa, DeBoer put all three players on different lines.

The performance in Ottawa could actually prove beneficial as the team appears ready for a big bounce back in Carolina on Saturday, but whether or not the top line will get a chance to rebound together is yet to be seen. No matter if it’s together or on separate lines, they have to find an answer to help end a four-game winless streak.

“We’ve got to figure out our energy level, our compete,” Pavelski said after the Ottawa loss. “We’ll start there and we’ll look at a few things we can do a little bit better. But the team has good bounce back. We’ve played some good games and lost a few tight ones, but you don’t want to let it go on too long.”

Key Numbers

111.9
One of the old measures the Stars used to use for special teams was combining power play and penalty kill percentages to see who is best overall. Carolina leads the league 111.9. The Hurricanes rank third on the power play at 27.5 percent and third on the penalty kill at 84.4 percent.

17
Stars forward Jason Robertson has 17 points (4 goals, 13 assists) in 11 career games against Carolina.

947
Carolina leads the NHL in shots that miss the net at 947. Dallas ranks sixth at 814.

He Said It

"He's been solid. Solid. He was the difference. He made many, many saves. The one goal was all we got, so we needed him to be perfect, and he was."

- Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour on goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, who had 44 saves in a 1-0 shutout win against Florida on Thursday.

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.