First Shift 🏒
Glen Gulutzan was pondering a hard practice on Friday.
After his team put up a disappointing performance in an 8-3 home loss to Winnipeg on Thursday, NHL history dictated a “bag skate” that would fire up the motivation of his players. But after a night of sleep and talks with his coaches, the Stars head coach held an intense video session and kept most of his players off of the ice in preparation for home games on Saturday (against Buffalo) and Sunday (against Florida).
Gulutzan said that his players deviated from their plan in the second period, and it cost them dearly. So, he decided it would be ill-advised to change the plan he and the coaches had for practice this week.
“Yesterday I was (angry) between the second and the third, but did things get better? No. Sometimes as a coach, you have to regroup with your people and figure out a clear path out of it,” Gulutzan said. “The old school way still has some merits, but it doesn’t have merit every day like it used to. You’ve got to find solutions.”
It’s part of the journey of the 2026-27 Stars. Dallas played poorly in the first two games but then bounced back and played nine solid games in a 7-1-1 run. The Stars then put together a couple of stinkers and that started a run of defensive sliding which leaked into the Jets game.
And while the team understands all of the moving parts, Gulutzan said the best step right now is simplifying the process.
“When you come in after a night like last night, you want to have something concrete to say: ‘OK, we can fix this,’” Gulutzan said. “It was pretty glaring after the coaches went through the video what we needed to clean up, and it stems from our D-zone coverage. That’s an oddity for us, quite frankly, but it was there slapping you in the face when you went through video.”
The coach added that in addition to the strategic improvements, the team also needs to be more focused. After being down two goals, Winnipeg tied things up and then took a 4-3 lead. The Stars tried to answer by pushing for more goals. Gulutzan said that was a mistake.
“That’s part of the decision to not practice today,” Gulutzan said. “I’m asking these guys to stick with the plan. We had a good plan in the first period and we got away from it in the second and third. But we also had a plan for how we were going to practice this week and if I start deviating from that plan because I reacted like my players did after the first…We need to have some consistency with the mentality of our group and that starts with the way we think about things. We’ve got 3 in 4, so let’s correct what we can correct.”
Part of the history of this team, despite changes to the roster, is that it has responded well to losses. Jake Oettinger will probably go back in goal after getting pulled, and he said he looks forward to that challenge. Likewise, his teammates are prepared to rebound.
“We have a veteran group, guys understand,” said forward Jason Robertson. “We’re too good of a team to let that happen again.”
It’s something Gulutzan is banking on.
“This generation is a solution-based generation, and we came to them today with two concrete things we can change – one is our D-zone and one is our mindset after getting punched in the face,” Gulutzan said. “We need to clean some things up here (in our minds) and respond to some adversity at home.”
