Heika’s Take: Stars stumble against desperate Predators in 4-1 loss

There was some good and some bad for the Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday night.

The good was defenseman Lian Bichsel scoring a goal in his first NHL game, as well as the Dallas video coaches going 2-for-2 on their first two challenges of the season.

The bad? Pretty much everything else.

Nashville came in with the worst record in the NHL, riding an eight-game winless streak (0-5-3), and missing captain Roman Josi. The Stars were 11-1-0 at AAC and coming off a three-day break after a dominant 6-2 win against Calgary on Sunday. Still, the Predators created the better scoring chances, foiled the Stars through the first two periods, and found a way to win a 4-1 game.

“It was not close to competitive enough,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “And it was everybody.”

While Nashville netminder Justus Annunen was solid and finished with 35 saves, Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was just as good or better early on. While the Stars struggled to get a goal, Oettinger turned away some pretty good scoring chances from Nashville. He also got some help from the video room. Coaches Patrick Dolan and Chris Demczuk caught Nashville offside on one goal, wiping it off the board and keeping the score 0-0. They then allowed Dallas a chance to stay in it in the third period when they successfully challenged for goaltender interference to keep the score 3-1.

“Those guys were the sharpest guys in the room,” DeBoer said. “They gave us a chance to hang around, but unfortunately we didn’t take advantage of it. I’m glad they got them right. Those weren’t easy calls, and they were [right] on tonight.”

In the middle of it all, the Predators found a way to cash in with some real goals. Jonathan Marchessault won a puck battle behind the net against Nils Lundkvist and fed Ryan O’Reilly out front for the game’s first goal at the 11:40 mark of the second period during a four-on-four stint. Marchessault then fed Tommy Novak for a goal two minutes after that, and O’Reilly scored his second of the game a minute after that.

“It wasn’t his fault,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said of Oettinger. “There were just breakdowns in our end. We need to simply be better.”

It was a lethal blow to a Stars team that should have been well-rested and peppy.

“I think Nashville is a better team than their record,” DeBoer said. “You’ve got a desperate team, you’ve got a lot of proud players on the other side that had lost eight in a row. You knew they were going to compete hard and play with a little bit of fear in their belly. We needed to have more respect for that and match that competitiveness and we weren’t even close in that department tonight.”

Dallas made the score 3-1 in the third period when Bichsel bolted down the left wing in transition and fired a shot past Annunen with 10 minutes left in the game.

“It’s elite,” he said of playing in his first NHL game. “Everything is going so fast. You have to be sharp every shift, every second. I think I have to learn from that and bring it every shift and every game.”

Bichsel was taken 18th overall in the 2022 draft and has played 21 games in the AHL this season. He was called up because of an injury to veteran Matt Dumba (upper body), so it will be interesting to see if he gets more games in the NHL and see what he does with them.

“He did great for his first game,” DeBoer said of the 20-year-old from Switzerland. “It was great to see him put one in the net. He showed what’s intriguing about him. He’s a big body and the way he got up ice on that goal, the way he skated. We like that element from our defensemen. There were some really good signs.”

And while the play temporarily electrified the arena, Nashville was able to lock things down and move to 8-16-6. Dallas falls to 17-11-0 and learns a lesson from the defeat. Just as it did against Chicago and Anaheim, Dallas squandered an opportunity to “make hay” in games against “beatable” opponents.

“It was pretty ugly,” Benn said. “You’ve got to come out and dictate and we sat back and pretty much were hoping things would go our way instead of making it happen.”

The Stars now have a chance to get back on a roll, as they have four more contests in this six-game homestand. That said, they’ll have to be a lot better on Saturday against St. Louis.

“They were better tonight and we have to be a lot better at the start of next game,” said defenseman Miro Heiskanen. “We have to do everything better.”

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 X @MikeHeika.