Heika’s Take: Road trip ends with a thud as Stars fall 6-3 to Bruins

Last season, the Stars went through a seven-game winless streak (0-5-2) to end the season when their position in the playoff race couldn’t change.

Could they be going through a similar issue this year?

New coach Glen Gulutzan said no.

Yes, Dallas lost a 6-3 game to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday and is in a 1-4-2 slump over the past 11 days, but Gulutzan said his team has to be able to better compartmentalize the emotions of the schedule right now.

The Stars sit six points ahead of Minnesota and hold home ice in a First Round playoff matchup with the Wild. But Minnesota has a game in hand and could definitely flip the seeding if Dallas doesn’t get back on track.

“Our positioning can change. This can all change around,” Gulutzan said. “We’ve got to find our own game, our own motivation and not look at the standings. It should come from an internal drive. If you have to light your fire from an external source, it will only burn briefly, so we’ve got to find it within ourselves to get going.”

A few weeks ago, the lads in Victory Green were doing just that in a 14-0-1 run that included analytics that reflected attention to detail, scrappiness and offensive execution. On Tuesday, the Stars were outshot 23-16, lost the battle of shot attempts, 52-37, and lost the faceoff dot, 34-19. Boston clearly was the better team throughout.

“That was probably the worst of the road trip, to be honest,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said. “We’re playing some desperate teams and they’re playing at a level that we’re not playing at right now. You kind of get what you deserve in this league, and we didn’t deserve to win that one.”

As has happened a great deal on this road trip, there were ups and downs. Dallas allowed the first goal against for the eighth straight game and actually was down 2-0 after one period. However, Jamie Benn had a spirited shift that ended in his 15th goal of the season, and Duchene followed later with his 15th to make it 2-2 after 40 minutes.

But Boston had the end of a power play to start the third period and scored within 13 seconds. The Bruins made it 4-2 five minutes later and that was pretty much the game. Boston scored two empty-net goals and Wyatt Johnston added his 25th power play goal of the season, but the damage was done.

“It wasn’t one of our better games,” Gulutzan said. “Certainly, there are losses, and then there are losses where you get outplayed.”

The Stars’ problem is that too much of the road trip looked that way. In playing against the Islanders, Penguins, Flyers and Bruins, Dallas faced four teams that really needed points in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race. And like last year, the Stars kind of don’t. Yes, they would love to clinch second place and start making scheduling plans for the First Round, and that is a concern if they keep losing. But, truth be told, they are in a good place and have five straight games at home to sort things out.

“We want to go home and get ourselves back to where we need to be,” Duchene said Tuesday. “I think it’s normal after a streak to sag a little bit, but we’ve got seven left now and we need to ascend into the playoffs.”

The key to that is a phrase Gulutzan has been pushing all season: “One degree more.”

“We haven’t matched the work ethic of the teams that are trying to get in,” Gulutzan said. “They’re up a half a degree and we’re down a half a degree, and that’s a degree of separation. At some point, we have to dig in here.”

Dallas continues to battle injury issues as well. Michael Bunting missed the game and could be out for a little bit with a lower-body injury. Cameron Hughes was called up from the AHL and could be playing a few more games in Dallas this week. Defenseman Tyler Myers also is banged up and was replaced by Ilya Lyubushkin on Tuesday. Myers is listed as day-to-day. Also on the bubble this week are Sam Steel (hip) and Nathan Bastian (hand).

"It's not going to be for a bit. I would be optimistic if I said maybe we could get one of them back in the next 10 days,” Gulutzan said of Steel, Bunting and Bastian. “That would be an optimistic outlook for them.”

So, even more challenges.

And while the new coach was in Edmonton as the Stars struggled down the stretch before rallying to beat Colorado and Winnipeg in last year’s playoffs, the players definitely remember how scrambly those last seven games felt.

“You always want to be feeling good about yourself going into the playoffs, and I wouldn’t say we were last year,” goalie Jake Oettinger said. “I think guys know that’s not acceptable. Obviously, we ended up having a great run, but you don’t want to just have to turn it on like that. There are things we want to get better at and we have a nice runway to do that.”

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.