Heika’s Take: Sloppy start, defensive miscues doom Stars in 6-4 loss to Devils

The Stars know what their problem is.

Now, they have to go fix it.

Dallas has been giving up way too many great scoring chances during a 1-3-1 run, and that was never more apparent than in a hully-gully first period in a 6-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center.

New Jersey was flying all over the ice and took a 4-1 lead 17 minutes in on a series of breakdowns. That chased goalie Jake Oettinger from the game at the first intermission, and while the Stars tried to come back, it was too big a hill.

“Definitely not good enough,” said forward Wyatt Johnston, who finished with two goals and an assist. “We gave up way too much, and especially just a lot of grade A’s, breakaways stuff like that.”

For the fifth straight game, Dallas was outmatched. The Stars were great defensively while riding through a franchise record 15-game point streak (14-0-1). But they hit the wall in a 6-3 loss to Utah, got bailed out by Oettinger in a 2-1 win over Colorado (in which they were outshot 34-18) and then saw way too many breakaways in losses to Minnesota, Vegas and New Jersey. The Devils game was the worst, as the Stars preached repair before the game, and then made even worse mistakes during the contest.

“We have ‘self-inflicted’ ourselves the last few games,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We knew going into tonight's game, and it's one of the things we talked about this morning, just how they can get behind you and use their speed. You can see on the first few goals there were guys in behind our D. We weren't good back there, all six guys.”

The Stars’ group of defensemen has been solid for much of the year, but in recent games Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell have made mistakes. The new third pair of Tyler Myers and Lian Bichsel has been working out some kinks, but Myers on Tuesday was minus-4 and Bichsel was minus-2 and the coaching staff then juggled pairs.

Defenseman Thomas Harley had two assists and was plus-1, but said the entire group of defensemen has to be better.

“The past couple of games, we have been giving up too much,” Harley said. “Tonight, especially, was just kind of free offense and breakaways. It was bad decisions and turnovers. The good news is those are easy fixes, and we have to do that.”

The Stars have done that in the past, and actually were much better in the second period as they scratched back with goals from Johnston (his 40th) and Jason Robertson (his 39th) to make it 4-3 New Jersey. Dallas had some chances to tie, but the Devils made it 5-3, and that was enough to guarantee a Mavrik Bourque goal with seven minutes left wouldn’t sink the Devils.

New Jersey added an empty-netter to make the final 6-4, but the damage was done much earlier. That said, Harley is right in that the Stars can fix this problem as they fixed it earlier in the season.

“Just be a little bit smarter out there,” Harley said. “You have to be a little bit more aware of when they are flying in the zone and where they are and where you are on the ice. We just have to play a little bit better.”

And they can start doing that on a four-game road trip that begins Thursday against the Islanders. Dallas is 43-17-11 (97 points) and didn’t lose any ground on Minnesota (40-20-12, 92 points) for positioning in the Central Division. Colorado (47-13-10, 104 points) stretched its lead in first place, but the Stars know what they need to do before the playoffs start in 11 games.

“When you go on the road like this one, I think it is a good reset,” Robertson said, adding that the comeback in the second and third periods can build momentum. “Getting back on the road against some teams we are not really that familiar with is fun and exciting. The guys should be excited, and we will try to get on a run. We definitely did some things we can be proud of today, but ultimately when you go down three early it is hard to come back from.”

That’s a lesson they don’t need to learn again.

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.