Heika's Take: Learning from a letdown

The schedule might be catching up to the Stars.
The problem is it won't be letting up any time soon.

Dallas is in the middle of a stretch in which 14 of 19 games are on the road. What's worse, three of the five home games are one-game "homestands." Saturday provided the last of those three games, and the Stars looked a little out of sorts in a 6-5 loss to the Calgary Flames. While pro sports teams typically will brush aside rationalizations, it seemed pretty clear that all of this travel was taking its toll.
"Nobody wants to hear excuses, but we've been to the West Coast and the East Coast and we're heading back to the West Coast this week, it's been a tough schedule and we're in the meat of it right now. I think that is a little bit of a factor, but we've got to find a way to deal with that."

The Stars lost in heartbreaking fashion on Thursday at Madison Square Garden, allowing a tying goal in the final second of regulation, and then losing in overtime. Mix in the fact they didn't practice on Friday and then had a 1 p.m. start on Saturday, and you're not surprised they gave up a goal in the first minute. Calgary scored on a defensive breakdown 25 seconds into the game and made it 2-0 on a power play goal at the 8:10 mark of the first period.
It was a significant hole, but Dallas was able to trim the deficit to 2-1 after one period on a Jamie Benn shorthanded goal that was set up by Ty Dellandrea.
It seemed like the Stars would be able to bounce back, but Calgary stretched its lead to 6-1 in the second period. Goalie Scott Wedgewood was strafed with some great chances and strange deflections, and the Flames basically sucked any air out of the American Airlines Center. While Wedgewood wasn't blamed, it was clear the schedule, the absence of Roope Hintz with an upper body injury, and the lack of goalie Jake Oettinger, all accumulated to a dreary afternoon.
"It definitely wasn't Wedgewood's fault," DeBoer said. "We just didn't play well enough for long enough. I think that's the bottom line. You are down 2-0 it feels like before the puck even drops, and this time of year against good teams. You dig a hole like that, it is hard to dig out of."
The Stars tried their hardest and made things exciting in the third, but they exited with a loss and now sit 2-3-1 in their past six games. It's disappointing, and concerning when you consider they have to head out to play at Vegas, San Jose and Los Angeles. Yes, they have been good on the road. Yes, they seem to handle adversity well, but there seems to be a trend here of incomplete play in recent games.

"We weren't really there off the start," said forward Joe Pavelski, who had two goals and an assist. "The first [period] was not great for us. We come out of it 2-1, and we're right there. The second [period] gets away from us. That's the disappointment on the night. It gets away from us. We're blowing our coverage, we're not in areas, and they put it in our net. It was fun to have a shot at tying it up, but that's a big hole."
Dallas received goals from Tyler Seguin, Pavelski (twice) and Colin Miller to get within one goal with four minutes remaining, and there was some positivity in that performance.
"We're a group that never thinks we're out of the fight," Seguin said. "We know what we've done in the third period, especially in this rink. I think our biggest thing for our group in here is just letting down [Wedgewood]. Obviously, he doesn't play that many games and has a tough job being a backup and always working his butt off. And we didn't help him out at all tonight."

So how does the team rebound from that? Well, it's tough to say they just suck it up and find more energy, but that's pretty much the plan.
"It's the schedule," Pavelski said. "We understand that we get one shot at it at home], and that's why it's disappointing, because you want to make them count."
The Stars are now 12-5-3 at home. They have not lost more than two games in a row this season, and it means they will have a pretty significant challenge when DeBoer faces his old team Monday in Las Vegas.
"I think losing the game is a reminder to us that we have to show up and play 60 minutes," DeBoer said. "Credit to our guys..we haven't rolled over all year, we haven't mailed it in, we've gotten off the matt and battled back every time, and I'm expecting we'll do the same thing again."
And to keep things in perspective, they are 25-12-7 overall and in the top three in the West. When this next trip is over, they have 9-of-10 games at home with a great opportunity to stockpile points. So, the fact they have weathered this storm so far can actually be seen as a good thing.
"We already know we can battle back in games," Pavelski said. "That's something this room has established already. There are nights over 82 games, but something you pride yourself on is working. If things go wrong and you're working, then they go wrong. But our effort, our compete, wasn't there. We were late to battles and not coming up with pucks, and that's something that's on the guys and we addressed it a little bit better there in the third. But that's something you pride yourself on first."
*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.*