Heika's Take: It comes down to motivation and hunger

The Stars had every reason to play well on Saturday, but they didn't.
Playing with backup Matt Murray in goal and fighting for first place in the Division, Dallas should have been able to dial up a pretty intense performance. Instead, the Canucks were the better team and took a 3-1 victory at American Airlines Center.

"They were the hungrier team, and that's inexcusable at this time of the year for us," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said.

The Canucks are out of the playoffs but are now 9-2-0 in their last 11 games. Included in that run was a 5-2 win over the Stars in Vancouver. The win on Saturday gives the Canucks a season sweep of the Stars to build on last season's three-game sweep of Dallas. The last time the Stars took a victory against the Canucks was in 2019 with Ben Bishop in goal. That was a topic of discission before the game and yet the chatter didn't materialize on the ice.
"We knew we are not doing well against them this season and we were talking about it and we didn't execute enough," said forward Radek Faksa. "They played really well."

Dallas was able to take a 1-0 lead in the first period when Ryan Suter blasted a shot through a crowd for his third goal of the season. The Stars actually had the better numbers in the first period and looked to add to their lead with a power play late in the opening frame. However, the Canucks were able to get a shorthanded goal from Dakota Joshua, and it changed the momentum of the game.
It was another moment of frustration for the coaching staff.
"We handed them momentum with the shorthanded goal," DeBoer said. "We know they're dangerous shorthanded. We talked about it and we still gave one up."
The Canucks grabbed the game at that point and dominated in the second period. Vancouver had an 11-4 advantage in shots on goal in the middle frame and took a 3-1 lead on goals by Brock Boeser and Jack Rathbone. It was a gut punch for the home team, and it could have been worse as Vancouver had a 5-on-3 power play late in the second period.
Dallas did kill the two penalties, and one would have hoped it could have shifted the momentum the other way. Instead, they fumbled two third period power plays and were never able to get back in the game.
"It would have been nice to get one. It would have been perfect to get one there in the third and get the momentum back," Suter said. "But we kind of struggled on that. We've got to make adjustments and get better."

And that goes for the entire team. Dallas is finding ways to grind out points with comebacks against Calgary and Seattle, as well as a big goaltending win against Pittsburgh, but the Stars haven't played consistently good hockey in the past six games.
"We have to play the whole 60 minutes," Faksa said. "I feel we always turn out for one period, and in this league, you have to play for 60 minutes."
It would have been a big help to Murray, who was making his third NHL start. With Scott Wedgewood sidelined by a lower body injury, the Stars have had to lean heavily on No. 1 goalie Jake Oettinger. DeBoer said this was a good chance to give Oettinger a rest and to allow Murray a start at home (his other two games were on the road). The 25-year-old finished with 21 saves, but DeBoer said his teammates could have offered a few goals to take the pressure off.
"You put a young guy in like that and you'd like to give him some run support," DeBoer said. "That's on us. That game is not on him, it's on us not giving him some offensive support. I thought he did what he was supposed to do."
It was part of the frustration of the night.
Dallas slips to 39-20-14 and is now second in the Central Division behind Minnesota. It has a couple days to rest and then heads to road games at Chicago, Arizona, and Colorado. In the final nine games, the Stars will play seven against teams who will likely miss the playoffs.
When asked how they can get motivated against those teams, DeBoer said, "We walk into our dressing room and we've got a giant standings board right there. That should get you up. You want to hold onto first place, you want to finish as high as possible. It shouldn't take more motivation than 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 Twitter @MikeHeika.