It's all about the response: Stars look to fix mistakes Tuesday

DALLAS --A lot of things went wrong for the Stars on Saturday afternoon.
Jake Oettinger left the game with a lower body injury, Dallas continued taking too many penalties, and the New York Rangers sauntered off with a 6-3 win at American Airlines Center.
It was the kind of day that's quite disorienting amidst a successful start to the season.

The speculation is that Oettinger tweaked something when his skate hit a post, and that caused him to take himself out of the game in the second period. It was uncharacteristic for the 23-year-old.
"The fact that he left the game isn't a good sign," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said, adding that goalie coach Jeff Reese said it would take a lot for Oettinger to leave.

"Jeff said he hasn't seen him pull himself out of a game, so that's probably the concerning piece," DeBoer said. "Fingers crossed, he just tweaked something, and he'll feel better in 48 hours. It looked like he caught his skate on the post. I haven't really seen it, but that is what Jeff told me."
The health of Oettinger is huge for a lot of reasons. One, he has been one of the league's best goalies in the early NHL season. Two, the Stars are hard against the salary cap and would have to make some moves to call up another goalie. Much of that will be sorted out before Tuesday's home game against the Kings, but the fact the Stars are even talking about how tight their salary cap situation is (they are about $70,000 under the cap right now) is a reason to be worried.
Dallas has a solid backup goalie in Scott Wedgewood, so there is confidence in that department. Wedgewood got called in and had to adapt quickly. He stopped eight of nine shots to end the second period, and then was under a barrage in the third.
"I thought Wedgy came in and did a real good job," DeBoer said. "I wish we would have played better for him."

There were some holes in this sloppy game. The Rangers had almost 30 quality scoring chances and went 2-for-5 on the power play. Dallas allowed a season-high six goals and fell to 5-3-1.
"We've never really had this type of game flow going. We never really blew the game wide open, we never dealt with that this season," said Stars forward Jason Robertson, who had a goal and an assist. "We have a big leadership group and we're all waiting to respond on Tuesday."
Robertson scored a go-ahead goal in the third period, but the Rangers challenged for offside, and replays showed Joe Pavelski was offside as the team entered the offensive zone. That shift in momentum was big for the Rangers.
"That was definitely a turning point," Robertson said. "But our line was out there when they scored the game winning goal. We were in their zone making plays and everything, and you can't slip up there and make those mistakes. They capitalized."

The Rangers scored three goals in two minutes in the third period and that changed everything.
"I didn't like our attention to detail. I didn't like our execution. They looked a little quicker and a little hungrier," DeBoer said. "Having said that, we went into the third, and we still had a chance to get points, but we didn't. It was similar to the Ottawa game where we weren't playing like we needed to play but you're going to have games like that, and you have to find ways to get points."

On the good side, the Stars have problems they can fix. They can take fewer penalties for one, something that has been a bit of an issue for much of the season.
"We've talked about it, and they know it's an issue," DeBoer said. "It takes us out of the rhythm of our four-line game. It turns it into a special teams' game and changes momentum. The guy's ice time drops, and we've talked about all that."
Now, they need to go fix it.
Whether they attempt to do that with Oettinger in goal is yet to be seen. But the season marches on no matter what, and both Wedgewood and his teammates are ready if he needs to step in.
"I'll take them- next man up mentality," Wedgewood said of the possibility he might get more game. "I'll just do what I can to help the team win and fill his shoes."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.