Lack of production on power play remains a head scratcher for Stars
A power play that finished fifth last year has been out of sync through three games this season
Dallas is 1-for-10 on the power play for a 10 percent success rate, while the penalty kill is coming off a game in which it allowed Ottawa to go 2-for-3 in a 3-2 loss Sunday. That's being a difference-maker in a bad way.
The power play last season finished fifth in the NHL at 23.6 percent, and that was without injured forwards Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov. Now, with those two healthy, the belief was the man advantage would be huge for the Stars this season.
However, Jason Robertson and John Klingberg each have been out, and that has forced more shuffling and the search for the elusive chemistry.
"The power play has been completely out of sync," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. "It's as simple as that. There's nothing happening with it. Sometimes, your power play might go 0-for-5, 0-for-6 and look really good doing it, and the puck's just not going in. Our power play the last couple games hasn't even been close to being good enough."
The lack of precision has mirrored the play of the top players, who appear to be lacking confidence to start the year. Radulov, Seguin and Jamie Benn have combined for two assists and 13 shots on goal in three games. They've looked scattered and there ironically could be the problem of overtrying and not relaxing.
"I think everyone might be thinking a bit too much," Seguin said on Sunday. "But I thought tonight was back to the basics. We saw that in the second and third, and that's something to build off."
The Stars were better as a team in the third period Sunday, but they only earned two power-play chances, and both were in the first period - so any potential progress was moot. Dating back to a 3-1 loss at Boston on Saturday, they went 0-for-6 on the power play. Yes, Klingberg was missing, but Bowness said there's plenty of talent to make up for it.
"It doesn't matter who's out there, there were too many times when they got outworked in the corners," Bowness said after the Boston loss. "They're not crisp with their passing. We're standing still, moving the puck around, that's the easiest thing in the world to kill. We've got to get moving and we've got to move the puck a lot quicker, and it goes again back to pucks are exploding off our sticks, and that I won't accept. At this level, you have to handle those passes. Until we handle the puck a lot better, we can't generate any offense."
On the penalty kill, Bowness has liked the inner workings. Dallas was 19th in success rate at 79.1 percent last season, so a lot of talk went into getting better over the summer. There were also significant personnel changes as Jason Dickinson, Jamie Oleksiak and Andrew Cogliano left, while Luke Glendening, Michael Raffl and Ryan Suter were added.
Defenseman Esa Lindell said he felt the penalty kill was more successful at the end of the season, and that was something that was talked about in the preseason.
"I think we're going to stick with how we played at the end, play more aggressive and try to give less time for them," Lindell said. "I think some little details we change from last year are going to help us and it's going to be better."
Dallas was a perfect seven-for-seven in the first two games against the Rangers and Bruins, but then allowed two goals Sunday. One was a fluky play where a puck deflected in off a weird bounce. The other, Bowness said he didn't like.
"You live with that first goal, it was fluky, it hits a skate, it hits a body and goes in, there's nothing you can do about that," Bowness said. "I didn't like the second one. The defenseman, it was his responsibility to stop that pass, whether you slide or whether you're taking care of the back door, that's the defenseman's fault."
Still, Bowness said he feels the unit as a whole is improved, and that's a good thing. The biggest area where he thinks the penalty kill can be better is in net. Last year, Anton Khudobin and Jake Oettinger combined to rank 22nd in shorthanded save percentage at .857, and that has to be better this year. Bowness said adding Braden Holtby and getting Khudobin healthy will be key.
"We have to have faith in our goaltenders that when we give up that outside shot, it's going to be stopped," Bowness said. "The outside shot always has been the goalie's. They've got to stop those shots."
So far, they have. Now, it's up to both the penalty kill and the power play to get better - much like the entire team game.
"We've got some guys trying to find their game," said Bowness. "We've got guys frustrated with their game. We're just going to have to play our way through it."
Be there when Texas Hockey comes home this Friday as the Stars face the Los Angeles Kings at American Airlines Center! The festivities begin with Party on PNC Plaza at 5:30 p.m. and all fans are encouraged to be in their seats by 7 p.m. Don't miss out, get your tickets now!
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.
