Heika’s Take: Special teams play key role in Stars’ lopsided loss to Blue Jackets

It’s a little too early for full panic, but some healthy concern is definitely in order.

The Stars on Tuesday lost for the third time in a row in regulation. Not only is that unusual for this franchise in recent seasons (it happened just once in the previous 255 games), but it also happened against a Columbus team that is now 3-3-0 and came in with some of the worst special teams numbers in the league.

Instead, the Blue Jackets went 2-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill en route to a lopsided 5-1 win at American Airlines Center.

“It was a specialty teams game, 2-0, and it’s hard to win in the league if you’re going to lose that,” said head coach Glen Gulutzan.

The special teams were a part of a frustrating first period that set the tone for the loss. Columbus had a 14-5 advantage in shots on goal, killed the first penalty it faced and then scored on its first power play. Adam Fantilli made a great shot just five minutes into the game to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at even strength, and then Boone Jenner was all alone on the doorstep on a power play 18 minutes in. A puck deflected off of his skate and past Jake Oettinger for a 2-0 lead that would prove to be the game-winning goal.

While the Stars could have complained about a kick, it seemed a just reward for allowing Jenner to be so wide open.

After that, Dallas pushed back and was much better in the second period. However, it only got to 2-1 after a nice shift from Tyler Seguin, Colin Blackwell and Adam Erne that resulted in Seguin’s second goal of the season. Denton Mateychuk slipped into the offensive zone in a chaotic transition and whipped a shot past Oettinger’s glove for a 3-1 lead.

Columbus then put the game away five minutes later on the power play, and added an empty-net goal for the final.

In the end, Columbus had a 29-23 advantage in shots on goal and a 59-46 advantage in shot attempts. It also won the battle of hits, 35-22. Dallas also had 17 giveaways and just looked plain sloppy for large stretches of the game.

Players have been talking about having clean breakouts and reducing giveaways, and yet it didn’t work on Tuesday.

“That’s what we’re trying to get out of our game, and that’s what we gave them,” Seguin said.

While defenseman Miro Heiskanen added, “It’s frustrating. You want to be really good at breaking the puck out. It makes the game a lot easier. . . We have to be a lot better than that. We were playing pretty much in our end and we have to be better at getting out of there. You start with the breakouts, those have to be better.”

The Stars started the season with huge road wins over divisional rivals in Winnipeg and Colorado, and that put them in a good place. However, they are 3-3-0 right now and are not in playoff position after six games.

It’s still early, but…”It’s pretty close to saying it’s not early anymore,” Seguin said.

Gulutzan added that he is taking this day-to-day in his return to being a head coach. But he added that there’s nothing wrong with feeling some pressure.

“I don't see being .500,” he said. “I’m just looking at how we’re playing and it’s not good enough to be in a playoff spot. So you’ve got to find that quickly.”

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.