OTTAWA, Ontario — A half-dozen games into a picturesque start, the Stars have met their first imperfection.
For the first time this season, the Stars exited the ice without any points, courtesy of a 4-2 loss to the Senators on Monday night. Dallas will finish a four-game road trip on Tuesday night in Boston.
Unlike the previous five games of the Pete DeBoer era in Dallas, the Stars had no answers to Ottawa’s push. Dallas had the game’s first 10 shots on goal, and the game’s first goal. Ottawa responded with four straight goals, including three in the third period off the rush.
“I thought, as the game wore on, their commitment and energy increased and ours decreased,” DeBoer said. “So we’ll have to look at why. You’ve got to give them credit. They were the hungrier team for most of the game tonight. Tough to win in this league if that’s the case.”
Joel Kiviranta and Wyatt Johnston scored for the Stars, important footnotes in their respective progress in the NHL but meaningless to the result on Monday night. Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, Shane Pinto and Derick Brassard scored for the Senators.
Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves in his second start of the season.
Some themes from the opening two weeks of the season carried into Monday night.
The Stars were receiving scoring contributions from their depth, as Kiviranta netted his second of the season. They were backstopped by strong goaltending, highlighted by Wedgewood’s post-to-post save on Alex DeBrincat and his power-play shutdown of Tim Stutzle. They got off to a hot start, something that’s allowed them to cruise to multi-goal victories four times in the first five games.
Dallas also was spending too much time in the penalty box, again. The Stars gifted the Senators four power plays (now up to 30 times shorthanded this season), and Chabot’s goal with 37 seconds left in the second period cracked the Wedgewood forcefield.
In the third period, the Senators capitalized on Stars errors.
Tkachuk outmuscled his way past Nils Lundkvist and to the front of the net on his goal. Pinto stole a puck from Jani Hakanpää in the neutral zone, then beat Wedgewood with a laser. Brassard took the puck from Jacob Peterson (who could have drawn a tripping call) and scored on the rush.
“Everyone’s going to create [chances],” Wedgewood said. “Obviously, something we want to eliminate, but it’s [Jake Oettinger] and I’s job to bail the guys out. Thought I did for 39 minutes. Unfortunately in the third, they found a way to get by me.”
DeBoer said he would have to review the tape to understand more why the Stars gave up so many rush chances. For Wedgewood, it meant more information to take in, and quickly.
“You’re taking in a little more information on the rush with probably two, three waves of who’s coming,” Wedgewood said. “That’s kind of the job. It’s enjoyable to cipher through it and get what they’re thinking. A couple great reads that I liked, that I was proud of. Then a couple shots there that kind of found a way.”
Slowly, the Stars will reveal their true selves throughout the season.
Just as it wasn’t the team in white on Monday in Ottawa, it wasn’t the one that raced out to a 4-0-1 start to the season. The Stars won’t kill penalties at a 90% clip all season. They won’t receive .959 goaltending from their starter. They’ve only outshot their opponent in one game this season, but still reside towards the top of the standings. Even the power play likely won’t steady at 30%.
Who will the Stars be when the scales start to balance? It’s still too early to tell.
In the broader view of the season, nights like Monday will be forgotten. A great start couldn’t push them over the finish line. A quick unraveling in the third period sealed the deal. These nights happen in an 82-game season, and the Stars are one of the last teams for it to happen to.
“We didn’t do enough tonight anywhere on the ice to win a game,” DeBoer said. “The good news is we have a chance tomorrow to go and have a really good road trip. This is a tough trip to go on, and we’ve got a chance to go into Boston and win, and have a good trip.”
