Glen Gulutzan's Dallas Stars have accomplished some good things during his season-plus tenure as head coach. One trouble area that the team has not been able to clean up despite changes in personnel has been its negative disparity in the number of penalties taken against the number of power plays created.
At the quarter pole of the lockout-shortened 2013 season, the Stars' 41 power plays rank them 23rd in the NHL in total man-advantage opportunities (23rd overall). The team was 28th overall of the league's 30 teams in power plays last year. They had 2.97 power plays per game in 2011-12, and 3.41 power plays per game thus far in 2013.
That sounds like a modest improvement from last year. It really is not. First of all, minor penalties are up league-wide by a roughly corresponding ratio to the Stars' increase in power plays. Secondly, most teams beneath the Stars in total power plays hold games in hand on the schedule.
The Stars have already logged 12 games played this season. Of the seven teams that have received fewer power plays, the five have played 11 or fewer games. Only Ottawa and Nashville (39 power plays apiece) have played 12 games thus far. The Rangers (40 power plays) and Ducks (34) have played 11 games. Boston (39) and Colorado (last in the league with 33 power plays) have played 10 games. Calgary (36 power plays) has played an NHL-fewest nine games to date.
On the flip side of the equation, the Stars rank 26th in the NHL in terms of taking minor penalties. The club has already been faced with 57 shorthanded situations this season, and none of the aforementioned teams with low power play totals and games in hand are even within nine shorthanded situations of matching the Stars' penalties to date.
A year ago, the Stars played shorthanded an average of 3.70 times per game. This year, they face an average of 4.40 shorthanded situations. Again, that is partially due the leaguewide increase in penalty-calling frequency, but Dallas' increase is somewhat about the norm albeit over a still-small sample size of games.
Even so, there is no way to put a positive spin on the special teams play differential the Stars have experienced. The problem from last year has NOT gone away and that's without penalty-prone recent players such as Steve Ott, Sheldon Souray or Adam Burish being on the Dallas roster anymore. In the meantime, Dallas has lost the beneficial things those players brought to the lineup.
Where does the accountability start? By this point of his tenure, it's fair to pin some of the blame on Gulutzan for his club's failure to walk the discipline line more successfully. But the majority of the blame has to start in the locker room.
Rookie forward Antoine Roussel was just sent back to the AHL this weekend, partially due to some undisciplined play and a bad penalty in Saturday's game and partially due to some deficiencies on the defensive side of the puck.
The defensive issues are one thing. But it was kind of unfair for Gulutzan to single out Roussel yesterday for his three minors in five games. He's a young player trying to making an impact in limited ice time and creating havoc is his specialized role in the first place. As I see it, the Stars already knew what his style of play is all about. Either live with some of the penalties that result from Roussel's style and the normal NHL learning curve or else don't call him up in the first place.
I am more concerned by some of the penalties the veteran leaders on the team have been taking that I was by Roussel falling on the wrong end of the discipline line.
Brenden Morrow has been a very valuable on-ice player and team leader for the Stars for many years. But he's also a player who has to push the envelope in terms of creating havoc down low in the offensive zone, and he often takes too many bad penalties over the course of the year. Some of his offensive zone penalties (for instance, the goalie interference penalty that wiped out a would-be goal in Colorado) are just part of the turf. But there are also far too many of the needless variety.
You can also look at Jaromir Jagr as one of the culprits in taking bad penalties this season. For the many good things he's brought to the attack, pretty much every one of Jagr's five minor penalties in 11 games have been of the "bad" variety: a couple of stick slashes, an obvious holding penalty, a lunging hook, and a puck accidentally flipped over the glass from near the defensive blueline.
Of course, it's not just two veterans or one young player. It's a team wide issue. The Stars have been especially prone to one-bad-period-per-game syndrome this season, in which they get widely outshot and outchanced. Frequently, a parade to the penalty box has either been a causation or a bi-product of the bad frames. The Stars survived a hairy second period against Anaheim the other night, but they were playing with fire.
Yes, the Stars are riding a three game winning streak and a 3-0-1 stretch over the last four heading into a tough Western Canada road trip this week. But if the Stars want their recent winning ways to continue, they had better start to correct the penalty disparity sooner rather than later.
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