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Star Gazing: Defensive Woes Continue

March 1, 2013, 2:25 PM ET [23 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Dallas Stars Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Dallas Stars had been living by their offensive production of late. Even when the club was winning games in the month of February, the team defense simply was not very good. Dallas compensated with several high-scoring wins, but it was clear that this was going to be sustainable for too long, even as the Stars tied a franchise record by scoring three or more goals in 11 straight games.

Last night, Dallas' luck ran out against the Edmonton Oilers in a 5-1 loss.

Not even the return of Kari Lehtonen to the lineup was able to save the Stars on this night. Lehtonen, who has historically struggled in his first game or two back after returning from significant injury-related absences from the lineup, was not very sharp last night. He'll get his timing back in the games to come.

The bigger concern here is just how porous the Stars defense really is. After last night, the club has now yielded four or more goals in six of the last eight games and at least three goals in seven of the eight matches. That is flat out not conducive to winning hockey.

Dallas' defensive problems are a team issue. On the whole, the blueline is undersized and a bit soft physically. Meanwhile, while there are some defensively responsible forwards in the lineup, there are also plenty of times where there is not nearly enough help on coverages. Combine the two things and it has been like a shooting gallery in the Dallas end of the ice.

The only reason the Stars even rank 24th in the NHL in goals against average department is because Lehtonen has generally been so dominant in net. Plenty of nights where Dallas yielded one or two goals could have just as easily have been five or six if not for Lehtonen making mind-boggling saves. When the backups played in his absence, the D got exposed. Ditto last night in a match where Lehtonen didn't have his A-game stuff.

Another longstanding Dallas problem reared its ugly head again last as well. The Stars found themselves shorthanded nine times, including three times in the first period alone. Dallas is now once again the most penalized team in the NHL in terms of times playing shorthanded, and has taken seven more penalties than the next most-penalized team (Philadelphia, which has also played one more game than Dallas).

Last night, the Stars killed off eight of the nine penalties, including a five on three. If there's anything positive to be taken from the game, I suppose that's it. But spending so much time in the box is very taxing to a team; it takes them out of any five-on-five rhythm and it eventually wears down a team even if no PPGs result.

The real death knell against the Oilers, who broke a six game losing streak against the Stars, was what happened at the end of the second period and beginning of the third. As the second period neared its end, the Stars trailed 2-0. Certainly not a good situation but still within the potential realm of a comeback with a big third period.

With 14 seconds left in the second period, Jeff Petry opened up a 3-0 lead for the Oilers. Now a Dallas comeback was going to be virtually impossible. The "virtually" got removed at the start of the third period when Stephane Robidas went off for hooking in the opening 11 seconds and Ales Hemsky tallied at the 0:50 mark for Edmonton's lone power play goal of the night. Now the rout was on for the Oilers.

Dallas give into a lot of frustration in the third period. While Jamie Benn's crosschecking infraction on Ryan Jones -- resulting in major and game misconduct -- seem unlikely to result in a suspension by the NHL (still no hearing announced as of this writing), it was hardly the smartest thing for the Stars' top-line center to do in that situation.

Jaromir Jagr's sixth goal of the season ended Devan Dubnyk's shutout bid with 5:55 remaining in regulation. Dallas generated 34 shots for the game.

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