Most games between the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators are lot more competitive than last night's all-too-easy 4-0 shutout win for the Predators at American Airlines Center. Quite simply, Nashville played a solid all-around game and the Stars did not make themselves very tough to play against.
Dallas did very few things right for the first 30 minutes of the game. The forechecking was spotty and the traffic in front of the net non-existent. The defensive puck management was atrocious. The team took unnecessary penalties. Do that against a quality opponent and you are going to lose far more often than you win.
In fairness to the Stars, they were missing two-third of their top line, including Jamie Benn. Inability to work around key injuries has been yet another chronic problem for the Stars in recent years that has continued to go unsolved. The team just doesn't have the depth.
The Stars picked up their play a bit as the game rolled along, but by that point they were in a 3-0 hole in the scoreboard and couldn't get a puck past Pekka Rinne. In the battle of Finnish netminders, Rinne was the clear victor on this night against Kari Lehtonen. The Stars' most valuable player had an OK performance with zero support around him but it was not one his A-Game nights.
Nick Spaling opened the scoring in the first period on a 2-on-1 rush created by Jamie Oleksiak losing the puck in an ill-advised decision to try to carry it directly into neutral zone traffic. Spaling's wrister from the medium slot was not an easy stop but looked like the type of offering that Lehtonen has usually turned aside this season.
The Predators forged a 2-0 lead early in the second period with Brenden Dillon in the box for tripping. The Dallas penalty killing box got overloaded to one side, and Shea Weber had a wide open lane to skate in from the point. Weber's weak backhanded shot from along the ice sneaked through Lehtonen and went into the net. Just a botched sequence all the way around.
Nashville put the game away for all intents and purposes at 9:09 of the middle stanza, as Jordie Benn hooked Rich Clune on a breakaway as the latter stepped out of the penalty box. Lehtonen was beaten through the five-hole on the ensuing penalty shot.
As the second period rolled along, the Stars finally started to generate some chances, but Rinne slammed the door on the returning Ray Whitney and others. In the third period, a poor penalty kill by the Stars produced a fourth goal for the Predators. Jordie Benn got caught in no man's land, trying and failing to block a shot up high and leaving the slot abandoned in the process. The rebound went directly to Gabriel Bourque on the doorstep, and Lehtonen had no prayer of making the stop.
The Stars will play the second game of their five-game homestand tomorrow night when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
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