On a night overshadowed by Lindy Ruff's return to Buffalo, the Dallas Stars captured an ugly 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The emotion of the evening was the big story, and the game play itself was decidedly mediocre.
Basically, the Stars won this game because the Sabres' atrocious defense was worse then their own suspect defensive play. Ryan Miller singlehandedly kept the Sabres in the game through numerous stops on odd-man rushes, while Kari Lehtonen had a so-so (but not awful) night by his standards.
From a positive standpoint, the Stars could take away the early energy shown by three of their forward lines as they built a 4-1 lead and a seeming stranglehold on the game. Vernon Fiddler scored his first of the year, beating Miller in close. After a pair of nice keeps at the blueline by Jordie Benn on the power play, Alex Goligoski dialed up a shot from near the top of the right circle for his first goal and point of the season. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn took advantage of poor defensive play by the Sabres to notch their respective fifth and fourth goals of the young season.
On the downside, the Stars work in their own end of the ice still left a lot to be desired. Basic coverages were not made at times. Pucks got needlessly turned over. The energy level dropped after a strong start. Lehtonen did not have his best night and got lucky on a couple of plays were he took himself out of position to make saves but did not get burned.
Frankly, if the opponent had been a better team than these current Sabres, the Stars may very well have ended up with a notch in the "L" column. The game progressed very much like the one against Anaheim that ultimately turned into an ugly 6-3 loss after Dallas led 3-1 at the first intermission. The main difference was the caliber of opposition, not the quality of the Stars' play. However, a win is a win, and Ruff and company will certainly take it.
Longtime Stars forward and new Sabres captain Steve Ott played his first game against former team. It did not take him long to show he's changed uniforms, as he went after Stephane Robidas for an open-ice hit the defenseman delivered on the first shift of the game. Later, Ott drew a (rather questionable, and largely reputation-based) pair of minor penalties for slashing and unsportsmanlike conduct, which resulted in the Goligoski power play marker. Ott got a tiny measure of satisfaction midway through the second period, as he got open in close and scored a power play goal to trim Buffalo's deficit to 4-2.
Matt Moulson tallied a pair of goals in his first game as a Sabre after coming over from the Islanders in the blockbuster trade that sent Thomas Vanek to Long Island.
The Stars return to action tonight in Montreal. The game starts at 6 p.m. Central time and will televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest. The Habs (7-5-0) are coming off a 2-0 shutout win over the punchless Rangers last night in the Metro Division team's much-belated home opener at renovated Madison Garden Garden.
Canadiens backup Peter Budaj got the start in net last night, turning aside all 27 saves he faced in the game. His defensemen and forwards also helped out quite a bit in their own, blocking 28 Rangers shot attempts. With the shutout win, the Canadiens improved their GAA to 1.83; ranking fourth to date in the NHL.
Usual starter Carey Price is expected to be back in goal tonight. The Stars have struggled mightily in the second half of back-to-back games in recent years, as well as whenever Lehtonen does not play. As such, Ruff may be tempted to start Lehtonen tonight but, with the goalie having recently come off a groin pull, may decide discretion is the better part of valor and go with Dan Ellis.
On the Montreal injury front, forwards Daniel Briere (concussion), Max Pacioretty (hamstring), Travis Moen (face), and Brandon Prust (upper body) are all out of the lineup. So is defenseman Davis Drewiske (shoulder).
For the Stars, Ryan Garbutt remains ineligible while serving his NHL suspension. The team otherwise has a healthy lineup available.
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