After the Dallas Stars suffered their fourth loss in five games, head coach Lindy Ruff suggested to the media that there could be some lineup changes coming. He was particularly unhappy with some of what he's seen on the blueline.
Today at practice, per Stars beat writer Mike Heika and official website writer Andrew Stepneski, Ruff did indeed shake up his defensive pairings. Most notably, Alex Goligoski has been moved off the blueline entirely and practiced today as a fourth-line winger. The combinations:
Jamie Benn - Seguin - Peverley
Whitney - Eakin - Chiasson
Roussel - Horcoff - Nichushkin
MacDermid - Fiddler - Goligoski
Dillon-Robidas
Connauton - Gonchar
Daley - Jordie Benn
Rome
Quite frankly, the pairing of Goligoski with Gonchar has thus far (and somewhat predictably) been a defensive fiasco for the Stars. Unfortunately, the Stars' current lack of NHL-level depth -- and a rather questionable mix of players on the blueline, dating back to the Joe Nieuwendyk regime -- has been exposed and exploited by other teams.
Here's the thing: Ruff wants to keep the pairing of Stephane Robidas and Brenden Dillon together. That's for good reason, as they were the team's most consistent pairing last year and they seem to balance off one another's games well. However, keeping those two together creates a lineup dilemma for the other four spots.
Goligoski, who has no points and is minus-10, needs to produce offense to have a spot in the lineup. But the Stars don't really have anyone to pair him with to help hide his defensive limitations and lack of size.
Trevor Daley is reasonably solid in his own end of the ice and has jet-propelled skates but, like Goligoski, is undersized and not a physical player. When they've worked together in the past, it has not been an effective combination for more than a few games here and there.
Gonchar, Jordie Benn and Kevin Connauton are all generally offensive-minded defensemen. At least Gonchar (minus-six, one assist) has size, even though he's not physical. Ruff tried to use Goligoski and Gonchar together in hopes of them collectively triggering the offense. Well, it hasn't worked and their defensive play -- both positionally and in terms of puck managment -- has been frightful at times.
The only other current NHL-level option is defensive defenseman Aaron Rome, but he is more of a seventh defensemen and is just coming off hip surgery.
Due to his own poor play and the lack of viable partners in lieu of placing him with Dillon, Goligoski finds himself today as a "fourth line winger" who will probably move back to the point on power plays.
Any which way you slice it, the Stars need personnel changes on the blue line until some of their promising young defensemen at the AHL level are ready to step up. Otherwise, just about which way that Ruff shuffles the deck in the second and third pairings, the Stars are in trouble on their blueline.
Personally, given the personnel that's there, I would put Daley with Gonchar if it were my choice to make. That still leaves a lot of patchwork, but I think it may at least be a little better as a second pairing than Goligoski with Gonchar. It couldn't possibly be worse.
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