I picked a terrible time to begin this new Stars’ side project… Geez. Two games, two losses.
I had a draft ready to go the night after the game, but it somehow got deleted… after I had just finished it at 3 in the morning. So, this is technically the 2nd draft of my MTs. It’s probably a good thing this happened, because I was frustrated with this game, and now since it’s been a couple of days, I’m able to think a bit more logically and clearly. Let’s get into it.
The Stars Didn’t Show Up Early
Eerily similar to Tuesday’s game against the Kings, the Stars came out flat and not ready to play to begin the game. The shots on goal in the first period were thirteen to eight in favor of Anaheim. In my notes during the first period, I was frustrated with the Stars, because there were opportunities for them to take advantage of Anaheim mistakes, but they were doing nothing with it. Also, on McTavish’s power play goal in the first period to put the Ducks up by two, Dallas has control of the puck twice in the defensive zone with opportunities to clear it and were unable to do so.
Wedgewood = Stars’ Best Player
Despite not playing since December 17th against the Hurricanes, Scott Wedgewood was VERY good and gave his team the opportunity to win. He ended the night making 25 saves on 27 shots for a .926 save percentage. Plus, it’s noteworthy to mention the two goals that beat him. The first one was complete puck luck and “angels in the outfield” miracle crap in order for it to go in, and the second one was a power play goal where McTavish got the same shooting opportunity three times. The loss was definitely not on Wedgewall.
Anything That Could’ve Gone Wrong, Went Wrong
I mentioned this early on in the podcast, but it was one of the ugliest games I’ve ever watched in my 20 years of watching hockey. Anything that could’ve gone wrong was going wrong for the Stars. On top of being flat, the puck felt like it never bounced in the Stars’ favor. The first Anaheim goal was so fluke-y. It was ridiculous.
Officiating was frustrating the heck out of me. They blew the whistle too early on two prime scoring chances for the Stars, and missed several penalties on Dellandrea’s face getting re-arranged with Kirkland’s elbow and Pavelski being interfered with. On a side note, the penalty they gave to Terry at the end of the game was a complete joke. Benn wasn’t even touched.
When the Stars finally got it going about halfway through the second period, John Gibson had already decided nothing was going to get past him. In my notes with about 5 and a half remaining in the second, I wrote word for word, “We’re gonna get goalies for the rest of the night, aren’t we?”. He’d end the night with a shutout stopping all 35 shots he faced.
The Stars have been able to avoid the injury bug that has plagued some teams this year such as Washington and Colorado. They’ve been very fortunate and there were two injury scares to two key players for Dallas other than the elbow Dellandrea took to the face. Hintz blocked a shot and could not put any weight on his right leg. Honestly, I was not expecting him to return. When he did, I, along with millions of Stars’ fans across the world, breathed a sigh of relief. Lindell blocked a Frank Vatrano shot with three and a half minutes remaining the 2nd. He also labored off the ice very gingerly after blocking that shot.
Final Thoughts
It’s a very good thing the Stars have gotten these three days of no games before Sunday’s matinee against the Panthers. I guess they partied too hard for New Year’s. We’ll see if they can get back in the win column tomorrow.
