And no, it has nothing to do with the fact the Stars have dropped their first two games of the 2009-10 campaign in them.
I'll freely admit that I enjoyed them in the first season after the lockout. How could you not when you knew that Jussi Jokinen was going to pull off a truly memorable move?
But the novelty on this has worn off. We've seen everybody's moves. And in the end, you're using a skills contest to decide not only games, but possibly, playoff spots down the road.
Anyway, I just wanted to get my stance on this on the record. I'll leave it at that because, let's face it, the Stars had one goal leads on three separate occasions in this contest and failed to hold onto each lead. That's why they found themselves in OT and eventually, the shootout.
For more on the game, follow me after the jump.
Edmonton jumped on the Stars from the outset and were rewarded with a power play when Jeff Woywitka was whistled off for high sticking 1:53 in. For the first 1:40 of the power play, the Stars did a good job of holding the Oilers on the perimeter. But then Andrew Cogliano carried the puck behind the net and waited for Mike Comrie to drift to the front. Stephane Robidas was late getting over, Cogliano fed Comrie, who tabbed the puck past Marty Turco to open the scoring 3:49 in.
Brenden Morrow knotted things just a few minutes later and picked up his first goal of the season in the process on a backhander past Nikolai Khabibulin. The teams remained tied throughout the rest of a ragged first period. In fact, they remained tied at 1-1 for just over 20 minutes of play before Marty Turco fired a pass off the glass on an Oilers' power play and into the neutral zone. James Neal picked up the puck and streaked down the right wing where he fired a snapper over Khabibulin to give Dallas their first lead of the game at the 5:57 mark of the second period.
Unfortunately, the lead didn't last as Sam Gagner, the son of former Dallas Star Dave Gagner, knotted things up just 48 seconds later with some helpers from Zach Sortini and Denis Grebeshkov. The back and forth action between the two teams continued throughout the second when Stephane Robidas' seeing eye bomb from the point snuck in past a screened Khabibulin to restore Dallas' one goal lead at the 11:57 mark. It looked like that power play marker would hold up until the second intermission before Dustin Penner scored at the 18:06 mark to tie the score for a third time.
Brenden Morrow's power play goal 1:25 into the third gave Dallas it's third lead of the game when he took a feed from Mike Ribeiro and found oodles of room to shoot the puck through Khabibulin's five hole. But just like on two previous deficits, the Oilers came back and tied the score when Grebeshkov's shot deflected off Nicklas Grossman and over a sprawling Marty Turco, who was far from his best in the this one but could not be faulted for this goal.
The goal scoring stopped and both teams went into OT where the Oilers nearly ended it early on when Patrick O'Sullivan's centering pass somehow got through to Tom Gilbert who redirected the puck towards the net, only to be thwarted by the left pad of Marty Turco. Twas clearly Turco's best save of the night.
Alas, the Stars couldn't take advantage of the great save and end it in the extra session. So for the second straight game, the Stars went to the shootout.
Both clubs traded missed shots and easy saves through the first two rounds. Brad Richards fired the puck right into Khabibulin and Mike Ribeiro fired wide of the net while Sam Gagner and Patrick O'Sullivan were both foiled by Turco. Ales Hemsky stepped up, skated in, and misfired on a wrister so bad that it fooled Turco and sliped in through the five hole to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead in the shootout.
And when James Neal hit the post on his attempt, the Stars had dropped their second consecutive shootout. As a fan, this contest was enjoyable as any contest between these two rivals. It was certainly fun.
But it could have been better.
Cue Marc Crawford from his post game presser:
"We're making it fun for everybody, but the fun comes from getting the results."
Their next chance to get a pair of points will come Friday night in Calgary.