Be honest: If someone told you before this road trip that the Dallas Stars would come away with four points from games at the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, you would have been happy, right?
I know I would have been.
However, the way the trip happened definitely leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the fans and likely the players. Losing the final two games in the third period and struggling with puck possession in both of those games definitely exposed some of the things this team will need to work on over the course of the long season.
And all things considered, maybe those lessons will be more important than the four possible points in the long term.
"Playing Pittsburgh and Detroit, we’ve learned some lessons now," said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. "I’d rather learn them at 11-5 than at 5-11. Our motto in that room is to get better every day and that’s what we are going to try to do. At least were measuring ourselves against the best, historically, in the league than the bottom.
"I can tell you truthfully – I won’t tell you what – but I’ve gotten better over the last three days, watching these teams play and seeing some of the things they do and some of the things we can improve in our game. It’s been a good learning experience."
After the jump, more on the Stars 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, someone you might not expect shows up in the behind-the-scenes photo series and the coolest thing I've seen someone do with broken hockey sticks.
- The players talk about how they learned lessons about work rate and 60-minute efforts in this paywalled story. [DallasNews.com]
- Mark Stepneski gives us the gamer for Saturday's loss at Detroit, which includes a lot of compliments to the caliber of teams they faced on this trip as well as a look at where the team goes from here. [ESPN Dallas]
- I'm no Red Wings fan, but this was pretty solid effort from Ian White to save what would have been the tying goal. [MLive.com]
- With defenseman Alex Goligoski out for a month with a broken thumb, the Stars may be turning to youngster Philip Larsen for offense from the back end. [DallasNews.com]
- Nothing from the Detroit game yet, but many more pictures from the Pittsburgh Penguins game in the behind-the-scenes photo series. You might see a very familiar name in the crowd. [DallasStars.com]
- Dearest Stars minions, you know you want to go vote for Eric Nystrom's goal against the Washington Capitals to be voted the best play of the week. So go do it. [NHL.com]
- A couple nice stories on the uber-talented, often crazy and absolutely unforgettable Eddie Belfour, who is going into the Hall of Fame on Monday with the rest of the 2011 class. [NHL.com/Toronto Star]
- Around the Pacific Division, the games: The Los Angeles Kings continued their recent resurgence with a 5-2 victory over Minnesota while the Phoenix Coyotes shut down the San Jose Sharks in a 3-0 road win. [Los Angeles Times/San Jose Mercury News]
- Around the Pacific Division, the injuries: The Stars aren't the only team to lose and important defenseman to a broken digit as Lubomir Visnovsky of the Anaheim Ducks is out with a broken finger. [O.C. Register]
- Not the typical funny story I usually put in this spot but a very nice story around Veteran's Day is this little bit that Puck Daddy ferreted out. This dude makes canes for veterans and kids out of broken hockey sticks. Two thoughts. One, the NHL needs to get its head out of its butt in regards to getting behind this. And two, this is so much cooler than those shelves they make for locker rooms out of broken sticks. [Puck Daddy]
- The Stars post-game videos weren't up by the time I went to bed, so here's fun with goalie interference from the Eastern Conference as Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins steamrolls Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres.