And when it was bad, it was horrid.
The Dallas Stars got their butts royally whooped 6-0 by the Florida Panthers on Tuesday in their first game back at the American Airlines center in more than a week.
And worse than the final score was the lack of effort from practically every player on the ice, something that head coach Glen Guluzan put succinctly in this quote, I think.
"I just think the honeymoon is over. I think the honeymoon is over. You start off 11-3 and teams are prepared. They are prepared to play you, they watch you probably a little closer. I thought Florida did a really good job of pre-scouting us. You can have systems given to you from God above, but if you don't add work to those systems you are not going to win. We got severely outworked."
Brenden Morrow called it "embarrassing" and Stephane Robidas said the team was "outworked."
Um, yeah. Less of that, please, guys. Like never again.
After the jump, more on the loss to the Panthers, why the Stars originally worried about drafting Loui Eriksson and the hugs we all need today.
- I think the first line in the paywalled story from Mike Heika is all you really need to know. "Well, now we'll see how the Stars handle a crisis." [DallasNews.com]
- And the quick and very, very dirty gamer from ESPN Dallas. Nope, it didn't get any prettier on paper. [ESPN Dallas]
- The Panthers, on the other hand, were really, really pleased with how it went, and why not? The best night might have belonged to Stephen Weiss, who finished at plus-6, the best single-game plus/minus ever against the team since the move to Dallas. [DallasNews.com]
- Our friends at Litter Box Cats are positively giddy about how things went from their perspective. [Litter Box Cats]
- The Panthers can't seem to buy a win at home, but boy can they win on the road. This fact displeases the Stars fan in me. [Miami Herald]
- Enough of that game. In much better news, the sale of the Stars is set to be official on Friday. I found this article to be the most amusing, since it apparently needed to attribute that fact to one of its own "insider" sources. Um, nice work guys. Glad you figured that out. [Sportsnet]
- Jamie Benn will grow a public personality one day, I promise. But until then, you'll get more quotes like these in profiles, this particular one being written before Tuesday's loss. Also, the picture. They couldn't come up with anything better? [GantDaily.com]
- E.J. Hradek has some high praise for Loui Eriksson in his weekly column. There's also a fun little note about some of the concerns the Stars originally had when drafting him. [NHL.com]
- Marty Turco to the Toronto Maple Leafs? Hard to imagine a way that wouldn't end in disaster, but if it's real... good luck to him. He'll need it on that team and in that market. [Puck Daddy]
- And speaking of former Stars, Ken Hitchcock swears he isn't all about the defensive side of hockey. This story, and the pair of articles linked within, make some really interesting points about how a coach has to evolve with the player's he's given. [ProHockeyTalk]
- I meant to link this yesterday, but I love, love, love this profile of Eddie Belfour. It's wonderfully reported and written, and I love it more than I do kittens. [Yahoo]
- Around the Pacific Division: The Phoenix Coyotes saw the other side of the shootout Tuesday when they used the skills competition to pick up a 3-2 victory over those Maple Leafs. [Globe & Mail]
- Because we all need a hug this morning, I give to you the weekly hockey hugs feature, which always makes me smile. [Puck Daddy]
- There would have been so many opportune Brenden Morrow bobblehead stories if the captain (or to be fair to him, anyone on the rest of the team) had done anything on Tuesday. Instead, he talks about just how bad the loss was.