Four-game home stand. Three wins. I’ll take it. Especially considering the Dallas Stars struggles at the American Airlines center this season. The most recent win was against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night. The 2014-15 version of Buffalo’s hockey team isn’t very good any which way you measure them, but a win is a win, right?
How the Stars won, in numbers.
The first period was pretty even in shot attempts. The second period was a different story. Buffalo, appeared to be somewhat engaged in the second frame until their go ahead goal around the 32nd minute and it was all Dallas after that.
What is it with the Stars and second periods this year?
In these posts, I will also be including a chart that shows scoring chances. Scoring chances are loosely defined as shots generated from inside the black outlined area below.
Looking at the scoring chances graphic, the Sabres were getting the better chances until about midway through the second. It looks like Dallas really came alive after going down 2-1, but it also looks like the Sabres went into a prevent defensive shell.
Leaders for the Stars in individual scoring chances were Jason Spezza (5), Cody Eakin (4), and Colton Sceviour (4).
In these posts, you will also see a few abbreviations and terms used.
CF, CA, C+/- and CF% are Corsi For, Corsi Against, and Corsi For Percentage. They are defined as follows,
Corsi For: The number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the player’s team.
Corsi Against: The number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the opposing team.
Corsi%: The percentage of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the player’s team; also known as CF%.
It was a solid night for everybody in green last night with 8 players at 70 percent or above and no one below 57 percent.
I felt like the game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, but at the same time I felt that maybe the Stars played down to the level of their opponent. Perhaps the Sabres played better than I am giving them credit for.
Either way, Dallas has to find a way to finish some of these solid chances they’re getting.
Off to Calgary.
Graphs and numbers taken from War-on-Ice and hockeystats.ca