For the second time in the last three Saturday nights the visiting fans turned the American Airlines Center into a raucous party in favor of the Dallas Star’s opposition.
The Chicago Blackhawks‘ legions roared over scant Dallas faithful two wees ago in a 5-1 win, and that same scene unfolded here tonight as chants of “Let’s go Bruins” accompanied a 7-3 thrashing of Lindy Ruff’s squad.
7-3 might sound familiar, as it’s reminiscence of the total the lowly Arizona Coyotes hung on this team Thursday night in Glendale- That’s a Coyotes team, by the way, that saw the Blues come in and blast them for a 4-0 lead tonight as this one unfolded, and St. Louis pulls within a point of claiming home ice over Dallas in a would-be playoff matchup.
The Stars have now lost three games in a row after such a promising start in February. It’s their 11th Saturday night loss on the year with plenty more remaining on the schedule.
They’ve allowed 13 goals against in their last five periods. Five periods. They allowed the Bruins’ power play that was 1-of-36 (2.7%) heading into this one score three times. In a period and a half.
More disturbing still, the Stars earned one power play in the game early in the first period, and even that seems a strong statement as the roughing call went pretty unexplained for those in the building.
The Bruins earned the rest with their quicker feet and superior battle tonight. Six power plays in all- Two in each periods, and the Stars were powerless to stop them as point shot after point shot found things to tick off passed a perpetually screened Kari Lehtonen.
Their complete dominance in possession kept the Stars from generating anything of note once the rink tilted halfway through the second period . The Bruins ended the second period on a 12-1 run on shots.
Needing a comeback the Stars managed nine shots in the third, while the Bruins piled up 42 on Kari Lehtonen. Like the Coyotes Thursday. 42.
After claims of not taking the Coyotes serious enough it will be interesting to see what emerges from this one.
And this one should have been so much fun to talk about. The first period was a comedy of errors, strange goals, and video review after coach’s challenge after video review that saw the Stars rocket to a 3-1 lead that should have been enough to put them in the driver’s seat.
It was not. The Bruins did what the Stars have been unable to do in 2016- Get punched in the mouth and then re-rack. So often for these Dallas Stars in the new year adversity is met with what you saw this evening, and bad becomes worse.
We should have had fun talking about Antoine Roussel’s Gordie Howe hat trick.
Instead there’s Klingberg, Seguin, Benn and Goligoski’s collective -8 rating on the night. As go the Stars’ big guns so go the Stars.
Brad Marchand scored once for every two or three cheap shots he doled out. Loui Eriksson showed he’s still got a little bit left in the tank with a tally. David Krejci scored. Brett Connolly recorded two points. Former Dallas Star property Joe Morrow recorded two assists.
A forgetful evening, and once again the Stars don’t have a single part of their game rolling. Power play, penalty kill, goaltending, team defense, offense. A regular offense on a regular team, perhaps. But not this one. Three goals on the Coyotes and Bruins each should have bought 2-4 points. For these guys it’s not enough.
Two days off now, mercifully, and a chance to catch their breath before facing yet another Central Division foe on the road in Winnipeg.
Again the Stars rest at 80. The Blues… now have 79.
Burn the tape.