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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Taking Stock After A Not-Quite-Perfect Road Trip

The thing about five points out of six is that now it’s the new normal. Plus, another Gurianov goal, another Ovechkin hat trick, and more.

It bears remembering that the Dallas Stars are bringing home five of six possible points from their New York-New Jersey road trip. It also is worth noting that each came down to overtime, and bad habits finally took their toll as the team gave up a third-period lead and the OT loss to the New York Islanders last night.

Stars senior staff writer Mike Heika examines some of the key moments, many of which involved undisciplined penalties:

“You can’t beat yourself in that third game,” [interim head coach Rick] Bowness said. “We had the chance to take six out of six and that’s disappointing. Bad decisions, five penalties. You’re coming in here taking five penalties and you know you’re tired, it’s disappointing because it was self-inflicted.”...

”We took five penalties and the last one came back to bite us,” Bishop said. “Normally, we don’t take five penalties in a game. You can’t give those guys that many looks, and that’s what it came down to at the end.”

Generally, though, the team seems to be sticking to a game plan that they believe will work for them during the intense stretch run to come:

The Stars allowed the opposition to score first for the eighth straight game. That’s a concern. Still, they have gone 4-3-1 in those games, so they certainly know how to manage their bad stretches.

”They were doing some really good stuff and we had to simplify a little bit,” said defenseman John Klingberg, who had a goal and five shots on goal. “But we made some changes and came back in the game. They were coming after us, that’s a really good team over there, they’re heavy to play against, and to get one point is a pretty good outcome.”

There’s more at Mike’s place. [Dallas Stars]

Stars Stuff

Sean Shapiro takes a look at how the course of a game, and the players who come up big when it counts, can make the loser point that much more frustrating.

Ben Bishop took the long view in last night’s postgame interviews.

Meanwhile, this is why you put Denis Gurianov on the power play.

Around The League(s)

In On The #Kill Taker

  • The Colorado Avalanche have scored five or more goals three times in their past four games, and last night they buried the Buffalo Sabres, 6-1. [Mile High Hockey]
  • Joel Edmundson finally received his Stanley Cup ring, but the St. Louis Blues didn’t allow much else, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3. [St. Louis Game Time]
  • In Central-on-Central violence: Matt Dumba ended his scoring drought as the Minnesota Wild scratched out a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime. [Hockey Wilderness]
  • And the Nashville Predators got a 2-1 OT victory over the Winnipeg Jets, thanks to Mikael Granlund’s game-winner. [On The Forecheck]/

Alex Ovechkin netted a natural hat trick to reach 698 career goals and lift the Washington Capitals over the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2.

With Ovi, there’s always more.

Meanwhile, Joe Thornton passed a big marker of his own during the San Jose Sharks’ 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

Would you believe there are players who are not Alexis Lafrenière in the 2020 NHL Draft class? Ryan Kennedy has a list of names to know.

Greetings From Scenic Cedar Park

The Texas Stars stumbled on the road again, losing 5-2 to the Rockford IceHogs in BMO Harris Bank Center.

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