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Dallas Stars Daily Links: How Do The Stars Fix The Power Play?

The Dallas Stars looked drained and road-weary during Sunday’s disheartening loss in the Emerald City. But that 4-1 defeat by the Seattle Kraken pointed up a recurring problem with their special teams.

The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks went back to this well for his latest article, because let’s face it, it’s not old news if it keeps making news:

On Sunday, the Stars went 0 for 3 on the power play, which can normally be chalked up to an off night. But this was much worse.

Dallas was outshot by the Seattle penalty kill, 6-0. They allowed a short-handed goal to Jared McCann when Ryan Suter vacated the left flank. The Stars were chasing the puck more often than not, and even surrendered a pair more of odd-man rushes and a between-the-legs shot attempt from Jamie Oleksiak…

The Stars power play is now 1 for its last 16, with the only goal coming from Suter on Thursday night in Anaheim, when he swatted a loose puck past John Gibson.

So who could help the first unit get going again? There are options, and then there are the only options that are probably under consideration:

If [Esa] Lindell (upper body) and Jani Hakanpää (hit in the face with a puck during warmup on Sunday) remain unavailable, then [Thomas] Harley stays in the Stars lineup. Being an offensive defenseman and running a power play is his specialty and the Stars don’t have anything to lose by trying him there, especially after Sunday’s performance.

Dallas also needs to find a fifth player to go on its top unit. The entire top line (Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz and [Joe] Pavelski) plus [John] Klingberg have produced on that unit, but the fifth member has rotated. It began with Alexander Radulov, shifted to Tyler Seguin, was [Miro] Heiskanen last week and the Stars tried [Jamie] Benn there late Sunday.

Matt has more. [SportsDayDFW]


Stars Stuff

Saad Yousuf has some thoughts about the recent road trip, and they’re at The Athletic now.

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