“Oops, I did it again. I played with your heart, got lost in the game.”
Anyone that saw the first goal Jussi Rynnas allowed tonight was most likely singing that song to themselves. Another one of those goals that your goaltender just has to have. Instead of squaring up to the shooter, Rynnas was trying to cheat a little bit in case the shooter passed out front, and instead got beat right there at the goal post.
It’s a goal we’ve seen more than enough of by the Dallas Stars this season.
The answer to that first goal against was much better than normal, with Colton Sceviour driving the net and getting one back almost immediately. It was all back to even again, and the play that followed the goal by the Stars was a shadow of what we saw the team look like last year. They seemed to be getting back to their game.
A defensive breakdown by Jordie Benn, who got caught way out of position and didn’t have any help, and a goal against later and another multi-goal period meltdown was well underway.
The situation was made worse by an ill-timed penalty by Ryan Garbutt, and the Red Wings‘ effective power play was able to slice through the penalty kill and put the Stars down 3-1 after just one period.
Instead of continuing the meltdown as has often been the case for Dallas this year, the Stars played a really tight period in the second.
They started limiting their turnovers and started supporting one another in the defensive zone. The defense started to play more aggressively in the offensive zone.
Trevor Daley appeared to cut the lead down to just one about half way through the middle frame when he got behind Jimmy Howard and put the puck in the net. Unfortunately, video review showed he put it in with his arm and you can’t do that, so it didn’t count.
Tyler Seguin got the real goal to cut it down to just a one goal lead on the power play later in the period, which is almost like seeing a unicorn because it hasn’t happened all that often lately.
That would be the closest the Stars got to the Wings, though.
Another multi-goal against period later, the Stars find themselves with yet another loss. I’m not going to tell you how the goals happened — at this point it just doesn’t matter. What matters is they went in.
Rynnas didn’t solve the backup goaltending position tonight. The defense looked just as pedestrian in a lot of ways as it had this season, though the glimpse I had of them in the second period makes it all the more frustrating because they CAN play well. Turnovers. Bad penalty killing. Poor puck possession. All the things that have plagued the Stars this season, and not a one improved upon after their supposed ‘reset’.
Yes, there are still 50ish games left in the season. Sure, there’s time. But at what point are they going to run out of runway on the “there’s still time” mantra? When will we see improvement? When will we see the points earned again?
0-3 on the road trip. Not a single point in that span.
Hug a Stars fan tonight, they need it.