After their overtime win against the Panthers on Thursday, the Stars had a day off to prepare for the other Florida team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning, led by captain Steven Stamkos, were on a two-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s game against the Stars.
The Stars got a bit of a surprise at the start of the game when Tyler Seguin was deemed ready to resume playing after missing three weeks of action, however it wasn’t enough as the Stars fell to the Lightning 5-4. Seguin did his part, scoring two goals in his return.
We saw the numbers after the Panthers win, so let’s have a look at the numbers after a loss.
How did the Stars do as a team?
Looking at shot attempts, the Stars lost control of the possession battle pretty early in the first period. In the chart above, you can see shortly after the Stars killed off the first Lightning power play , they didn’t register a shot on goal for roughly 6-7 minutes. Jamie Benn took a tripping penalty right around the 11 minute mark, most likely a frustration penalty costing his team a goal. Dallas, rebounded quickly with Seguin scoring a power play goal just minutes later, his 30th of the year. The Lightning, ever so resilient, scored the go ahead goal minutes later making it 2-1 Lightning heading into the first intermission.
The Stars started the second much better than the first, even going ahead in the shot attempts department, brief as it may have been, and quickly tied the game at 2. Both teams continued trading shots until Vernon Fiddler Bret Hull’d his way into a goal, giving the Stars a 3-2 lead. The Stars went into “retreat” mode, while the Lightning really turned it on, drawing a power play late in the second that the Stars managed to kill off.
Both teams started the third period strongly, but two ill-timed line changes gifted the Lightning the game tying goal and the go ahead goal. The Stars mounted a solid effort late in the third to no avail.
Let’s compare the shot attempts to scoring chances because we know all shots are not created equal.
You can see just how poorly the Stars started this game and how poorly they played after going up in the 2nd period.
Let’s break things down on an individual level.
The Bolts were led by human Corsi monster, Anton Stralman, who is a 56.3 % CF on the year. The rest of the Lightning were roughly split between being positive and negative possession players with Braydon Coburn and Jason Garrison having the roughest night. Interestingly enough, I remember Razor commenting multiple times on Barberio’s struggles, but he ended up with a plus-5 shot differential.
Similar to Tampa Bay, the Stars ended up roughly split in the shot differential area. Demers led all Stars with a plus-8 differential followed by Jordie Benn at plus-5, and Jason Spezza at plus-4. Alex Goligoski at minus-12, had a rough night at the office. It would be interesting to know if the absence of John Klingberg was responsible for Alex’s struggles or if he was struggling with Klingberg as well. Patrik Nemeth at minus-5, and Colton Sceviour at minus -4, were the second and third worst offenders of the night, respectively.
So, there you have it. A pretty rough night for the Stars in Tampa. They foil Seguin’s return and lost rookie sensation Klingberg in the process.
Did you see anything I didn’t?