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Dallas Stars Turnover Control to the Panthers in 6-2 Loss: Six Easy Tweets

It was a winning streak that seemed beyond reproach. Unfortunately the Florida Panthers clicked their bladed heels and furiously reminded the Dallas Stars that there’s no place like home.

The game was more reminiscent of the 2014-2015 season. The good news is that the 2015-2016 season thus far has been liberated from last season’s mutilated habits. The bad news is that it’s a loss at home, and the Bettman point slotted Nashville into first. Plus the other Central teams keep winning. Except Colorado. Unless they play Dallas. Is the sky falling yet?

1. Can Jamie Benn unseat the Rocket Richard Winner too?

Jamie Been keeps doing Jamie Benn things. He’s leading the league in goals with 8, which puts him on pace for 82 goals. Obviously, that won’t happen, but it’s nice to see the captain holding his Art Ross trophy like it’s a piece of Sauron’s jewelry.

2. Henrietta is to the Hela cell line as Jaromir is to the JarJar cell line

Now for importance science history in 30 seconds or less: in order for you to grow, your cells have to divide. When they do, your body loses a piece of each chromosome called a telomere. This gradual shortening is said to be reflective of our bodies’ actual shortening/deterioration. But to throw a wrench into our understanding of human nature, an African American woman in the 1950’s named Henrietta Lacks displayed a biology counterintuitive to what I just described; holding cells in her body that displayed the characteristics of biological immortality. Her cells allowed Jonas Salk to do his vaccine for polio thing, in addition to funding research for AIDS, and helping fight cancer. It’s a long, fascinating story that I have to skip right now because we’re all here for hockey, not history.

My long winded point is that Jagr may share her DNA. It’s incredible what he’s able to at 43 years of age, skating and taking names like a Czech Randy Couture. It’s the reason why even as a diehard Stars fan, I couldn’t even be mad when Jagr scored. Which says a lot since I usually look like a man air drumming on bath salts whenever the other team scores.

3. Goaltending didn’t lose the game, but it didn’t help. We still thank you Kari and Antti (so far).

Goaltending has helped Dallas get to where it is. It’s been a dual effort as well. So there’s not much to criticize. However, just to be angry attention deficit youtuber for a second, it does worry me whenever Kari gets beat by a “soft goal” because he seems to get stuck in his own head, and another one almost always seems to follow (if not a softie, a goal period). I’ll step away from the misplaced anger, however, and say that these goals were joint efforts as the turnovers were ‘cadaverous’, as Razor might say.

4. Morpheus is definitely not fighting Neo

I’ve said my peace on fighting. So no need to have that discussion, but I probably wasn’t the only one who thought Roussel was gonna get demolecularized when he decided to tussle with Erik Gudbranson. He did far better than I thought, switching hands to neutralize Gud’s rhythm. I don’t mind this being part of Roussel’s game, but he needs to fight harder on building chemistry back up with Cody Eakin; I was hoping the disillusionment of that line was complete. My hockey dream right now is for Devin Shore to end up playing with Eakin and Hemsky. We still love you Rouss, but you’re picking the wrong fight here.

5. Jason Demers was sorely missed

We probably all wanted to elbow more than just a logo when Demers got suspended for two games. No matter what your opinion of Demers’ action, the gross inconsistency of the DPS was on full display, and Dallas’ defense took a hit as a result.

It seemed to mess with Dallas’ rhythm too. As for Patrik Nemeth and Jamie Oleksiak, they weren’t too bad per War on Ice. But on the third goal, Oleksiak kept his stick tied to his chest. With his height, you probably would have liked to see him poke check there, which might have altered the chance. There was another instance where both guys went after the same player behind the net, creating a prime scoring chance.

These players are young, and so you expect mistakes. Especially young players who haven’t played this season. But Nemeth and Oleksiak don’t have time to look invisibly efficient. They can’t give Nill a reason to want to see Esa Lindell (the most NHL ready of Dallas’ prospects) or Jokipakka over them. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to both as the season progresses.

6. Don’t go out there and think you want it, go out there and frikkin’ want it!

The only thing the Stars can do is just move on. Tuesday they play a struggling Anaheim Ducks team that may or may not be led by Bruce Boudreau; a team looking eerily like the 2014-2015 Dallas Stars. Well, not really; Getzlaf and Perry aren’t scoring, and Jamie Benn has more goals than the entire team. Their problem is one of anemic offense. Dallas should not be surprised if the variance gods decide to give Anaheim a moment of puck possession clarity. A team that stacked can only stay quiet for so long. So it’s no easy matchup.

Dallas needs to continue building on their strengths. Radek Faksa continues to build on his two way play (shared the highest shot attempt differential with Vernon Fiddler at +10), and the Mattias Janmakr-Jason Spezza-Valeri Nichushkin continues to be the second line possession powerhouse we never knew we wanted. If they keep skating with the one that brought them, Dallas should be fine.

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