“If you're gonna drive the car in to the ditch, you may as well total it.”
-Craig Ludwig (following the Stars' 7-4 loss to Calgary).
However, if you do total your car, try not to take your wife's car out and t-bone a bus a few nights later.
You'd think that the Dallas Stars players would have been loaded for bear going in to Vancouver last Monday night. They had just been throttled by the lowly Calgary Flames 7-4, and the Canucks were one of only two teams that the Stars were chasing in the Western Conference standings and a win against them would close the gap between them.
Bear? Nope. Try a squirt gun.
During the second period of the Stars 7-1 loss to the Canucks, I received a text from a buddy of mine:
“Let's see...total ineptitude in own zone, grossly unacceptable special teams, bad goaltending, an own goal...The 2009 Stars are back!”
In two games, the Stars had given up as points as the Green Bay Packers gave the Chicago Bears last Sunday: 14.
Talk about the dam bursting.
Going in to last weekend's final two games of Dallas' Western Canada road trip, the Stars were the hottest team in the NHL and were unbeaten in 2011. Their goalies had the top save percentage and goals-against-average in the league in January. Those numbers got throttled mercilessly in the last two games; from a .954 SV% and 1.42 GAA to .745 and 7.0.
Those numbers make I Saw the Devil look like a Disney flick.
The Stars' special teams took a nose-dive as well. In the eight games in January before the Twin Killings at the hands of Calgary and Vancouver, Dallas' power play was cruising along at 44% (12-27), but went 0-7 in the losses. Their penalty kill had become lethal to opposing power plays units, allowing just a single power-play goal in 2011 while posting an absurd 95.8% (23-24) penalty-kill percentage. That percentage was nearly slashed in half against the Flames and Canucks as the Stars only went 5-for-9 (55%).
Vancouver, specifically, has owned the Stars this season. In their two meetings, the Canucks have outscored Dallas 11-2 and shredded the Stars' penalty killing units, scoring on 6 of their 12 chances.
"We're all going to bounce back," center Brad Richards said, following the loss to Vancouver. "If not, we're going to have to find a different job. We'll take it in the chin tonight but we'll be back."
In the big picture, the Stars were 7-2-1 in their last 10 games and in good shape despite the blowout losses. As of last Wednesday, the Stars still had a fairly comfortable lead in the Pacific Division – three points up on Anaheim with 3 games-in-hand on them and 6 points over Phoenix, having played one less game than the Coyotes. They were still a single point behind Detroit for second in the conference, but slid to 6 points behind Vancouver.
The team is fortunate to have one more game before heading in to this weekend's All-Star break, and Dallas could not have hand-picked a better opponent than the Western Conference cellar dwellers and frequent Stars punching bag, the Edmonton Oilers, to help cleanse the team's palate from back-to-back beat downs.
“Guys were upset today. They didn’t need to be talked to,” said Stars coach Marc Crawford shortly after the team touched down in Dallas last Tuesday. “They knew they weren’t very good, weren’t good enough. I think you could go a step further and say they knew they had a real sub par performance last night. I expect them to be a lot better Wednesday.”
Let's hope so.
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