Stars-Coyotes thoughts

Falling behind to the Phoenix Coyotes is not a recipe for a success. The Stars fell behind Sunday and, as expected, they didn’t have a lot of success. Their start in the game was baffling. The Coyotes were playing their second game in less than 24 hours and you would have thought the Stars would have wanted to jump on them early with a good start. It didn’t happen. The Stars were flat and the Coyotes were the team that started strong, got the early lead, extended it in the second and the Stars were forced to play catch up and that’s playing into the hands of a team coached by Dave Tippett. 

Mistakes were killers for the Stars because mistakes led to all four Phoenix goals. Poor coverage on one, a turnover on another, a bad decision at the Phoenix blue line on another and then Alex Auld giving up a goal just 11 seconds after the Stars had cut the lead to 3-2 with seven minutes to go.

The Stars were all over it in the third period, but Coyotes goalie Illya Bryzgalov was outstanding. He’s a big reason the Coyotes are where they are in the standings right now. His teammates were in full scramble mode in front of him at times and he was cleaning things up in goal. It was a solid performance.

Phoenix is the real deal, I think. They melted down last season, but I am not so sure we’ll see a repeat this season. They’ve got a lot more veteran team and with Tippett at the helm they’ll always be around it in just about every game. I’ve watched them play three or four times the past couple weeks because I knew the Stars would be seeing a lot of them here before the break, and I’ve been impressed each time.

I thought Jamie Benn had a great game. His line with Brenden Morrow and Steve Ott was very good.

After Fabian Brunnstrom scored that goal his confidence meter seemed to rise measurably.

Brian Sutherby didn’t look too good when he left the ice in the second. It’s a shoulder injury. We’ll see what comes of it.

The Stars are not practicing tomorrow. They’ll skate Tuesday morning and then play Minnesota Tuesday night in a nationally televised game on Versus. That’s a big game. The Stars have six games before the break and that’s one of the two they have at home. The other four are on the road. 

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