Stars-Sharks Thoughts
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
So much for that Minnesota game being a tide-turner. This could have been a big game for them. A win would have been a big step forward. But, as we have seen several times this season, they followed a win with a dud or a big step back.
That win over the Wild was just another tease from the Stars. You could say most of the first period Friday night was a tease too. I thought they played pretty well against the Sharks early on, but those two Dan Boyle goals just changed everything. Throw in the Milan Michalek power play goal early in the second and it was over early. 6-2 your final and another game where they let up five or more. I believe that is ninth time they’ve done that now.
There’s a reason San Jose leads the league in goal scoring. They put pucks on net and get people to the net. They did that tonight and the Stars really had no answer.
This is more than just giving up goals as far as the Stars go. They aren’t scoring much either. The power play has been totally unproductive and can make a big difference in games. Maybe not on this night, but on some other nights the power play could have turned some games the other way. It hasn’t.
There isn’t much for this team to hang its hat on right now. Loui Eriksson continues to play very well. James Neal has been impressive since getting called up from the American League. Trevor Daley’s had some good moments here and there. But when it comes to team accomplishments, not much. Not much at all.
You can go back to that California trip and say that the Stars started to play a little better. Marty Turco started to play better. The defense got better. It’s been 10 games now since that stretch of playing better started and they are 3-5-2 during that time. Not much progress in the results category.
The turnover by Niskanen wasn’t great, but San Jose got control of the puck near the blueline and there were Stars defenders in the zone. No excuse for Turco to give up that goal. Guys have made mistakes in front of him - and Belfour, too - for years, yet they’ve had no problem cleaning up after most of them. This year, for whatever reason, Turco just doesn’t have it. Almost wonder if his eyesight is going south. He seems to play too deep in his net all the time and doesn’t react well to the puck. Is he the only problem? No. But he’s the biggest part right now.
The Stars’ last win on home ice was a month ago...on October 29th against the Wild. Ugh.
After each goal found its way behind Marty, I kept finding ways to explain them. A poor turnover by a Stars defender. A solid screen in front of the net. But after 5 goals, there are simply no more excuses. The problem is #35. And that’s a tough pill to swallow after such an amazing run last spring.
I assumed that coming within two wins of the Stanley Cup finals last year would buy Turco some clemency for his awful start this season. But at what point do we have to just wake up and realize that this thing, which looked so good last spring, is simply not going to be what it was.