Stars-Sharks thoughts

There’s not much you can say about this game other than the Stars played hard and well, and came up short against a very good team that got some great goaltending. Evgeni Nabokov was superb in net. He made some big saves and seemed in control most of the night. The only thing that got by his was a fluke goal off his own player’s glove.

The Stars power play didn’t help the cause, especially that five-on-three in the second period, but San Jose’s penalty kill is very good and, again, Nabokov played a role.

The bottom line is that when the Stars play like this they are usually going to get points. Dave Tippett said they played better Monday against the Sharks than they did Saturday against Anaheim, and I would have to agree. Despite the different outcomes, I’ll take Monday’s effort. Of course, I’ll always take points.

Here are the postgame quotes provided by Stars PR: 

Matt Niskanen: “It found it’s way into the net and gave us some life. I thought we did some good things tonight. They’re a good team, but we did a lot of positives tonight. They’re the best team in the league, but the way we checked tonight, we were right there with them. This one hurts. The last time we played them it was ugly. We’ve come a long way since then.”

Marty Turco: “I felt alright. It was one of those games that we have to realize we played well. We’re not going to win every game, even when you do things well. We stayed in it the whole game and that was a great sign for our team. It’s just really unfortunate we couldn’t collect any points. It’s night and day with this team then when the sharks were here last, no one’s going to say any different. We play a big game on New Year’s Eve to get some points and keep things going like we did tonight. It was a great year in some regards and a tough ending the way this season started. It wasn’t pretty for a while. We’ve got one big game left to close out the year and we need the points.”

Stephane Robidas: “When we have success, our power play is working and we couldn’t capitalize on a 5-on-3 and some other chances down the stretch. We competed pretty well against a good team, and we are playing much better as a team. We still have a lot of improvements to make and we have to regroup for a good team in New Jersey on Wednesday night. Nabokov is one of the best goalies in the league and we couldn’t get pucks past him.”

Dave Tippett: “You can’t get more point blank chances than that. We controlled play and had some good opportunities, and that is positive. I think we played better tonight than we did the other night to be honest, and we did some good things. We did some good things and held them to under 20 shots, but they got opportunistic goals and we didn’t. Nabokov was excellent and made some great saves. Parrish was moving his legs and gave us good energy. We talked about winning battles and we won a lot of them, and we have a lot of upside on this team and we will continue to push toward what we are capable of. The effort tonight was something to build on.”

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