Stars-Kings thoughts
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
There’s not a lot to analyze in this one. The Stars were sluggish to start and finished strong. It was a reversal of Wednesday night in Anaheim.
As Marc Crawford pointed out after the game, they were playing their sixth game in nine nights. People may not like to hear it, but scheduling often is a big factor in how teams play. All teams go through it and have to deal with it, and it all evens out the in end. And the teams that do a better job of it over the long haul of the season are the ones that do better in the standings. Teams have to find a way to win, or sometimes find a way to get a point when faced with scheduling issues. The Stars did that in Los Angeles, although it was far from a Picasso out there.
The rested Kings took advantage of their scheduling advantage and took it to the Stars in the first two periods. I give the Stars credit for coming back from 4-1 down in the third to tie it up, get it to overtime and get a point. LA got the bounce in OT and Michal Handzus delivered the game-winner.
It wasn’t a very good night for the goaltending on either side. Alex Auld wasn’t particularly sharp for the Stars and Jonathan Quick looked rattled in the third period for the Kings.
Kings center Anze Kopitar was the man for the first two periods of that game. He’s having a quite a start to the season. He’s tied for the league lead in scoring with Alex Ovechkin.
James Neal had another strong game for the Stars. He scored on two great shots and that one Jame Benn scored on to make it 4-2 was quite a shot as well. That Benn goal was really big. It rattled Quick and got the momentum moving the Stars’ way.
Brad Richards got back in the lineup and picked up a couple of assists.
Overall, I see it as a good point. It seemed like they were going to get zip on this night and they found a way to get something. Every point is important. Let’s face it 4-2-4 is better than 4-3-3.
