Final
Dallas Stars 0 – Florida Panthers 6
10,175 people showed up to last night’s game to watch the Stars take on the Florida Panthers. Unfortunately for those 10,175 people in the stands (Well maybe not all of them. I assume some were cheering for the Panthers), the 19 guys wearing the home sweaters forgot to show up.
The Stars were dominated in this game from start to finish. The first period felt like it was spent entirely right in front of Kari Lehtonen and it showed on the stat sheet. The Panthers outshot the Stars 14-4, had 10 scoring chances to Dallas’ one and scored two goals near the end of the period. The scoreboard said 2-0 after the first period, but it could have easily been 5-0 if Lehtonen hadn’t made some amazing saves.
The second and third periods didn’t go any better for the Stars. Florida scored twice in the second and then two more in the third as they finished off this laugher of a game. The Stars actually managed to outshoot the Panthers in the third, but Florida had pretty much mailed it in by then. The final scoreline could have been as bad as 15-0 if Florida had kept trying.
This game continues a run of terrible play from the Stars and Gulutzan himself said that, “The honeymoon was over.” Dallas has been completely outplayed in their last three games and this game was the worst of the worst. Every puck battle was lost. Every shot for Dallas was seemingly from the blue line. Every defensemen seemed to be lost and out of place on Florida’s goals. Whatever a team can do wrong did go wrong last night for Dallas, with the exception of the penalty kill. Dallas managed to kill off all four of the power-plays that the Panthers had.
The Stars just didn’t look like they wanted to play, getting outworked at every turn. The biggest trouble for this team is getting the puck out of its’ own zone. When Alex Goligoski was healthy and on the ice, he was usually able to skate the puck out of danger. Now, the Stars don’t have that smooth skating defensemen, so they’re reduced to icing the puck or attempting to pass their way out from the back. That just led to turnovers all day for the Stars and helped the Panthers dominate the game.
To make matters worse, Krys Barch and Adam Burish were both injured in the game. Barch hurt his ankle and Burish was hit in the hand by a Brenden Morrow shot. With Goligoski out for a month and Steve Ott yet to return from a hip injury, this situation has déjà vu written all over it.
Notes and Thoughts:
- A couple of Florida Panthers had career days on the ice. Stephen Weiss had a +6 rating and Brian Campbell was +5.
- Scott Clemmensen was making his first start of the year for Florida and got himself a shutout. He easily stopped all 25 shots that came his way.
- Dallas has now been outscored 14-3 in their last three games. They’ve been only able to draw two penalties a game in that stretch while they have taken 13 penalties themselves.
- The Ryder-Benn-Eriksson line has had trouble now that the top defensive lines from each opponent are playing them. They have only two points combined in their last three games.
- Kari Lehtonen looks to be coming back down to earth. He’s letting in some easy goals on his gloveside. In 9 games in October, Lehtonen allowed 17 goals. In just 5 games so far in November, Lehtonen has allowed 19 goals.
Game Stats and Scoring Summary
| Dallas | Florida | |
| Score | 0 | 6 |
| Shots | 25 | 30 |
| Penalty Minutes | 10 | 6 |
| Power Plays | 0 of 2 | 0 of 4 |
| Blocked Shots | 29 | 7 |
| Hits | 36 | 20 |
| Faceoff Wins | 30 | 23 |
1st Period:
- 16:44 Dmitry Kulikov (1) Dallas 0 – Florida 1
Assist: Tomas Kopecky
- 18:08 Jason Garrison (7) Dallas 0 – Florida 2
Assists: Mike Santorelli, Brian Campbell
2nd Period:
- 15:02 Tomas Fleischmann (7) Dallas 0 – Florida 3
Assists: Stephen Weiss, Kris Versteeg
- 19:52 Stephen Weiss (6) Dallas 0 – Florida 4
Assists: Kris Versteeg, Tomas Fleischmann
3rd Period:
- 10:00 Kris Versteeg (9) Dallas 0 – Florida 5
Assist: Stephen Weiss
- 13:19 Evgeni Dadonov (2) Dallas 0 – Florida 6
Assists: Marco Sturm, Mike Weaver
