The Dallas Stars blow a multi-goal lead and fall to the Colorado Avalanche in overtime, but there are bigger concerns on the horizon for Dallas.
Not even halfway through the season and the margins in the Central Division standings are already razor thin. In a game where the Stars led a majority of the time, not only letting the Avalanche get a point, but running away with two could likely hurt them later.
1. The Stars need to win face-offs all game long.
The Stars have always been dominant in the face-off circle with players like Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Matt Duchene, and Radek Faksa at their disposal. Last season, Dallas finished first in the league in face-off win percentage at 54.8%.
This season the Stars are currently in sixth in the league in face-off percentage at 53.4%. Tonight against the Avalanche, the Stars finished the game winning 49% of the face-offs, but that doesn't tell the whole story.
After the first period, the Stars had only won 35% of the face-offs and after the second, it only improved to 48%.
Also, Dallas lost 56% of the draws in their defensive zone, allowing the Avs to control possession in the most dangerous part of the ice.
In the wise words of Thomas Harley, "I was always taught growing that when you have the puck, you're on offense."
Letting a lethal team like the Avalanche control the puck in the o-zone won't bode well for any team. This caused the Stars to spend more time trying to win the puck back and defend rather than keep the pressure on Georgiev at the other end.
2. The Stars scoring depth continues to set them apart.
Four goals were scored tonight by three different lines: Joe Pavelski on the first line, Evgenii Dadanov on the second line, and Tyler Seguin, who scored twice, on the third line.
The Stars have the most 10+ goal scorers in the league, at seven, and they currently have two more players sitting at nine goals.
This is a much different scenario than the Avs, who have three players knocking on the door of 20 goals, but the rest of the scoring falls off from there.
The scoring depth will become more important in the playoffs when other teams' third lines are struggling to score while the Stars third line continues to dominate the league.
3. Dallas is running on fumes when it comes to puck-moving defenseman.
It is no secret that the Stars coaches do not fully trust Nils Lundkvist as he finds himself in and out of the lineup. And when he is in the lineup, he is getting sheltered minutes and getting replaced on some of his shifts.
He was swapped out for Joel Hanley, who does not bring the same skill set to the table, and couldn't play valuable overtime shifts.
Also, the Stars found themselves in a bind when their number one defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, was injured in the third period. With Lundkvist being scratched, that left only Thomas Harley to do the heavy lifting when it came to moving the puck and quarterbacking any offense.
After the Avalanche came back from being down 4-2, the Stars hands were tied during overtime. Harley can't play the whole five minutes, leaving Dallas to play Esa Lindell, who, while good at defense, is not their first choice to lead them through the zone on 3-on-3.
Once Lindell's shift was over, the Stars ran with three forwards during the remainder of overtime. If Heiskanen is out long term, the Stars are either going to have to start trusting Lundkvist more or make a move to add depth to their puck-moving defensemen.
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