For the Stars, starting 3-0 was a perfect way to start an imperfect season, but the 5-3 loss to Vancouver Thursday night brought Dallas back to Earth.
It was the fourth game out of four that Dallas has allow their opponent to claw back into the game, except this time Vancouver steamed ahead and never relinquished the lead again. Previously, Dallas was up 5-1 in Winnipeg before squeaking out a 5-4 victory. Then, the stars had multiple leads in Colorado before letting the Avalanche tie it up en route to a 5-4 shootout victory. And a third scare happened when Minnesota turned the game from a 3-0 domination by Dallas into a 3-2 tight game in the third period in the Stars home opener.
The Stars once again stormed out to a lead in their second home game Thursday thanks to first period goals by Mavrik Borque and Mikko Rantanen before defensively melting down to the tune of four goals for the Canucks in the second period. For the first time this season, Dallas found themselves trailing by two goals. Although the Stars clawed one back late, Vancouver sealed the deal with an empty net goal to give Dallas their first loss of the season.
There were always going to be bumps in the road with a new system and a new head coach, and there are still plenty of positives to take from this early season stretch against good teams. But securing a lead and locking it down needs to become far more routine moving forward. The idea of blowing leads seems to transcend who is behind the bench, as it has been a worrying trend over many years for Dallas. It seems that Glen Gulutzan's system is more geared towards being able to eradicate the problem while being able to produce offense, unlike the Rick Bowness era.
Gulutzan emphasizes a drive to the playoffs type mentality, one game closer at a time, ramping up to that first round series game by game with more physicality and demand for how players should play. A key tenement to playoff success is how teams play with the lead, and of everything that former head coach Pete DeBoer accomplished, it never seemed like holding a lead was a sure thing in the postseason.
The Stars were never going to win every game this season, and the loss was coming at some point. But Thursday's example of blowing a two goal lead should not repeat itself too many times if the team wants to ready themselves to have the best chance at hoisting the Stanley Cup. The early trend of letting teams back in the game with a lead needs to solve itself quickly.
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