Despite dominating puck possession and shots on goal for a majority of the game, the Dallas Stars lost their third straight game falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 on Tuesday night.
Dallas outshot Tampa Bay 35-21 but could not get a puck past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Stars had plenty of opportunities in the game, including six power plays. The man-advantage proved to be no advantage at all for Dallas as the team finished 0-for-6 on the power play.
Andrew Cogliano, acquired on Monday from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Devin Shore, made his Dallas debut skating on a line with Jason Spezza and Erik Condra. Cogliano did not have a shot on goal but was noticeable with his skating ability and his ability to exit the defensive zone with regularity.
Even with the loss, the Stars remain in one of the two wild card spots, but that is more of a reflection of the conference-wide struggles for half of the Western Conference. Dallas has numerous red flags, however, highlighted by scoring only 121 goals as a team through 47 games. That is the lowest amount of any team currently in a playoff spot in either conference and the fourth lowest in the entire league. Only Los Angeles (107 goals), Anaheim (113 goals), and Arizona (116 goals) have scored fewer goals than the Stars this season.
The Stars look to end their losing streak on Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings in a game that is sure to be high-scoring now that I’ve pointed out both teams have trouble scoring.
Brian Roe is the founder and lead writer of The Roe Report. He spent five years working for the Dallas Stars and has been a contributor at Hockey’s Future, The Hockey Writers, NHL Intel, and more. Follow Brian on Twitter @brianproe.
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