The Dallas Stars wrap up their two-game homestand Tuesday when they host the New Jersey Devils, their first game since clinching a playoff spot late Sunday night.
Dallas (43-16-11, 97 points) is on a two-game losing streak (0-1-1), the first time in over two months the team has lost consecutive games. Even after falling 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, the Stars still managed to secure their fifth straight playoff spot later that evening after the Utah Mammoth defeated the Los Angeles Kings.
Now, the Stars will look to end their brief skid and begin preparing for a Stanley Cup playoff push against the Devils (35-32-2, 72 points), who are 13 points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with 13 games remaining.
After the Vegas loss, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan admitted his team has “dipped a little bit,” but he still likes how they played.
“What I do like the most is we’ve survived a heavy stretch of emotional games, and done very well… The way we’ve won those games prior, you can still see that in our games. Just maybe some of the offense isn’t quite clicking as it has in the past,” said Gulutzan, who is in the first year of his second stint guiding the Stars.
Gulutzan’s team has scored just four goals in its last three games. Vegas also limited the Stars to just 15 shots on goal, tying a season low for Dallas. Two games earlier, the Stars managed just 18 shots on net at Colorado, where they needed a shootout to claim a 2-1 win.
The drop in production has come as forwards Roope Hintz, fifth on the team with 44 points (15 goals, 29 assists), and Mikko Rantanen, third with 69 points (20 goals, 49 assists), remain sidelined due to injuries. That has put more pressure on the Stars’ top scorers, Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston.
Robertson, who leads the team with 82 points (38 goals, 44 assists), saw a five-game points streak end Sunday. Johnston, second with 75 points (38 goals, 37 assists), has goals in four of his last six games. He set a franchise record with his 23rd power-play goal Sunday.
New Jersey has been idle since Friday, when Washington’s 2-1 victory ended the Devils’ three-game winning streak. Tuesday’s game in Dallas kicks off a road stretch during which coach Sheldon Keefe’s team will face opponents skilled at generating deflections that lead to goals.
“There was a few games there where it seemed like every puck coming from the point was getting tipped or getting through traffic and making it real hard on (Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom) that way,” Keefe said on Sunday. “I think we’ve done a better job of it … (but) we’re going to be certainly put to the test.”
Jesper Bratt (17 goals, 38 assists) and Jack Hughes (18 goals, 37 assists) share the team lead with 55 points, although Hughes, who scored the gold medal-clinching goal last month for the U.S. Olympic team, missed nearly a quarter of the season in November and December due to a hand injury.
Since the NHL resumed play after the Olympic break, Hughes has notched 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 12 games.
Bratt has recorded points (four goals, nine assists) in nine of his last 10 games and has scored in three straight.
–Field Level Media
