The Dallas Stars didn’t wait for the coaches to set the tone after Thursday night’s 8-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Once the staff left the room, the players shut the doors and stayed in there for at least 10 minutes, holding a meeting of their own, The Dallas Morning News reported.
It was the kind of response that usually follows a game that gets away from you fast. Dallas was up 2-0 after one period at American Airlines Center, then surrendered five goals in the second and never recovered. The Stars had not given up eight goals in a game since Nov. 8, 2016, when they lost 8-2 in Winnipeg.
Captain Jamie Benn didn’t soften the blow afterward. He said every player has to look in the mirror after a night like that, and he called the performance ugly and unacceptable. Benn also pointed to the honest conversation inside the room and the way Dallas let the momentum swing away in the second period.
“I think it was just something that needed to happen for our group,” Benn said of the meeting.
David Perron, who is in his fifth game with Dallas, was part of that conversation too, though he said he took a back seat and watched how the new group handled it. Perron said the standards in that room are high, and that teams get closer when they can say what needs to be said.
“When you go through a tough patch, teams react, and that’s what we did,” Perron said.
Perron had given Dallas a 3-2 lead at 11:14 of the second period, redirecting a Thomas Harley point shot for his first goal as a Star. But that edge didn’t last, and the game kept slipping away from there.
Coach Glen Gulutzan said meetings like that happen across the league, especially with veteran groups that understand where they went wrong. He said Dallas actually played one of its better first periods, but once Dylan Samberg scored 1:11 into the second, the Stars tried to chase that goal back immediately. In Gulutzan’s view, that was the wrong approach.
The answer, he said, is to “stay with your game and keep building it back up.”
Jake Oettinger was pulled one minute into the third period after allowing six goals on 27 shots. He said he liked what Dallas did in the opening period, but also noted the level of skill Winnipeg brought to the ice.
Oettinger said it looked as if Dallas “thought they were just going to roll over and let us win.”
Gulutzan said the same kind of thing had happened in home losses to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 27 and the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 29, when Dallas fell 5-1 and 5-2. He said effort and character were not the problem. Against Winnipeg, he said, the Stars opened the door with self-inflicted mistakes, while the Jets’ power play and top players kept executing at a high level.
Dallas, now 10-6-2, returns home Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres at 7 p.m. CT.
The Florida Panthers visit Sunday at 7 p.m. CT.
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