The Hockeyarcher: Dallas Stars Game 11: The Good and the Bad (With Pictures)

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Dallas Stars 3-2 OT win at Edmonton Oilers

Shots: Dallas 28, Edmonton 29

PP: Dallas 1-3, Edmonton 1-4

The Good:

Goligoski being scratched- Much was made about the decision to make Goligoski a healthy scratch. It is strange to have a team scratch one of its “best” defensemen, but I liked this move. I’m not bitter about the Neal trade, stressing over it till this day will cause an ulcer. But I do have to admit that since the Stars seemed to be presenting Goligoski as our number one defender and a great player in both ends of the ice. This season, he’s been terrible on defense and hasn’t generated very much offense. Our defense is constantly changing, trying to see what works best, and I think it’s only right that if anyone else can be sat, why not someone who’s been struggling and who needs a little bit of a wake up call. Missing him, the defense didn’t seem to miss a beat. There was one shift where the Oilers’ second line owned the Stars’ fourth line and the Oilers scored, but other than that, a blast from the point on a pp was the only other real defensive deficiency. It's been as though the Stars didn't want to admit the Goligoski is not what we hoped he'd turn out to be, but scratching him for this game showed me that they're not blind to the fact that he needs to be better and they're letting him know it.

Cody Eakin- He was all over the ice. His backcheck was tremendous, forcing numerous turnovers. Best of all was that he didn’t force the Oilers to make a bad pass, he directly stole the puck from them by being aggressive, physical and smart. He covered everything from forecheck and backcheck to being behind the goal line on both ends of the ice.

One of Eakin's many amazing shift and attempts at back-checking.

Penalty kill- Despite giving up a power play goal in the 3^rd period, the PK was strong today. Not just strong defensively, but the Stars first two penalty kills resulted in more time on offense and more shots on goal than the Oilers. And it wasn’t just Fiddler or Eriksson, it was each unit.

Several chances like this on the PK. Loui's pass was picked off here, but Stars did great keeping Oilers in their zone while they were on the power play.

Faceoffs- Finally Stars do noticeably well on the dot. They started off terrible, losing 5 of the first 6 draws, but they got much better as the game went along. Benn won 6 of 9, Roy won 8 of 15, Fiddler won 4 of 7 and Eakin won 5 of 10.

The Bad:

Power play- Yes the Stars did get a goal, but it was a rough time to finally get there. Of the Stars’ three power play opportunities, their first was horribly embarrassing. They couldn’t get the puck into the zone for more than a total of 10 seconds, and Stars barely could get it past center ice. The second power play was better at getting the puck in the zone, but still lost it too easily and Roy continued to shoot into shin pads from the point every time. Finally on the last power play, Ryder made a cross-ice pass to a wide open Eriksson which drew attention to him and left some room for Roy. Eriksson dished it over to Roy who ripped a one-timer that Dubnyk didn’t see until it was too late.

Dealing with forecheck- the Oilers’ two-man forecheck was unbelievably effective tonight. They were hounding the Stars, pinning them to the boards and forcing retreats constantly throughout the night. They managed a number of turnovers and several scoring because of their forecheck. The Stars just seemed overwhelmed and overpowered by the forecheck. It was like a swarm of bees on a person walking in molasses.

Oilers had either one hard on the puck and one dangling back spying the puck or two hard on the puck. Stars just couldn't handle it.

Lines seen tonight:

Morrow-Benn-Jagr

Eriksson-Roy-Ryder

Smith-Eakin-Vincour

Nystrom-Fiddler-Roussel

Daley-Rome

Dillon-Robidas

Oleksiak-Larsen

PP- Benn-Morrow-Jagr-Daley-Robidas

PP- Roy-Ryder-Eriksson-Larsen-Smith

PK- Fiddler-Nystrom-Rome-Daley

PK- Eriksson-Roy-Dillon-Oleksiak

PK- Eakin-Roussel-Rome-Daley

PK- Benn-Eriksson-Robidas-Dillon

Notable Notes:

Stars took 4 of 6 points on 3-game west coast road trip
Goligoski (scratch) and Whitney (injury) were out.
The Oilers had six players out due to injuries: Nugent-Hopkins, Fistric, Jones, Eager, Sutton and Peckham.
A few quotes that stood out and cracked me up: “Hall is lightning bolt dipped in baby oil” and “here’s Petry dishing it ahead”

Robidas' terrible and unnecessary interference penalty.

Benn's goal. Jagr protected the puck along the boards and drew 3 Oilers, leaving Benn open for a shot.

Hemsky's goal. After Yakupov hit the post, there was simple an out-of-position scramble that proved costly.

Roy's goal on the PP. Finally didn't shoot it into shin pads! Dubnyk was screened by the 3 bodies in front of him and didn't see the shot until it was too late.