Lost opportunities. Lost composure. And, a lost point. All in Los Angeles in that Staples Center, a place that has become a bit of a difficulty for the Dallas Stars recently.
I don’t know what happened to the Stars last night in the final 5 minutes, but I would say it was equal parts Los Angeles Kings pressure and desperation, and equal parts Dallas Stars losing its composure and self control.
And now we are left to wonder about how much that point last night will count the Stars in their playoff run. I know, from being close by, that this team is smarting this morning in Anaheim.
I think we could gripe somewhat about some of the calls made last night in a game that had the Kings with 10 Power Play opportunities and the Stars with 3. But, the last few, and the most crucial were tough to argue. As much as I have complimented every move Mark Fistric has made up here, he cannot punch Dustin Brown after the whistle at that point of the game. Marty Turco, cannot take that slash at that portion of the game. But they did. And they lost. Lesson learned?
Now, they must drag their tired squad over to the Pond to settle the score from Saturday afternoon where the Stars also had another 3rd period meltdown that cost them crucial points. When last we saw the Ducks, they were pummeling Steve Ott after the game had ended. Ott took some stitches, and his team mates took a challenge to their manhood for not defending eachother. Tonight could be really pesky.
They need points. Badly. The clock is ticking away.
4 comments:
I doubt the lesson was learned at all. As much as I love Marty, he is a complete knucklehead who may never learn that there are very bad times to take penalties.
The Stars lost their composure a couple of times, but that game was on the officials. I rarely use the officials as an excuse, but please go back and re-watch the game. The officiating was gawd awful.
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P1-drvinh
Marty's penalty-taking knuckleheadedness pales in importance in comparison to his extremely inconsistent focus and commitment to hard work in games. When doing what he enjoys most -- handling the puck -- he's all there. When an opponent rims a puck in, Marty swings around the post to cut off the dump-in like his ass was on fire. And he does the same thing when coming out to get to a puck before an opponent chasing a breakaway. We love this about Marty, and he's a truly, truly special goalie when it comes to those things.
But when we see his speed and agility getting out there, but watch him mosey back to his crease after the rare missed cut-off like last night, where the result was a gift-wrapped goal to make it 3-1 Montreal, there's no alternative but to question Marty's focus and dedication to all parts of his game. He clearly can move quickly and with great agility, so there's simply no other reason why, after coming out of his crease to make a spectacular "Marty play," he can't race back to cover his MAIN responsibility (keeping pucks out) just as quickly.
Razor briefly referred to Marty getting bored early in last night's game, as he hadn't been tested to that point. Marty has to be a grown-up. He has to focus intently the entire time. This means taking measured risks with his positioning, but also means transitioning right back to "goalie mode" after playing the puck. It also means forcing himself to have better control over his emotions, especially when a dumb penalty could result in a game-tying or game-winning goal.
We love Marty Turco and all the really unique things he brings -- there have simply never been many goalies with his skillset -- but he HAS to bear down and focus more, because these gaffes threaten to more than make up for all the good things he does.
Randy...
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