Stars VS Flames review

To say the Stars didn’t do enough to win last night against the Calgary Flames does the current Dallas roster a huge disservice.

With a massive shot differential of 40-23 in favour of the Stars , a 75% penalty kill rate and huge plays and saves from skaters and Marty Turco respectively, this should have been a massive and much needed home win for the Dallas Stars.

They ran though into Curtis McElhinney. Making only his second appearance in a Calgary Flames jersey this season (interestingly enough, his first game was also against Dallas), McElhinney was an absolute workhorse in goal – turning away a noteworthy 38 of 40 shots he faced.

The truth is the Stars fired everything they had at McElhinney and the Flames and got nothing like the rewards their play warranted. You could argue that Calgary’s defense simply had a solid road performance and leave it there but what’s sold in a defense that gives up 40 shots in a single game? Make no mistake here hockey fans, McElhinney stood on his head to carry his team last night.

Stars center Mike Ribeiro was inclined to agree, speaking for the official Dallas Stars website; “I think the goalie played well,” Ribeiro said. “There were a lot of chances we couldn’t bury. We cycled the puck most of the game, we took shots on net.”

There is a hint that we were wrongly given a call for delay of play in the overtime period which led to Calgary getting the game winner on the power play. With 1:09 gone in the OT period, Dallas defense-man Niklas Grossman hit the puck out of play which resulted in the call. Replays show quite clearly though that Grossman was well over the blue line when he made the play; meaning the call should not have stood and play should have simply resumed with an even strength face-off.

This however is all ifs, buts and maybes. The bottom line to this game is, we simply have to keep the same effort and drive against the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow – another home game and the second meeting of the two clubs this season. Vancouver are currently 1-0-0.

Stars – Canucks predictions:

Final score:

Dallas 5.

Vncouver 2.

Score first:

Mason Raymond with 9:12 played.

Leading scorer:

Brenden Morrow: 2 goals, i assist.

Three Stars:

1st Star: James Neal.

2nd Star: Marty Turco.

3rd Star: Mikael Samuelsson.

I was way off with my last predictions… hoping for better this time.