Most people view being close as still an overall failure, but for the Stars in Dallas, Friday night was a good kind of close.
That experience saw the Stars walk away from their home opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a point they didn’t play like they deserved.
The Stars clearly walked away from the game knowing the monkey on their back throughout the preseason is still there, and is more than happy to continue kicking and screaming. Bottom line, the team was inconsistent—and it cost them a game in which they should have performed much better.
The Jackets began the scoring adventure at 15:53 of the first period on a goal from Jakub Voracek, with an assist from Jason Chimera. The Stars appeared flat most of the period, and it seemed Columbus had the leg up on Dallas. In the pregame chatter, the Stars radio personalities discussed the similarities of this season to the 1999 Stanley Cup run by Dallas.
But a 1-0 deficit to begin the season didn’t make this Stars fan all warm and cuddly. Keeping with the not-so-cuddly feelings of the first period, Sean Avery took a two-minute slashing call, living up to his agitator image for the Stars. The Stars' Krystopher Barch and the Jackets' Jared Boll tossed the mitts at 16:19, which turned into a very entertaining fight.
The second period saw the Stars not only find their legs, but finally look like the dominant team most fans expected. Brenden Morrow drew first blood of the season for the Stars at 5:21 on the power play, with assists from Mike Ribeiro and Stéphane Robidas.
The Stars' new life in the second period was capitalized on by rookie James Neal, scoring on a tip-in at 8:04 with an assist from Stéphane Robidas
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about 1 month ago
Wow, the start of the season is just full of surprises...Dallas losing to Columbus, Toronto beating Detroit, Florida beating Carolina...what next, are the Kings going to win the Cup?
from about 1 month ago
The Stars only had one complete period (the second) and they tore the hell out of Columbus. If this team works out the kinks it will truly be dangerous.
about 1 month ago
Alan,
Florida lost to Carolina.
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