Reeling Stars host skidding Canucks
DALLAS -- Things are clearly not going well for the Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars, who meet Sunday at American Airlines Center. Dallas (38-29-8, 84 points) dropped a tough 3-2 contest to the visiting Boston Bruins on Friday night, putting the Stars' home record at 24-11-3. The Stars led 2-0 after 40 minutes yet conceded three unanswered goals to the Bruins, including the eventual game-winner by David Pastrnak 11 seconds before the final horn to drop their seventh straight game, currently the longest losing streak in the NHL. "I didn't think we were very good in our own end with the puck," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said postgame. "We had all kinds of opportunities on their first and third goals, to get it out. It really started with icings. We iced it. We ended up getting hemmed in, but we had the puck on our stick and fumbled it. Then, we overcommitted to the board  the winning goal." Dallas is just 1-6-3 in its past 10 games, but the team is 13-7-0 against the Pacific Division this season. The Stars are struggling to finish games but key offensive cogs Jamie Benn, who has a six-game point streak and 16 points (nine assists) in his past 14 games, and Tyler Seguin, who has points in four of his past five contests, are more than pulling their weight offensively. "We've got seven more games that we can win, so we're going to stick with it and try and win all seven, but take it one game at a time," Benn said after Friday's loss. With seven games to play, Dallas sits five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. With the Stars' playoff chances down to just 5.2 percent, according to Sports Clubs Stats, the ability to move on from Friday's loss and focus on righting the ship against the Canucks is imperative. "We're going to have to (move on), we have no choice," Hitchcock said. "We've got to be a lot better with the puck under pressure when the game is on the line. We made too many errors with the puck and it cost us. We had lots of effort and everything else we've been having, but execution-wise, we made some mistakes in the third period and we paid for them." Hitchcock made practice on Saturday optional to give several players ample time to recover from Friday's game. Even with an earlier start time than normal of 7 p.m. ET, Dallas will have a full morning skate on Sunday. Vancouver (26-40-9, 61 points) has dropped eight of its past nine games, including a 4-1 loss at St. Louis on Friday. Sam Gagner had the lone goal for the Canucks in the Gateway City, the 150th tally of his career and his first since Jan. 6 at Toronto. "I've had a lot of chances, I haven't been able to put them in," Gagner said after the loss to the Blues. "As an offensive guy, once ones goes in, it just gives you that offensive feel a little bit more. Hopefully keep pushing down the stretch here and help us win some games." The Canucks, who are 14-22-3 on the road and have the worst record in the Western Conference, are concluding a four-game road trip (1-2-0) against Dallas, a team Vancouver blitzed 6-0 in their last meeting on Feb. 11. Vancouver forward Daniel Sedin will likely skate in his 1,300th career contest on Sunday. Even as the Canucks hit the ice for the third time in four nights, Daniel's brother, Henrik Sedin, doesn't feel that fatigue is a factor in losses on the second night of a back-to-back like in Friday's loss to the Blues. "No, (fatigue) shouldn't be (a factor)," Sedin said. "I think three (games) in four (nights) is never a problem, back-to-backs are never a problem. Thought we played OK (against St. Louis). We had our skating, but again, giving up a shortie against this team and not getting the start that we needed to and then the third (period), that killed us." Early in the second period on Friday, Patrik Berglund scored a short-handed goal for the Blues, a definite point of contention for Canucks coach Travis Green during his postgame media scrum. "I didn't like giving up the short-handed goal. When you're on the road and you're in a tough building against a pretty solid team, you can't give up a goal like that," Green said. |