Dallas Stars Disappointing Game 7 Effort A Tough Way to Lose

Dallas Stars Disappointing Goaltending Performance Leads to Overall Lackluster Effort in Game 7

Someone forget to tell Dallas Stars G Kari Lehtonen there was an important game taking place on Wednesday night – or, so it seemed.

As you sat there watching game seven between the Stars-Blues, it didn’t take long before you started thinking, “At what point does Lindy Ruff pull this guy?”

Pointed out in the first intermission by Analyst/ex-NHL goalie Kelly Hrudey, Kari Lehtonen’s body language after the first goal was a cause for concern.

He seemed almost disinterested or disengaged – at least not the attitude/emotion you want to see from your netminder in game seven. On a side, it was a PP goal, but an easy puck to stop.

Next was the disallowed goal by Vladimir Tarasenko (called back on offside). He came across the goal-line near the half-wall and threw a bad angle shot on goal. The trajectory was actually in line to miss the net, but made contact with Lehtonen which ultimately re-directs into the net.

Luckily, it was called back, but at this point you had to know this was a sign of bad things to come if a change wasn’t made.

Lehtonen remained in goal, bringing forth more of the same. Another bad angle shot from the same side, this time by Paul Stastny, made its way through the only gap as Kari attempted to hug the post between his leg/hip, which ultimately bounced off his skate into the net. 99 percent of the time, this is a basic save for Kari Lehtonen, or any netminder.

Another goal at the end of the first (a minute a half later), and Dallas was backed into a difficult corner to start the second period as Antti Niemi took over.

We could just as easily criticize Niemi’s performance over the final 40 minutes, but it’s difficult to lay blame. Lindy Ruff turned to him after 20 minutes, and asked a cold goaltender to step in and provide game seven intensity without preparation. Goaltenders are a different breed of hockey player, this is too much to ask.

Dallas Stars goaltending isn’t 100 percent to blame in game seven though. After all, it is a team sport, and wins/losses are a team effort.

To an extent, you give the overall group a pass at some point, perhaps after the 4th goal at the beginning of the second period?

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It’s not as though this team wasn’t generating scoring chances in the first. Valeri Nichushkin missed a golden opportunity standing at the side of the goal with an open net, but missed. Even Antoine Roussel was standing in front alone point-blank and shot the puck way right of the net.

Had the Dallas Stars capitalized on both opportunities, they’re walking into intermission down 3-2.

One thing that stood out personally in the first period was that a couple of Dallas’ lines (Radek Faksa did it more than anyone else) had a tendency to break out of the zone too early, and at the same time weren’t giving their defense good passing lanes. This led to a few Blues scoring chances with turnovers at the blueline.

Once the score hit 4-0, it seemed the life had almost been sucked out of the Dallas Stars – a demoralizing blow in which the overall effort level disappeared. It wasn’t until they scored in the third period where the team had some life. That momentum carried over for the next few minutes, but the Stars were unable to beat Blues netminder Brian Elliott.