The O hits a new Low, Stars shutout by Islanders 3-0

by user 192.195.66.46

On a night where the Dallas Stars looked to break their offensive slump, the New York Islanders pushed the home team to start panicking about their game.

On Wednesday Night, Dallas was shutout by the Islanders 3-0, as the visitors scored a goal in each period and goaltender stopped 35 shots and recorded his first career shutout against a Western Conference team.

In losing, the Stars their third game in their last five and have only scored 6 goals in those five games. Thanks to their recent slump, Dallas has slipped to 5th in the Western Conference, behind both Anaheim and San Jose.

Notes:

Special Teams: New York beat Dallas 1-0 in the special teams battle, helping the visitors pick up two points. The Islanders scored their first goal on the power play and killed all eight power plays for the Stars.

The Stars further showed their inability to score goals by going nearly 90 seconds on a two man advantage and failing to mark the scoresheet.

Normally, a two man advantage is a team best chance to get on the scoreboard. Yet, when you fail to score, the momentum from that kill can doom your team's effort to win.....

Offensive Slump: After scoring 6 goals in only 5 games, it is time to confirm that the Dallas Stars are in a slump.

The sad part is that the slump is not for a lack of effort, as they directed 35 shots at the Islanders net on Wednesday...... This slump looks to be affecting the Stars mentally as well as physically, which could be a tough one to crack.

I'm sure Dave Tippett will change up lines, reemphasize their goals on offense and work to recharge a team that looks defeated.....

Yet, the biggest question will be what the new captain, Brenden Morrow will do about this.... For all those who thought that Mike Modano getting the "C" pulled off was unfair need to stay tuned to what this team does about this slump.

Will Morrow call a "players only" meeting?

Will Morrow put together an outing where the players go to a movie?

This slump, is the first real test to how Morrow will handle his team when they are clearly struggling......

I don't know how the Stars will break this scoring funk, but it is clear that as much as this team is pressing on the ice, they also need to get away from the ice in order to free their minds and off the slump.....

It's one thing to be pressing physically, but if your mind fails to believe that you can get the job done, the task of winning becomes impossible.....

Loui Eriksson:

As the Stars realize that they are slumping, they have reached to their Iowa roster and recalled Loui Eriksson to help their struggling offense. For those that have forgot about Eriksson, he is the rookie that scored the game tying goal in the season opener at Colorado.

On a personal note, I was hoping that he would be kept on the roster, but Eriksson was sent down after the opener and has played for the Iowa Stars until this recent promotion...... Now that Eriksson has come back to the roster, he has a great shot to stay with the big club, especially if he can energize this team and give live to an abysmal offense......

Now, if this team continues to struggle after Eriksson, other moves include trades and firings of the coaching staff could be coming in the near future......

All-Star Voting:

Go to DallasStars.com to vote for the 2007 NHL All Stars, as the website has a link on the site to direct you to the online ballot on NHL.com.

For the Stars, Mike Modano, Brenden Morrow, Sergei Zubov and Marty Turco are on the ballot.

As good as our local candidates are, I'm going to push everyone to vote for Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin as the Eastern Conference Starters. Those youngsters are amazing players and if the fans put them on a line starting the game, the potential for greatness is infinite.....

JG