First Shift 🏒

The great thing about playing an NHL schedule is that there is always a chance to overcome your mistakes.

The Stars had a bad game on Thursday – losing 4-1 to Nashville and generally failing in all aspects of the contest. Now, in a 1-3-0 slump, they get a chance to bounce back at home against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

“It will be great to get back at it and redeem ourselves from last game,” said forward Wyatt Johnston.

While forward Sam Steel added: “Playing every other day, you can’t let one game define you. We didn’t like what we brought last night, but 48 hours later, we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves.”

The Stars are 17-11-0, including 11-2-0 at American Airlines Center, so there’s no need to panic, but coach Pete DeBoer said he understands when the fans (or media) do.

“You guys don’t help,” DeBoer joked after Friday’s practice when asked if it’s difficult to stay calm.

But the veteran coach said it’s the job of those inside the dressing room to understand the ups and downs of an 82-game season and react accordingly.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “I’m sure there were people in the stands last night watching and saying, ‘Blow the whole thing up.’ You’ve got to fight that urge and know that it’s a marathon and not a sprint and look at the underlying numbers and the entirety of the picture. That’s experience that teaches you that.”

After two trips to the Western Conference Final and finishing second in the NHL in points last season, the Stars currently sit 12th in points percentage at .607. However, they are fifth in goals against at 2.61, fifth in penalty kill at 82.7 percent and sixth in goal differential at plus-20. That’s arguably below expectations, but those also are pretty good numbers.

So coming off a lopsided loss to Nashville, the Stars are expected to be motivated.

“We’re not going to overreact to a really poor game,” DeBoer said. “It’s an uncharacteristic night.”

“I don’t think anyone is happy with our performance, particularly with it being a divisional game,” DeBoer added. “We’ve got some really good teams on our docket over the next few weeks.”

And while the big picture is huge, the details are also important. Veteran defenseman Dumba is out with an upper-body injury, so rookie Lian Bichsel is expected to continue to get more games. In the meantime, the lines are hoping to continue to build chemistry with Seguin out 4-6 months. The top line currently has Roope Hintz centering Jason Robertson and Johnston. The second line is Duchene with Marchment and Logan Stankoven. The third line has Steel centering Benn and Evgenii Dadonov. And the fourth line has Mavrik Bourque with Oskar Bäck and Colin Blackwell.

While DeBoer said he can juggle lines when things aren’t working – like Thursday night – he would like to be patient.

“You’re trying,” he said. “As a coach, you want to give those groups as much runway as possible.”

That seems to fit the overall plan.