Game Recap: Disastrous Start Dooms Stars in 5-0 Loss To Capitals

Following all of the fun and emotion of the Sergei Zubov jersey retirement activities, Dallas dug themselves into a deep hole with a poor start against the Washington Capitals. It is wild to say that the Stars had a poor start to this game, considering they scored a goal just 42 seconds in. The goal was overturned, however, after a successful offside challenge by Washington, so the game went right back to 0-0.

Almost immediately after that, Roope Hintz took a tripping penalty and Tom Wilson scored from the slot just 10 seconds into the man advantage to turn a 1-0 Stars lead into a 1-0 deficit in the blink of an eye.

To make matter worse, Dallas allowed another power-play goal later in the period, this time John Carlson blasted a shot from the point half a minute in. The snowball continued to roll as Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s long point shot found the far side of the net past Holtby later in the frame. All of the sudden, Dallas was staring up at a 3-0 Capitals lead after getting off to a nearly perfect start in the first minute.

“I think we got exposed today,” John Klingberg said. “Mistakes got costly and they are a really good hockey team over there.”

Not much changed in the second period, as Washington added goals from Connor McMichael and Nicklas Backstrom to increase their lead to 5-0. Dallas struggled to contain the Capitals, but even more so, struggled to control the puck with any type of consistency. It seemed that every time they headed up ice on the rush, the puck was turned over or iced a moment later to end any potential threat. Not much happened in the third period as the Capitals strolled their way to a dominant 5-0 victory on the road.

“We had nothing going tonight, nothing, Rick Bowness said. “We played a very experienced hungry hockey club that had lost two in a row and they came in, took control of the game, and didn’t let up.”

As has been the case lately, the Stars were leaky on their penalty kill again tonight. Washington went 2-2 with the extra man while Dallas went 0-3 with their own opportunities. This is now the 14th game in the last 16 that Dallas has allowed at least one power-play goal against.

Braden Holtby played against his former team for the first time and things did not go according to plan. While the veteran netminder had little chance on the first three goals against, he looked out of position and off his game on the next two and failed to make the key save when things broke down. He was replaced by Jake Oettinger to start the third period and finished with five goals against on 27 shots.

“When the whole team was bad in front of him, we are not going to point fingers at anybody,” Bowness said. “The whole team was bad.”

Backstrom led all skaters in the game with one goal and two assists while five other Capitals players picked up at least one point. Vitek Vanecek recorded his second-career shutout with 29 saves on 29 shots.

Dallas will try to shake this one off quickly as another tough team in the Boston Bruins, comes into American Airlines Center on Sunday.

“We have pride in that room, we have shown that," Bowness said. “We will battle back. We know we’ve got a tough opponent coming in here on Sunday, we are well aware we lost two home games in a row, and we are well aware that we are going to have to put a much better effort on the ice on Sunday.”