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DETROIT — They had, in most minds, two legitimate complaints in the series opener: An early penalty to rookie defenceman Mark Fistric that immediately put them two men short; and a later goal, by the Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom, with his feet firmly planted in the crease.
The first put the Dallas Stars a goal behind almost before the octopus goo could be scraped off the Joe Louis Arena ice surface; the other left them three down and effectively out of a game that the Detroit Red Wings won in a walk, 4-1 officially when Thursday night's lightning-fast, 2-hour and 20-minute series opener, came to an end.
The fact that the Stars looked as if they were skating in sand for most of the night was also a factor in their loss.
So tonight, when the two sides resume the NHL's Western Conference final, with Detroit up 1-0 in the series, Dallas needs to put their opening-night memories behind them.
Fans at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit throw an octopus onto the ice before the start of Game 1 of the Western Conference final between the Red Wings and Stars on Thursday. Detroit won the opener and will be looking to go up 2-0 in the series Saturday night. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)
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How they respond in the second game will determine if this is going to be a series — or if the conference final goes the way the second round mostly did, where the team that jumped out in front early made quick work of the opposition.
"They won a game; that's basically it," Stars' centre Brad Richards said. "It puts a little more emphasis on this game for us. We don't want to go back down 2-0. It's an opportunity to get a split and that's what we're here for. No matter what happens, it's very early here. We've still got games at home. We just have to worry about getting ourselves back to the level we were playing against San Jose."
Richards joined the Stars at the trading deadline and is their most experienced playoff hand, after winning the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Thus, he was prepared to shrug off their first-game missteps and misfortunes as part of the ebb and flow of a long playoff series.
Richards noted that the timing of the Fistric penalty was pivotal in getting the Red Wings off to a good start, suggesting: "That started the whole machine … You can break the game down to that. It's tough. Talented players, they get out there with that much room, and boom, they get into the series. They're confident. The crowd's in the game."
But the experienced Richards also noted: "That's the adversity you go through. Things aren't always going to go your way; calls aren't always going to go your way. We could very easily have scored on our power play to make it 1-0. You can analyze playoff games right down to the very second. There's always a turning point — everywhere you look."
In all, the Red Wings scored three times with the man advantage and on all three plays, they used screens in front of Stars' goaltender Marty Turco in order to score the goals.
Stars' defenceman Trevor Daley, who couldn't control Johan Franzen on the second Red Wings' goal, which was ultimately the game winner, agreed it was difficult to box out players in this day and age, when defencemen cannot interfere with forwards in front of the net the way they once did.
"You have to get in front of them," said Daley. "They want the space. They want the shooting lanes. We've got to get in the lanes and not allow them to get the shots through from the point. If we force them to take worse shots, it's going to help. As well, we need to get in front of those guys before the puck gets there and knock those (shots) down.
"The bottom line is, we need to skate and handle the puck more. Our best defence against them is when we have the puck. Last game, we didn't do enough of that."
Stars' coach Dave Tippett hinted there could be line-up changes. Stu Barnes, out since the middle of the last round with concussion-like symptoms, could be closer to playing. Also, the Stars could make a switch on the blue line, and replace Fistric with fellow rookie Matt Niskanen.
Of greater concern to Tippett was the Stars' work in the face-off circle, where the Red Wings dominated the opener. All teams want to start with the puck, but it's even more critical against a puck-possession team such as Detroit. Once they have, they rarely give it back.
Overall, Dallas was 21-35 on face-offs. Mike Ribiero had a particularly tough time of it (5-12), but Richards (5-10) and Mike Modano (3-7) weren't much better. Henrik Zetterberg, a left winger who usually takes most of the draws on the Red Wings' top line instead of Pavel Datsyuk, was a sparkling 12-5 in the circle, working mostly against Ribiero.
"When your top three centre-men are all 30 percent in the draws, you're chasing a lot from right there," said Tippett."So it's a good place to start.It comes down to execution.You have to be able to do things with the puck.Recognize when they have it, you have to check well and get it back.That's common sense hockey right there."
For his part, Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock thought his team had another level to go to as well, partly because of the layoff between series, after they swept the Colorado Avalanche.
"We were off a little while," said Babcock, "but we think we'll be much quicker and harder to play against. That's going to be our focus. Now, I read some of Tip's comments and he was talking that his team didn't skate like they could. They've got a really good team and we're very aware of that. We expect a real good game. Our power play got them in trouble early and the reason we were on the power play is we skated real well early. So [Saturday] will be a different game. We understand that totally. And you gotta get prepared and focused."
Ribiero outlined a lengthy laundry list of areas where the Stars need to be better.
"We have to play harder, compete better, win the one-on-one battles, stay disciplined, play as a team and finish our checks like we're supposed to - just play better," said Ribiero. "That's about it. And just keep smiling; it's only one game; you cannot still think about what happened yesterday; just focus on the next game. Guys are laughing and smiling and ready to get back at it."
