DALLAS (AP) — Stars coach Glen Gulutzan has repeatedly said he wants them to compete more across the board. That message was prominent even after Dallas won its first two games on the road against division rivals it also beat in the playoffs last season.
The Stars completed practice Monday, a day before their home opener, where players practiced one-on-one while battling for pucks. Pairs of players were spread out across the ice at the same time, with even two goalies battling each other as one teammate tried to keep the other from the puck.
“It's a little wall run and a competition at the end of the day,” Gulutzan said of the exercise, which does three reps of 15 to 20 seconds each. “Some of the messages today were that when all the talent becomes equal on both sides, it all comes down to hand-to-hand combat.”
Dallas' home opener Tuesday night against Minnesota will be Gulutzan's first on the Stars bench since the 2013 season finale. That was a couple of weeks before he was fired by then-new general manager Jim Nill, the same general manager who brought him back as head coach in July after the Stars finished all three seasons under Pete DeBoer with losses in the Western Conference finals.
“He brought a lot of good energy and a really good message to our group,” veteran forward Matt Duchene said of Gulutzan. “We'll continue to get better. We're at home right now. … We can win a lot of games, but we want to improve in some areas. And he'll definitely help us.”
Same score, different games
Although the Stars went 5-4 in both Winnipeg and Colorado, they were very different games.
Dallas led 5-1 against the Jets before they scored two empty-net goals after defensive errors on the same power play in the third period. Two days later in Colorado, the Stars lost 39–22 and were saved by goaltender Jake Oettinger's 35 saves before former Mikko Rantanen had the deciding score in the shootout against his former team.
“It definitely looks like it's more 1-1 than 2-0, but it's actually 2-0,” Duchesne said. “So we have to make sure that we take that mulligan and run with it and not give it away at some point.”
Gulutzan said the Stars were a “very good” team for 50 minutes in Winnipeg but couldn't make it in Colorado in a win he credited to Oettinger.
“This year we will have a game in which we will outplay, outplay the opponent and achieve nothing. That’s the league,” Gulutzan said. “The hockey gods equalize these things. So we're going to make a game like this, and all we have to do is rewind to Colorado and OK, now we're even.”
Seven stars
Seven players have already scored goals for the Stars. Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson each have two.
“I realized that we don't need much to score. We have a group of guys who don't need much to score,” Gulutzan said. “But what we need to do is continue to push the territory battle in our favor. Because if you just counter like we did last night… If we get more territory with the players we have and win the territory battle, that will even increase how good we can be.”
Johnston said everything has been going well with Gulutzan as coach so far.
“I liked what we did,” Johnston said. “I like how he prepared us to start the year.”
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