Stars Film Room: Opponents are getting to the net too much

Fair warning, this is going to be a bit of rambling film room.

The Dallas Stars lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 last night in rather disastrous fashion.

Dallas led 3-1 heading into the third period, then allowed five third-period goals and had a special team’s showing that wasn’t very special at all.

Watching the game back this morning, it felt like everything unraveled right here for the Stars.

I’m not sure if Jake Oettinger simply missed the puck along the boards or misread the play and thought it was going to rim around to a Stars player. Either way, that moment, where their goalie failed to stop the puck behind the net, turned into the catalyst for the rest of the Stars to seemingly lose their composure in the third period.

Now, to be clear, Oettinger was quite good earlier in the game, so we aren’t going to lay all the blame at the goalie’s feet, especially with that high frequency of shots the Stars have allowed in the most dangerous areas recently.

Heading into Monday, the Stars had allowed four goals in their prior three games from immediately in front of the net. Opponents had also generated 19 shots from that space, as you’ll see below in this chart from InStat.

It’s one of the most notable things about the Stars right now, in fact, in a piece over at D Magazine NHL scouts told me that the Stars ability to protect the front of the net was the most glaring problem.

And perhaps the most frustrating part of the development in recent games is how frequently the Stars have let puck carriers simply skate right through them.

Here’s an example from the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, where Oettinger bailed out Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen.

And here’s another example, this one from the game against the San Jose Sharks, where Heiskanen missed on the poke check.

The Stars aren’t an overly physical team protecting their net, that changed when Chris Tanev left in the offseason, and teams have effectively attacked the Stars that way this season, even against the Stars best defender.

The other thing, and it’s impossible not to discuss with the Stars right now, relates to how often opponents are getting breakaways against them while shorthanded.

It happened last against Carolina, a very good team, while it’s also been a common problem against not-so-good teams, like this goal by the Sharks.

It’s something the Stars have to recognize and focus on this week, especially with games against the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche sandwiched around Thanksgiving.

For better or worse, both Chicago and Colorado take risks to create on the rush, and against Dallas, that’s led to positive rewards for opponents recently.