First Shift \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n
After an offseason of studying analytics and trends, Glen Gulutzan and the Dallas Stars coaching staff wanted to improve breakouts, increase puck possession and score more goals.<\/p>\n
Two games into the 2026-27 campaign, they have accomplished none of that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early, and losses to division rivals St. Louis and Nashville are hardly alarming, but Dallas needs to start turning things around Monday against San Jose or the concern level will only grow.<\/p>\n
The Stars have one goal so far and have not really created the scoring chances they were looking for. Just as worrisome, they have been inconsistent in several areas of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve executed at the level we need to through the first two games – certainly on the offensive side of the puck,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cSome of the defensive stuff, it actually looks pretty tight. It\u2019s just on the offensive side of the puck. I don\u2019t think D, forwards, are as polished as we need to be right now. We\u2019re not executing offensively at a level we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas was second in the NHL in goals against per game last season at 2.71 and has a history of being one of the best defensive teams in the league, so that wasn\u2019t a real concern. But Gulutzan wanted to improve on a scoring average of 3.33 that was ninth in the league, and especially on a 5-on-5 scoring average that ranked 16th.<\/p>\n
Do that, the coaches figured, and you could be a team that contends for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
But, even in preseason, that has proved difficult. The defending still is good, the goaltending still is solid, but creating chances \u2013 and finishing chances \u2013 has been tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cCleaner breakouts\u2026I feel like we don\u2019t get out as clean as we would like to, and then we play D-zone a lot,\u201d forward\u00a0Rantanen said after the Nashville loss. \u201cWe were defending, especially the first 30 minutes. After that, the third period was our best, but it was too late. We\u2019ve got to get our breakouts cleaner. I think it starts from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guliutzan and the coaches shuffled some lines and experimented with different defense pairings, so that could be part of the chemistry issues. But whether\u00a0Heiskanen plays with Thomas Harley<\/a> or Esa Lindell<\/a>, the bottom line is the team as a whole needs to be better connected.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s creating chances and finishing – we\u2019re not creating at a high level right now,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cA lot of that stems from how we\u2019re breaking out pucks, and the other part is we\u2019re spending too much time in the D zone losing battles. And then, it\u2019s hard to counter-attack when you\u2019re 30 seconds into a shift.\u201d<\/p>\n Bottom line, the team needs to reset, start on time and play a more cohesive brand of hockey.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously not where we need to be,\u201d said captain Benn after the game. \u201cSlow starts. First periods have been terrible. It\u2019s on the players in here.\u201d<\/p>\n Every game is a tryout.<\/p>\n The battle for a spot on the Stars\u2019 gameday roster is going to be competitive this season.<\/p>\n With a tight salary cap and the need to get strong play from every line, players like Colin Blackwell<\/a>, Arttu Hyry<\/a>, Joel Kiviranta<\/a>, Radek Faksa<\/a>, and Oskar B\u00e4ck<\/a>\u00a0will have to fight for their minutes.<\/p>\n Blackwell was sent to the minors because of contract situations, but came up and played well on Saturday. Hyry was in the minors but has received a great opportunity with Duchene sidelined by injuries. Hyry has been one of the team\u2019s better players so far.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for everyone,\u201d Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. \u201cWe all understand the situation, it\u2019s really the money situation. The only way through these things is to communicate with your players with candid conversations. We\u2019re all pros.\u201d<\/p>\n And, Gulutzan added, he\u2019s going to play the guys who are playing best.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, this is about winning games,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re playing good, whether you\u2019re a young guy or an old guy, it\u2019s about winning. So it\u2019s up to those guys to continue playing well and making decisions hard for the coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Shift \ud83c\udfd2 After an offseason of studying analytics and trends, Glen Gulutzan and the Dallas Stars coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-485482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}