Dallas Stars center Brad Richards (91) reacts after scoring in the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010, in Dallas. Richards scored the go-ahead goal after a video review midway through the third period and the Stars edged the Anaheim Ducks 2-1.Tony Gutierrez
The results, a 3-5 record on the road compared to 7-3-1 at home, indicate a serious problem but the Dallas Stars say only relatively minor adjustments are required.
Centre Brad Richards thinks an attitude adjustment should come first, particularly among the team's large number of young players, while forward James Neal says they have to work on eliminating the big mistake that ruins a solid effort. Head coach Marc Crawford wants to see baby steps in improvements that can add up to a big step forward.
"We need guys to get out of their comfort zone on the road," Richards said after the Stars finished a practice in Toronto on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday's game in Ottawa against the Senators. "It's hard when you're growing up in the league. We have a lot of young guys and it's a little more comfortable at home for them. On the road, they have to get out of their box."
One of the big problems Richards sees is a lack of composure, something common to young teams. He said the teams the Stars have the most trouble with are the ones that skate at them hard.
The Stars' recent games followed the same pattern. They start slowly in the face of an aggressive opponent, then fight back and sometimes win, as they did in overtime against the San Jose Sharks last week, or sometimes salvage a point, as they did in a shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche. Against the Leafs on Monday, though, the Stars were never in the game.
"It kind of takes us a while to get a grasp on the game, settle ourselves down and get going," Neal said. "By the time we do that, it's 2-0 or 3-0. We have to bear down and go at Ottawa right away, try to turn this thing around."
Not only do the Stars have difficulty getting a grasp on the game, too many of them have trouble getting a grasp on what their teammates are doing, which is why their game falls apart under aggressive opponents. Two of three players on a line may be skating hard on something like a two-man fore-check, for example, but if the third hesitates out of fear of making a mistake then trouble follows.
"We've all got to be on the same page; if one guy is going, everyone's got to be going," Neal said. "We have to have that in our mentality. If we're on a two-man fore-check, if one guy's going at the D [defence] the second guy has to go too and the third guy has to be anticipating and reading that play."
Which is what Crawford was trying to drive home in Tuesday's practice. Most of the drills focused on the two-man fore-check.
"We talked an awful lot this year and we continue to talk about being a tough team to play against on the road," Crawford said. "Things that kill you are when you don't get the puck behind the defence, when you turn the puck over and give them an easy exit out of the zone."
Until this week, the Stars have had an easy schedule, with only eight road games. But they now have four in one week, including the loss in Toronto, and the days off will get fewer between now and the end of the month.
Crawford acknowledged this makes it harder to find practice time to correct problems. So, he said, a coach sticks to one thing in each practice and looks for his team to make numerous small improvements rather than one large one.
"If you can eliminate three or four [scoring]chances per game, you may not have to score two goals to get back in the game, you may have to score only one," Crawford said. "Execution is doing simple things effectively most of the time. We know we're not going to do it every single time.
"You want your execution to be as good as it possibly can. Then you become real tough to play against."
Neal sustained a cut on his leg in the Toronto game but will play in Ottawa. Defenceman Mark Fistric suffered a groin injury in practice Tuesday and Crawford said it will not be known until Wednesday if he can play against the Senators. Andrew Raycroft will get his fourth start of the season in goal.