DALLAS _ The Stars had maybe their best opportunity for victory on the young season Saturday, taking on a Columbus team that had played Friday in Ohio, and played clearly their worst game.
A strong job in net by Kari Lehtonen allowed the score to be just 3-0 in favor of the Blue Jackets.
That's how bad it was.
"That was as flat as flat could be, there's no disguising it," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "Some of our puck movement ... I've never seen this team in two years move the puck so poorly. Missed passes, bad passes, hang on too long, it was a collective effort. There's nothing to like about that game."
Dallas is now off to a 2-2-1 start, and certainly not reaching the expectations that have led to the American Airlines being filled each night.
"I can understand the displeasure in the building, I was with them," Ruff said. "To me, it was one of the toughest performances we put together in two years at home."
The Stars had a 32-26 advantage in shots on goal and won 66 percent of the faceoffs, so there were some good things. Lehtonen stopped 23 shots, allowing two almost unstoppable goals and watching an empty-netter go in while he was sitting on the bench.
But the rest of the night was awful in a way that statistics and analytics couldn't capture. Dallas is missing Patrick Sharp (concussion), Patrick Eaves (lower body), Cody Eakin (knee), Mattias Janmark (knee) and Jiri Hudler (flu), so there is a lot of shuffling going on. But the Stars overcame injuries in beating Nashville Tuesday, and the kids like Devin Shore and Radek Faksa have actually been good. But the team looked disjointed on Saturday.
The Blue Jackets (2-2-0) beat Chicago 3-2 in Columbus on Friday and played goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on back-to-back nights. The former Vezina Trophy winner made 32 saves, but also received plenty of help from his teammates.
The game was 0-0 until the second period when Jamie Benn and Brett Ritchie were skating up ice for a potential two-on-one. However, the puck hit an official along the boards, trapping the two Stars' forwards, and Columbus went on a quick counter-attack. Boone Jenner made a perfect cross-ice pass to Josh Anderson crashing the net, and that was the only goal the Blue Jackets would need.
Dallas didn't respond well to the deficit, and actually made worse plays. The power play went 0-for-5, and coughed up several short-handed opportunities that Lehtonen had to stop. The Stars were credited with 12 giveaways to three for the Blue Jackets.
"This was a really bad game," said defenseman John Klingberg. "The problem is we're not on the same page. It seems the D is thinking one way and the forwards the others, and that's leading to a lot of turnovers. I think the communication can be a lot better."
Ruff juggled pretty much every line and every defense pair. And while he is trying to incorporate new players like Shore, Lauri Korpikoski, Adam Cracknell and rookie Gemel Smith, he said that's not an excuse. The Stars have all eight of their defensemen healthy and both goalies healthy, so the opportunity is there to battle through the injuries.
"There are a lot of moving pieces, but I don't want to make excuses," Ruff said. "I need to have them ready. I can do a better job of putting different pieces in different places. I didn't get the job done."
That job means getting the team ready for a Tuesday contest against Winnipeg with intelligence and not emotion.
"This isn't about yelling or screaming," Ruff said. "It's about playing the game the right way, and then we'll get rewarded for it."
