DALLAS _ Stars used both goalies for the 14th time this season Thursday in a 7-3 loss to the Nashville Predators.
It's one of the reasons the team will be among the bottom three NHL teams in goals against and save percentage. It's one of the reasons Dallas will miss the playoffs. It's something that likely can't continue.
Yes, Kari Lehtonen is under contract next season for a salary cap hit of $5.9 million. Yes, Antti Niemi is under contract next season for a salary cap hit of $4.5 million. Yes, the two combined make more than any goaltending combination in the league.
And yes, it will be difficult to get out from either or both contracts, but the Stars will have to find a way.
"We'll assess everything, including the goaltending, when the season is over," Stars general manager Jim Nill said before Thursday's game. "We have to look at everything from their play to the play in front of them, and we have to get better in a lot of areas."
The goalie share program was something Nill came up with in 2015, and it worked last season. Each goalie had 25 wins, and the Stars outscored their problems by leading the league in scoring at 3.23 goals per game. This season, Dallas came up much shorter in the scoring department at 2.70 goals per game, and the goalies clearly felt the pressure.
Thursday was a great example. Niemi started and allowed a deflected goal 1:06 into the game. He then allowed a soft goal 12 minutes later and coach Lindy Ruff pulled him. Lehtonen allowed a goal on a nice snipe from Viktor Arvidsson on the second shot he faced, and then saw a puck deflect in off of Dallas defenseman Jamie Oleksiak.
That put the Stars down 4-0 after one period, and that deficit grew to 5-0 early in the second period.
It was a horrible collapse, but not unseen by this team in 2016-17. It ended up being the sixth time the Stars allowed six or more goals in a game.
But, as the Stars have done at time, they rallied back with strong offense. Jason Spezza, Radek Faksa and Jason Dickinson scored three goals in 10 minutes to cut the deficit to 5-3 and make it a new game. But Lehtonen allowed two more, including another off of his own defenseman, and that was the game.
The defeat dropped the Stars to 33-37-11 and showed that both goaltending and defense are issues.
"We are playing better," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said before the game. "We haven't been giving up the odd-numbered situations we were giving up earlier in the season. At the same time, the weaker goals haven't gone in."
But the coach added that sharing the load 50-50 between two goalies probably isn't optimum.
"I think in the long run, (playing a lot) is the best thing for a goaltender," he said. "I have never been around a two goaltender situation before this. There have been times where it has worked and times where it hasn't worked. We've tried a lot of different ways."
Lehtonen said he found good and bad in the goalie share program.
"It has been a different challenge," Lehtonen said. "I think it has made me force myself to shut out all of the mental distractions, because there are some in this system. You get to a place where you just have to concentrate on every play in the game, and that's been good for me."
Just not good enough often enough.
"Sometimes, it's been good and sometimes it's been bad," he said.
On Thursday, it was very bad.
