DALLAS _ For all the Stars' woes this season, maybe the most prominent has been the lack of impact from the team's best players.
While Dallas has been near the bottom of the league in goals against, the real worry was that the high octane offense wasn't producing goals. Both Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza were on pace to score half of their goals from last season, and that meant a Stars team that led the NHL in scoring at 3.23 goals per game last season ranked 18th at 2.48 heading into Thursday's game against Nashville.
But the Stars' best players were definitely the best players on the ice, as Benn and Spezza each tallied three points and Dallas rode to a 5-2 win over the Predators.
It was a strong statement for a group that was called out after a 2-1 loss to Calgary on Tuesday.
"If our best players can't consistently get in there and generate and score, and finish, we're going to be up and down like we are," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said after the Flames' loss.
It was a message that was felt clearly at the time and was driven home Wednesday with one of the toughest practices of the season. If that wasn't enough, Ruff assembled Spezza with Benn and Tyler Seguin and put the super line on the ice to start the game Thursday.
The trio went out and led an aggressive first period attack that set the tone for a rare blowout win.
Benn picked a corner at 9:55 of the first period, and Brett Ritchie followed with a hard-working goal 23 seconds later. Then, when Dallas allowed a short-handed goal late in the first period, Spezza scored his prettiest goal of the season to take control again.
Spezza has been battling injuries, confidence issues, and a lot of line juggling, but the man who tallied 33 goals last season showed that flash on Thursday with just his fifth of the season. The big center walked off the wall, stickhandled into the slot and then swept a shot past Pekka Rinne. Antoine Roussel then scored two minutes later, and the Stars had a 4-1 lead en route to a very needed confidence-builder.
Benn had a goal and two assists, Spezza had a goal and two assists, Seguin and Roussel each had a goal and an assist. Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves. It was a team win led by the team leaders.
The Stars even showed a little glue in the contest, as players rallied to the defense of Lehtonen when he got into a tussle with former Stars center Mike Ribeiro. The game became a bit chippy at times, and Dallas was there to support one another. In fact, the final seconds saw Curtis McKenzie battling Predators in yet another scrum.
You could call it a turnaround or a wakeup call or simply a complete game, but it was noticeably different from what the Stars have been doing while accumulating an 11-11-6 record (28 points). Nashville falls to 12-10-4 (28 points), so the Stars are right back in the conversation about a playoff spot.
But the key is consistency for this team, so the next step is even more important. Dallas is 1-6-3 this season following a win, so Saturday afternoon's game at Philadelphia is an opportunity to show if they have really learned from a tough week.
"Today was meant to just be a real hard, demanding practice," Ruff said Wednesday. "It was not your typical day 'before a game' practice, and probably in the eyes of a lot of guys too hard. But right now, I don't mind that."
The best players showed Thursday that they didn't mind it, either.
