EDMONTON, Alberta_Lindy Ruff was asked before Friday's game against the Edmonton Oilers if he ever felt sorry for himself because his team is missing six key forward to injury and illness.
"You've got to get the job done," Ruff said. "You've got to look at the personnel you have and you have to make it work. You still have games to win, and the personnel you have has to play well."
For the second night in a row, the Dallas Stars did just that in a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Coming off their worst loss of the year Tuesday in Winnipeg, Dallas won back-to-back games on back-to-back nights and pushed their record back to .500 at 6-6-3 (15 points). Considering the Stars are missing Jason Spezza (lower body), Patrick Sharp (concussion), Cody Eakin (knee), Jiri Hudler (illness), Mattias Janmark (knee) and Ales Hemsky (hip), that's quite an accomplishment.
Considering they were able to run with the 9-5-1 Oilers while leaning on players like Lauri Korpikoski and Antoine Roussel for goal-scoring, it was even more impressive.
"We trust everyone in here," said Stars captain Jamie Benn, who had two assists and now has four points in the past two games. "You watch guys and watch their skills, and you really are impressed. We have some skilled players here."
In fact, Ruff has said in recent weeks, players like Gemel Smith, Devin Shore and Korpikoski have been some of their best players. In September, most fans would have been surprised if any of the three played more than a couple of games.
Instead, Ruff has juggled his lines to break up Benn and Tyler Seguin, and that's bringing out the best in his role players. Benn fed Korpikoski for a nice shot from the slot 28 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead. Then, Seguin found Roussel driving the slot in the second period for a goal that gave Dallas its 3-2 lead.
Kari Lehtonen, who was playing on back-to-back nights for the first time since March of 2015, came up big as he stopped 40 shots and helped the Stars win consecutive games for the first time this season. It was a big boost in confidence for Lehtonen, who was pulled after allowing four goals against Winnipeg in an 8-2 loss Tuesday.
"You just have to move past it and learn from it and that's all you can do," Lehtonen said. "There's a lot of hockey to be played."
Still, had Dallas continued to spiral on this five-game road trip, the road ahead would have been much tougher. And Ruff calmly handled that pressure. He made some risky decisions Friday, opting to leave the fresh legs of Esa Lindell and Patrik Nemeth in the press box as scratches, and going back to Lehtonen when Antti Niemi was ready to go.
"We're in early. We had a day off before," Ruff said before the game. "I know it's back-to-back, but feel if you look at the minutes we divvied up on defense, nobody was overplayed. I don't feel there should be any fatigue in our game."
And there wasn't.
Instead, there was drive and calm and confidence ... and not a smidge of fear or feeling sorry for themselves.
"You get yourself ready and you play hard every night," Benn said. "Honestly, you don't really even think about who is in. You just go play like a team."
