DALLAS _ The Stars before Thursday's meeting with playoff rival St. Louis declared they weren't thinking about last season at all.
With so many personnel changes and a rough start for Dallas, the focus was simply on playing one game and not on avenging a Game 7 loss to the Blues.
But, maybe it wasn't so bad to mix a little of the past with the present. Fueled by the physical energy and emotional hate between the two teams, the Stars played their best game of the season and took a 6-2 win at American Airlines Center.
Tyler Seguin tied a career best with four assists, captain Jamie Benn broke out of his slump with three assists, and the Stars played the kind of game that allowed them to beat out the Blues for the Central Division championship last season. Antti Niemi was great with 28 saves. John Klingberg was great with two goals. Stephen Johns had a goal and seven hits. Curtis McKenzie had six hits.
Players supported each other defensively and positionally, and supported each other with fights and scrums.
It was, as coach Lindy Ruff likes to say, "Stars hockey."
"We've lost three in a row, but I think our last two games are close to where we need to be," Ruff said before the game. "We've got our game to a pretty good place these last 120 minutes. Jamie Benn's scoring chances were up; he was in on six or seven, Tyler scored and we had one power play create four Grade A opportunities. There's some good stuff going that _ and I'll use this word again _ we have to maintain that style of play."
The Stars did just that, fixing pretty much every problem that has vexed them so far this season. They scored on the power play. They held the Blues off the board on their three power play attempts. The defense fueled the forwards with quick passes and the forwards tracked back to help the defenders defend in transition.
It looked a lot like last season.
Patrick Eaves had a Seguin shot deflect off of him for the first goal. John Klingberg trailed a play in transition for the second, and Jason Spezza went to the net for the third. It was a clinic in what Ruff has been talking about.
"You don't see pretty goals in the league much anymore," Ruff said. "You see goals scored when you go to the net and you take the goalie's eyes away, and you create some chaos."
The Stars season has been chaos so far with inconsistent play leading to a slow start. But with Dallas moving to 4-4-2 while missing Patrick Sharp (concussion), Ales Hemsky (hip), Mattias Janmark (knee), Cody Eakin (knee) and Jiri Hudler (illness), you could almost say this isn't so bad.
At the very least, it helps slow the panic and put a little weight on the Blues. Dallas' Central Division rival falls to 5-4-2 and has scored five goals in the past five games.
And, to be honest, not everybody was downplaying the first meeting with the Blues since that disappointing Game 7 defeat.
"They got in the way of what we were trying to do last year," Benn said before the game. "What better way to start the first meeting between us this year with us getting in their way."
