Well, that was an unimpressive game. After doing so well at home, the Ducks lose focus and drive and get manhandled by the Dallas Stars. One positive note was that Bryz was great in net and no goals were scored after Giggy was pulled. So if you are a glutton for punishment or just curious, here is the game day report.
Photo of the Game
Official Game Report
Scoresheet
Super Stats
Boxscore
Faceoffs
Play-by-Play
Game Video
NHL - 700K
TSN - Link
Parros vs Fedoruk
AP Coverage
DALLAS (AP) -The Dallas Stars reversed their recent habit of slow starts and were rewarded with a home win over a Pacific Division rival.
Brenden Morrow scored a power-play goal just over two minutes after the opening faceoff, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen each had a goal and an assist, and the Stars went on to a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
Morrow notched his fourth of the season at 2:04 of the opening period, striking from the slot off a centering pass by Ribeiro, and Dallas maintained that advantage the rest of the way.
"It's important to stay disciplined and have good starts," Ribeiro said. "It was probably our best game. It's important to get out of the gate quick and take the lead. The last two games it's been a bad start."
Marty Turco made 20 saves as Dallas improved to 3-0-1 at home.
"He was very solid, very good," Stars coach Dave Tippett said of his goaltender. "That's got to be a staple of our team, our goaltenders have got to play very well. We expect that from them every night."
Chris Pronger scored a power-play goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks, winless on the road (0-4-1).
Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle faulted his team's poor coverage in the slot on Morrow's momentum-building goal.
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LA Times Coverage of the game
Missed passes to open men. Blown defensive coverages. Ineffective special teams.
Sounds like a bad football team. Only these were the defending Stanley Cup champions Saturday night.The Ducks went through a fruitless exercise for 60 minutes as their execution was virtually nonexistent in a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center that ended their modest two-game winning streak.
Just one-eighth of the season has been played but the Ducks (4-5-1) haven't often resembled the team that won a Pacific Division title and blew through the playoffs. When their fifth regulation loss occurred Dec. 23 last season, the Ducks had 27 victories.
Center Andy McDonald offered a plain assessment of their current state.
"We're certainly not playing the way we were at the end of last season," McDonald said. "We're not the same team as last year. I'd say we're not even close."
The Ducks could manage only Chris Pronger's first goal of the season when they held a two-man advantage late in the second period. Marty Turco made 20 saves and Dallas got goals from Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen.Read the rest here - Link
The OC Register Coverage
Sixty percent of the time they have taken the ice this season, the Ducks have failed to score more than two goals. Forty percent of the time, they have failed to generate even a pair.
Their output Saturday night fit into both of those dubious categories, and the result was predictable, a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center.
After having managed a combined nine goals, including an empty-netter, in back-to-back home victories over the Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators, the Ducks (4-5-1) once again find themselves wondering exactly where the offense is going to come from as they attempt to defend last season’s Stanley Cup championship.
Whether it is hangover from that lengthy championship celebration, carryover from a demanding early season schedule that began with what can charitably be called a questionable trip to London, or the absence of at least semi-retired stars Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer, the Ducks are clearly flailing offensively.
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Dallas Morning News Coverage
Line juggling is a way of life in the NHL, so players get used to it.
But the one line over the last two seasons that has seemed to produce on most nights it is together is the checking line of Joel Lundqvist, Jeff Halpern and Stu Barnes.
The line was together again Saturday and helped create maybe the biggest goal of the game with a strong cycle that forced Anaheim's top scoring line to play on its heels. Joel Lundqvist forced a delayed penalty at the end of a shift, and Dallas scored when Mike Modano and Mike Riberio jumped onto the ice and helped hammer a few shots at Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, with Ribeiro finally poking in the goal to make the score 2-0.
The Ducks' top line of Corey Perry, Chris Kunitz and Ryan Getzlaf was on the ice for that goal and finished the night minus-3 with seven shots on goal. Halpern won 10 of 15 faceoffs, and the Stars won the battle for the night.
"Any time you play a line as talented as that line, you want to play in their end as much as you can and not let them down in your end," Halpern said. "We were out there a lot with [Philippe Boucher] and Trevor Daley, and they did a tremendous job, too."
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On the Pond(MVN) has analysis of the game
The Ducks came into Dallas with the hopes of winning their first game on the road this young season. This would be quite the task as Dallas has a 26-7-2-0 all time record against the Ducks in their home building. No matter what the stats, each game is a new opportunity and the Ducks would need to be at their best. That would not happen this evening.
The Ducks started with Jean-Sebastien Giguere in goal, while Marty Turco took the net for the Stars. From the time the puck first dropped, Giguere had to make several saves. With Drew Miller off for hooking, the Stars continued their fast start and Brendan Morrow put a power play goal past Giguere to make it 1-0 at 2:05 in the first period. Shortly after that, George Parros squared off with former Ducks enforcer, Todd Fedoruk. Parros won that battle and the two players each took a five minute break in the penalty box. The Ducks had two power plays of their own in the first but were unable to get any good scoring chances.
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