Game Reaction: Stars Edge Capitals in OT

The Stars win over the Capitals tonight was necessary.  This team needs their morale boosted in the locker room, the faith in their goalie restored, and the points in the standings.  The last was an immediate improvement, but if they can take their successes from tonight and move forward with them, it should go towards addressing the first two issues.

Some of the things I really liked about tonight’s win:

Winning in Washington: Dallas went into the Verizon Center, where the Capitals (the league’s best team) were 25-3-3 (the league’s best home record) and beat them.  Not only beat them, but came back from two goals down to beat them.  This is a point that Marc Crawford and the Stars’ coaching staff better be echoing again and again.  Maybe something along the lines of: “You’ve beat the best team in the league where they play best.  The rest is easier, guys…go out and do it!”

Marty’s Record Setting Night: 49 saves on 52 shots.  49 stops on guys like Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Brooks Laich.  The Caps’ roster is full of assassins – on any night one of them is a threat to be a multiple-goal scorer.  Washinton is averaging just under four goals per game, so allowing three may seem like a lot…but only allowing three to Washington?  That’s a successful outing.  Especially (as I mentioned before) in their barn.

Daley and Skrastins, Black and Blue: I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the biggest fan of Trevor Daley.  But his performance in this game was fantastic.  And Karlis Skrastins…well, he came in and did exactly what the Stars hoped he would do this year – play fantastic defense.  Between the two of them, they had 13 blocks shots tonight (7 for Daley, 6 for Skrastins).  No one else on the team had more than two, but only seven players had 0.  Most of those players were the people you don’t want dropping to blocks shots anyway, so it shows you the all-around mentality on the ice.  And that ‘take one for the team’ mentality was led by Daley and Skrastins tonight.

The Stars get right back on the road, traveling to Buffalo tonight for Wednesday’s game against the Sabres.  They’ll have their work cut out for them again.  This time, they’ll have to get pucks by US Olympic goaltender Ryan Miller, who is the winner of back-to-back games, including a 35-save performance on Sunday night against the Rangers.  Tonight’s win against the Capitals is just what the Stars needed, though, going up against another challenging obstacle.