As the Dallas Stars continue to look for ways to exit their three-week slump, solidifying their penalty kill has moved to the forefront.
The Stars will aim to stay out of the penalty box when they visit the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. But if and when they do go short-handed, they hope to limit the damage better than they have lately.
Dallas killed just 7 of 13 penalties in the past three games. Over the last eight games, the Stars have surrendered 11 power-play goals. The Stars are 1-3-4 in that span, which has caused them to fall 12 points behind the surging Colorado Avalanche for first place in the Central Division.
Dallas most recently gave up four goals in six short-handed situations — including the overtime winner — in a 5-4 loss on Saturday at the San Jose Sharks.
“When you stop skating a little bit, you start reaching and you take penalties,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “You’re reaching in, instead of using your legs, and we had a bunch of those (against the Sharks), from start to finish. It’s something we’ll look at and clean up. We had it in (a 6-3 loss on Tuesday against) Carolina, we had it again (in San Jose), so it’s certainly a trend we have to tidy up.”
The Stars will be facing the Kings for the third time this season.
Adrian Kempe scored 37 seconds into overtime to give the Kings a 3-2 win on Oct. 23 in Dallas. The Stars hosted Los Angeles again on Dec. 15 and posted a 4-1 victory.
The Kings have returned home after a quick trip to Canada for games against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
Los Angeles showed little drive in Winnipeg and the Jets ended an 11-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory. The Kings regrouped the next night in Edmonton and pulled out a 4-3 shootout victory.
“I think the back-to-backs, you want to test the character of your team,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “We got in really late (Friday) night. You can kind of build in an excuse a little bit, but we don’t do that. We haven’t done that, and I’m just really proud of the effort. It was a hard-fought game (Friday) night, despite the score. Get in late, first time against Edmonton, and we came out right from the drop of the puck ready to play.”
The Kings welcomed back veteran winger Corey Perry, who had missed the previous two games because of an illness in his family. Perry scored a power-play goal late in the first period against the Oilers to tie the score 1-1.
“He’s going through a tough time, and this is a hockey player just through and through,” Hiller said. “He comes, he shows up here, he wants to play hockey, he wants to help his team in difficult circumstances, and then he goes out and scores a goal. He plays 15-16 minutes, a lot of times against (Connor) McDavid’s line, it’s pretty incredible. I just have so much respect for him.”
