Defensive Problems in the Big D

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

At one point during last night’s Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks game I considered making some flyers. In the style of the kind you find stapled to telephone polls, they’d just say “LOST: Dallas’s Defense.”

I don’t know where it went. They had one, I swear they did, or they wouldn’t have gotten to the playoffs at all. It’s limped its way along this season at times, and it’s never been the strongest part of the Stars’ game, but it’s been there. Dallas is down a defensemen as Brenden Dillon is out with an undisclosed lower body injury. But while Dillon is a solid defenseman, I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s the best the Stars have. For me, that would be Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski—both of whom have pulled their weight and the combined weight of their fellow defensemen during the series against Anaheim.

Ruff paired up his two best defensemen, Daley and Goligoski, last night and that may have been a mistake. The defensive roster is so lopsided right now that, in an attempt to balance things out, perhaps Ruff ought to have paired Goligoski with Sergei Gonchar and Daley with Jordie Benn or Kevin Connauton. Benn is usually a competent d-man, but clearly he’s struggling without his usual partner Dillon. Lending him some support from Daley or Goligoski could go a long way to giving Benn some confidence back.

Gonchar is just a tire fire. I say that with love, since I’m also a Penguins fan, and Gonchar was on the team back when they won the Stanley Cup. The fact is, though, he has not been playing well this series.

And last night he hit a new low in the third period. Gonchar was slashed, the penalty wasn’t called, and the slash left Gonchar’s stick broken. Instead of playing through, Gonchar complained to the ref about not calling the slash. And Anaheim scored. All you needed to see to know there’d be a serious talking to in the locker room later was the look on Lindy Ruff’s face. It wasn’t good. If he could have, I’m fairly sure he would have pulled his own ear off a-la Vincent Van Gogh and spiked it.

There’s no word on how serious Dillon’s injury is, or if he will be, as many Stars fans hope, playing in the game on Monday back in Dallas. If he’s out, again, then I think Ruff has no choice but to look at his defensive pairings and shuffle some things around to more evenly distribute talent.

It would be a mistake to discount the importance of returning to home ice and the psychological effect that can have. Hopefully, and I’ve been using that word lately with the Stars more than I’d like, Dallas can rally back home and get a win. They’ve been frustratingly close the last two games, but a shoddy defense and a lack of that oh-so-vital scoring depth held them back.

For now, Stars fans will just have to wait and see.