An ugly start doomed the Dallas Stars efforts on Tuesday night, as they fell to the Los Angeles Kings at home, 5-2—quite the letdown for a team riding high after taking three of four points from the Blackhawks and the Blues over the weekend.
The Kings poured three goals in in the first period, and they made it 4-1 just a minute into the second. Which is to say, it was never really close.
"This is a big letdown for us,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said, per the Dallas Morning News. “I thought we came out flat. We knew that it was going to be a really tough game. They played really well last night. They came out good and we came out casual. We made the first big turnover right off the bat and just said 'here, we're going to give you guys one heck of a start to the game.' It's hard to get three against them and we handed them three."
The Stars have a night off Wednesday before hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday at the American Airlines Center.
“We're back at it on Thursday against another good team here, so we've got to let this one go,” said forward Patrick Eaves. “We have Tampa Bay coming in, and they're going to be just as good or better than LA was tonight, so we've got to be ready.”
