For nearly 40 minutes, it looked like the Dallas Stars just might leave Bridgestone Arena with a win against the Nashville Predators.
After one period, Dallas (1-0-1, 1 point) led 1-0 thanks to an early goal by Antoine Roussel and looked poised to also head to the second intermission with the lead, at least before Predators defenseman Shea Weber pulled the game level 41 seconds before the end of the middle frame.
That goal by the hulking d-man proved to be a harbinger of more bad things to come for the Stars, who lost 4-1 in the Music City.
"Yeah, it was pretty much a full 60 minutes of them outworking us. Like I said, we got no excuses in here. I think it starts from the top. I could have been the worst player out there tonight. I can take a lot of the blame for tonight's game," Stars captain Jamie Benn said postgame.
Nashville (2-0-0, 4 points) took the lead for good at 8:33 of the third period when Paul Gaustad beat Dallas backup goaltender Anders Lindback, who was making his Stars debut, on a wraparound.
"He (Gaustad) wrapped around and came the other way. I didn't manage to seal the ice there and I don't know what to say," Lindback said.
And just 1:21 later, ex-Star Eric Nystrom made it a two-goal game when he scored with the Preds on the power play, beating Lindback with a backhand to his short side just 13 seconds into the man advantage.
Roussel had put Nashville on the attack with an unsportsmanlike conduct call for a confrontation between him and the Predators Ryan Ellis as the two were heading to their respective benches.
Nystrom then added a second when he scored an empty-netter with 41 seconds remaining to make it a 4-1 final.
Dallas generated just 18 shots through 60 minutes, 17 of which were turned away by standout Preds netminder Pekka Rinne.
Lindback stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced in his first game with the Stars and even though he had several shaky moments, Stars second-year head coach Lindy Ruff couldn't find much issue with his No. 2 netminder's performance.
"You know what, I thought he was pretty solid. There wasn't a lot of chances. There wasn't a lot of tough opportunities. I think he'd probably want (goals) two and three back, but I thought until then, a little careless playing the puck a couple times, but he was giving us a pretty good game," Ruff said.
But the other most disconcerting thing about this loss, besides the fact that the game really got away from Dallas rather quickly in the third period, is that winning on the road was an issue for much of last season.
Ruff summed up the night rather succinctly with the following quote. "It was a tight game where I thought we folded and they kept coming," he said.
Through two games, the Stars' talented offensive tandem of Benn and Tyler Seguin have zero points, which isn't unexpected for Ruff considering after the two struggled during much of preseason.
"We haven't found it yet. I think our top guys have struggled and it's probably hurt us more than anything and if they're going well, we're going to win and they've struggled," Ruff said of Benn and Seguin. "They've had a little bit of a tough preseason and I think we're seeing a little bit of that still now."
The Stars will make a quick trip back home and after an off day on Sunday, they will practice in Frisco on Monday before hopping another plane, this one to Columbus. Dallas faces the Blue Jackets Tuesday and will then conclude the road trip Thursday night in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.
Dallas' next home game is Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
