{"id":535628,"date":"2026-04-01T23:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535628\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:56:19","slug":"takeaways-from-stars-6-3-loss-to-bruins-the-hockey-writers-dallas-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535628\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways From Stars’ 6-3 Loss to Bruins – The Hockey Writers – Dallas Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Stars<\/a> finished their four-game road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins<\/a> on Tuesday night. Marat Khusnutdinov, Viktor Arvidsson, Elias Lindholm, and Henri Jokiharju scored for the Bruins. Joonas Korpisalo made 13 saves on 16 shots. Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, and Wyatt Johnston<\/a> scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger<\/a> made 17 saves on 21 shots.<\/p>\n

Related: 4 Takeaways From the Stars\u2019 Tip to Pennsylvania<\/a><\/p>\n

The Stars have now lost six of their last seven games.<\/p>\n

Stars and Bruins in Different Situations<\/p>\n

The standings reflected exactly what we saw on the ice on Tuesday. The Bruins have been playing playoff hockey for months now, as the Eastern Conference postseason race has been tight all season. On Feb. 25, coming out of the Olympic break, the Bruins had 69 points and sat in the second wild-card spot. <\/p>\n

The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens were in the top two spots in the Atlantic Division with 72 points, and the Detroit Red Wings were in the first wild card, also with 72 points. Behind the Bruins, there were seven teams within eight points. <\/p>\n

After beating the Stars on Tuesday, the Bruins have 94 points and have put themselves in a fairly comfortable position heading into the final seven games of the regular season. They are in the first wild card and sit eight points up on the Ottawa Senators, who are on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

\"ViktorBoston Bruins left wing Viktor Arvidsson (Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Even though the Bruins should make the playoffs, they still have something to play for, and it looked like it. The Stars, on the other hand, don\u2019t have much to play for standings-wise, and it looked like that, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to find our own game from our own motivation and look at the standings to get it,\u201d head coach Glen Gulutzan said<\/a>. \u201cIt should come from internal drive. If you got to light your fire by an external source, it only will burn briefly. So we go to find it within ourselves to get it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite coming within two points of the Central-leading Colorado Avalanche just a couple of weeks ago, the Stars will most likely take on the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They are eight points back of the Avs and six points up on the Wild. If there is anything to play for, it\u2019s home ice in the first round, but again, with a six-point cushion and only seven games left, they should be in the clear.<\/p>\n

Bad Habits Creeping in as Stars Approach Playoffs<\/p>\n

The Stars may have nothing to play for standings-wise, but there is still a lot to play for in general. As a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, they should be playing their best hockey heading into Game 83, not their worst, and that\u2019s what the Stars are in danger of doing.<\/p>\n

I can understand that it\u2019s hard for the Stars to stay motivated. It\u2019s human nature. The division is basically out of reach, and home ice is all but locked up, and everyone is trying to get to the postseason healthy. However, when bad habits and poor play creep in, it\u2019s hard to flip the switch on a dime.<\/p>\n

Last season, the Stars limped into the playoffs on a seven-game losing streak before going on what felt like a deceiving run to the Western Conference Final. It wasn\u2019t that the Stars weren\u2019t a good team. They deserved to be there. But their talent alone seemed to win playoff rounds more than their structure or attention to detail. Then, when they took on the Edmonton Oilers, they couldn\u2019t out-talent their mistakes.<\/p>\n

Related: Stars Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines \u2013 Rantanen Returns, Hughes Call-Up, Cinched and More<\/a><\/p>\n

And here we are \u2013 in an almost identical situation to last season. Sometimes, the offense will dry up, but the Stars\u2019 defense, one of the best in the league, needs to be a staple every night. Lately, it hasn\u2019t been. <\/p>\n

Last night, three of the Bruins\u2019 four goals (not including the two empty-netters) were right in front of the net or the result of their players being right in front of the net. Lian Bischel lost his man all night, and Thomas Harley had a hard time boxing out properly. These habits have been creeping in for a couple of weeks now, and Dallas needs to figure it out in a hurry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t one of our better games,\u201d Gulutzan said on Tuesday night<\/a>. \u201cCertainly, there are losses, and then there are losses where you get outplayed. I thought in the first, they didn\u2019t come out and overwhelm us, but they\u2019re up two-nothing. We just didn\u2019t do some things. We self-inflicted some wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the thing. Even down 2-0, the Stars found a way to tie the game and then entered the third period down just 3-2. But 13 seconds into the final period, the Bruins scored, and the desperation of their situation trumped any talent the Stars have in their lineup. <\/p>\n

Up Next for the Stars<\/p>\n

The Stars start a five-game homestand on Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets<\/a>. Then, they play the Avalanche on Saturday<\/a> and have a rare two days off before hosting the Calgary Flames next Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SUBSCRIBE<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Stars finished their four-game road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[3490,5,3733,1531],"class_list":["post-535628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-glen-gulutzan","tag-hockey","tag-jamie-benn","tag-wyatt-johnston"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116332160450202183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}