The Dallas Stars limped to the end of an unproductive five-game road trip in Raleigh. Coming off a 6-0 shellacking by the best team in the league, they were facing arguably the hottest team in the league. What could go wrong?
As it turns out, the usual. The Stars, notably bad at coming back from an early deficit, gave up two goals to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first half of the first period. After that, it was pretty much a slog to nowhere, even though it was sporadically fun to watch.
In search of depth scoring, the Stars brought in AHL-leading scorer Joel L’Esperance in his NHL debut.