The Stars decided to go historic on the Bruins on Thursday night.
That was indeed as bad as it sounded there, too, with Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins absolutely pummeled for seven goals in a 7-2 final that honestly (and somehow) felt even worse than the box score indicated by the sweet, sweet release of what was a merciful final horn at American Airlines Center.
In fact, after scoring seven goals in their previous outing, the Stars’ seven-spot dropped on the Bruins on Thursday gave the Dallas audience a first, as it marked the first time that the Stars had scored at least seven goals in back-to-back games since the team moved to Dallas in 1993-94.
“They executed at a high-level and we didn’t match the execution,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said following his team’s loss.
For the Bruins, this blowout losses have become increasingly normal, and this actually marked Boston’s second time surrendering at least seven goals in the last 15 days behind Halloween’s 8-2 throttling at the hands of the Hurricanes down in Carolina.
That itself is a rarity of sorts for the Bruins, all things considered, as it was Boston’s first stretch of having multiple games where they surrendered at least seven goals in 15 days since surrendering 10 to the Capitals and 8 to the Maple Leafs within a three-day span back in Mar. 2008.
Third Star: Tyler Seguin
Nov 7, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (91) in action during the game between the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
Thursday night in Dallas, perhaps fittingly, saw ex-Bruins forward Tyler Seguin become the first member of the 2010 NHL Draft class to hit the 800-point mark. And entering this contest sitting at 799 career points, Seguin needed just 69 seconds to hit that milestone, as he picked up the secondary helper on the game’s first goal.
“It’s cool, I guess,” Seguin, who spent the first three years of his career with the Bruins, said of collecting point No. 800 in the victory. “I wasn’t aware of it except for my wonderful wife, who gets into hockey all of a sudden since she met me and texted me after last game and she said you better get it against Boston. Glad it was done the first shift.”
Seguin collected a secondary helper by the night’s end, and finished this contest with six shots on goal.
In case you’re wondering, the Bruins are officially without any sort of connections to the Seguin trade tree from 2013. Loui Eriksson and Joe Morrow both departed as free agents (Morrow is currently playing in the EIHL in the United Kingdom), Matt Fraser left Boston via waivers (he’s currently playing in Austria), and Reilly Smith was flipped to Florida in the 2015 trade that brought the late Jimmy Hayes to Boston. Hayes was ultimately bought out by the Bruins and not traded, thus ending all branches of the trade tree from Boston’s point of view.
Second Star: Matt Duchene
Nov 14, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Stars defenseman Thomas Harley (55) and center Matt Duchene (95) celebrates a goal scored by Duchene against the Boston Bruins during the first period at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
The Bruins had circled a strong start as the key to this game.
But the Stars’ Matt Duchene said ‘nah’ to that.
In Duchene’s 14:15 of five-on-five ice time, Dallas controlled the shot attempts 17-6, outshot Boston 14-3, out-chanced them 9-3, and most importantly outscored them by a 2-1 mark. In addition to the goal, Duchene also added an apple, and finishes the season series against Boston with two goals and five points in two games.
Just an absolutely fantastic performance from Duchene.
First Star: Evgenii Dadonov
Nov 14, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars right wing Evgenii Dadonov (63) scores a goal against Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
A first-period penalty shot awarded to Evgenii Dadonov was almost certainly an early Christmas gift. (I’m honestly not sure it was a penalty at all, let alone a penalty worthy of a penalty-shot opportunity.) But the officials called what they called on the ice, and Dadonov certainly made it count in what was a gigantic goal for the Stars.
On the board with the penalty shot snipe through Swayman, the penalty shot marker was the fourth of Dadonov’s NHL career, which ties him with Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic, David Vyborny and Charlie Conacher for fifth place on the NHL’s all-time list. The only players with more penalty-shot goals: Pavel Bure (7), Brad Marchand (6), Mario Lemieux (6), and Vincent Lecavalier (5), according to NHL Stats.
“I mean I knew I was going to shoot but didn’t want to do it,” Dadonov said of his penalty-shot attempt. “To be honest, I was pretty tired so I just shot, I opened my blade and saw the hole and shot.”And Dadonov didn’t stop with just the penalty shot goal, as he also banged home what was the fifth goal of the night for the Stars, scored with 10 seconds left in the middle frame to give the Stars a more-than-comfortable four-goal cushion through two periods of play.
