SOUR PLAY

The way out of this current home stand spiral and into the playoffs is through the Stars Powerplay.

It hasn't been very good (5 for last 44, or roughly 11%), and during this home stand it's been outright costly, with chances to win the game late in both the Calgary and San Jose games.

Here are some digits and facts to consider:

- Benn and Eriksson are the only powerplay goal scorers over the past month (Benn 3, Loui 2)

- Brad Richard's last pp goal was Feb. 13th, the game he was injured in.

- Morrow last scored with the Stars a man up on January 26th, 20 games ago.

- And Mike Ribeiro's most recent powerplay tally was during the January 7th game against the Rangers.

Back in October the Stars had their other lengthy home stand (a six gamer) and it started eerily similar to this current one. They lost the first three tilts with their powerplay stinking up AAC at a rate of 14% (2 for 14). Then, the PP came out of it's semi-dormant state and went 6 for 18 over the final three games, all of them victories.

Easy algorithm baby!

One more thing pertaining to this current ugly 5 for 44 stretch. During the span of games the Stars penalty killing unit has scored 4 times. Ya, staggering, they are almost equally lethal with one less player on the ice than their opponent than they are with one more.

Now that is a paradox beyond telegenic former-netminder comprehension.