Lindy Ruff knows his Dallas Stars don’t look much like last season’s Central Division champions.
At least not yet, anyway.
His NHL club, currently treading water with a multitude of injuries and a 4-5-3 record, hasn’t been able to buy a break.
Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Blackhawks in Chicago was a case in point, as the Stars probably deserved a better fate.
The Dallas head coach doesn’t plan to dwell on the negatives. For much of the early part of the regular season, he’s been without the services of forwards Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky, Jiri Hudler, Mattias Janmark and Cody Eakin, which would be a crippling blow to most clubs.