Ducks let opportunities slip away

DALLAS -- Missed passes to open men. Blown defensive coverages. Ineffective special teams.

Sounds like a bad football team. Only these were the defending Stanley Cup champions Saturday night.

The Ducks went through a fruitless exercise for 60 minutes as their execution was virtually nonexistent in a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center that ended their modest two-game winning streak.

Just one-eighth of the season has been played but the Ducks (4-5-1) haven’t often resembled the team that won a Pacific Division title and blew through the playoffs. When their fifth regulation loss occurred Dec. 23 last season, the Ducks had 27 victories.

Center Andy McDonald offered a plain assessment of their current state.

“We’re certainly not playing the way we were at the end of last season,” McDonald said. “We’re not the same team as last year. I’d say we’re not even close.”

The Ducks could manage only Chris Pronger’s first goal of the season when they held a two-man advantage late in the second period. Marty Turco made 20 saves and Dallas got goals from Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen.

It was the way the Ducks lost that led them to keep the dressing room door closed for nearly 15 minutes afterward. The chances were there with eight power plays but the lack of success only heightened the frustration as the game wore on.

All too often passes went behind teammates or hit skates instead of sticks. And the blame seemed to be laid at a lack of attention to detail in practice, which is carrying over into some games.

“The responsibility is certainly on everyone in this room to make sure that when you’re at practice, that you’re trying to make it as game-like as possible,” McDonald said. “And you’re completing those passes [in practice].

“The teams are too good. You get an odd-man rush or an opportunity to have a scoring chance and you miss it because of a missed pass or whatever. You can’t keep costing your team like that.”

The Ducks are clearly short on some skill up front with Todd Bertuzzi sidelined because of a concussion. McDonald is centering rookie Drew Miller and journeyman Mark Mowers. The top line didn’t pick up the slack, getting only an assist by Ryan Getzlaf.

“We’re having a tough time finding our rhythm right now,” Pronger said.

McDonald shrugged off the suggestion that they need more time to grow together.

“I don’t think we need more time,” he said. “I think maybe it’s a focus issue.”

Morrow put the Stars up with a power-play goal 2 minutes 4 seconds into the game. Ribeiro made it 2-0 when he jammed in a loose puck that got behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere in a scramble in front of the net.

The coup de grace came midway through the period when Lehtinen broke in alone behind the Ducks in the offensive zone to pick up a long pass off the boards by Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher. Lehtinen fired a slap shot off the carom between the legs of Giguere for a 3-0 lead. It spelled the end for the goalie after only 12 shots.

Ilya Bryzgalov came in and stopped the bleeding but by then the damage was done. Now the Ducks have two days of practice to sharpen their game before they take on St. Louis.

“What you try to do is you try to stay with the program,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Don’t get too high when you win and don’t get too low when you don’t have success.

“Continue to work at all the small things. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

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eric.stephens@latimes.com