Stars HC Glen Gulutzan makes harsh admission after loss to Islanders

The Dallas Stars lost again, this time to the New York Islanders, 2-1, on Thursday. The Texas team’s head coach, Glen Gulutzan, made a harsh admission after the game.

Gulutzan acknowledged that his team is far from the level it showed in the previous eight or nine games and admitted it is not yet at the level to beat elite teams.

“We’re far away from the game we were playing, you know, eight or nine games ago, but moving in the right direction,” he said on his media duties after the game.

“You’re coming in to play teams like this, as you mentioned. So it’s where you grow, though, when you can rise up and still beat these teams, and we’re not there yet.”

Gulutzan says there's 'natural little dip' after securing playoff berth

That said, the Stars coach pointed out positive aspects of his team’s game and highlighted, among other things, the performance of his goalie, Jake Oettinger, and the rival's goalie, Ilya Sorokin.

“I thought there was a good goalie performance by both goalies. I thought their goalie was, you know, Sorokin was really, really good. So you get that, and you’ve got a team fighting for their lives.”

“And, you know, I thought we battled and competed. It was very even, and we just couldn’t get a second one by them.”

Gulutzan noted that there is always a natural dip when teams secure their spot in the NHL playoffs.

“There’s a natural little dip sometimes when you see that X beside your name (…). We’ve got to get out of our lull a little bit because you never know when the light switch is going to go off when you go into the playoffs, that you can just turn it on and start playing well. So you want to make sure you’re ironing out all the kinks now, and we ironed out a few tonight, but not enough.”

More NHL news:

• Stars’ Wyatt Johnston sends strong message amid Dallas’ bad run

• Stars' Jason Robertson makes positive assessment ahead of four-game road trip

• Stars HC Glen Gulutzan admits recurring 'self‑inflicted' issues

• Stars' Wyatt Johnston issues warning to Dallas ahead of playoffs

• Stars' Miro Heiskanen addresses defensive issues before NHL playoffs