from Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News,

Dallas lost a 4-1 game to St. Louis to fall to 1-4-0 in the preseason. Just as concerning, the Stars have yielded 20 goals in five games. That's a big deal for a team that vowed to fix goaltending and defense.

"It was disappointing," said coach Lindy Ruff. "We didn't compete hard enough. I thought some guys did, but they won the puck battles, we threw some pucks away and I thought our power play played pond hockey. That was frustrating."

The vast majority of the exhibition slate has been played with a mixed lineup, but the Stars went with a mostly veteran lineup Tuesday, including Benn, Hemsky, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza and the expected six defenseman who will be in the lineup opening night against Pittsburgh.

Antti Niemi was in net and allowed four goals on 28 shots. He and Kari Lehtonen have split time in the preseason, and neither has looked great. However, both have faced some tremendous scoring chances -- and that's on the defense.

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