Stars depth finds it's moxie, even if Gemel Smith doesn't know what that means

DALLAS — Depth scoring finally showed up with moxie in a 5-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres.

Yes, Buffalo is a very bad hockey team. But for the first time this season the Stars bottom-three lines were a consistent threat to score.

Dallas crashed the net, created their own luck, and made Sabres goalie Robin Lehner pay for his mistakes.

“Guys that have worked really hard, that have been snakebitten all this year,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “All of a sudden they’re feeling good about themselves and contributing. So the whole bench was excited.”

Gemel Smith, who brings moxie according to Hithcock, was a spark plug with a pair of primary assists. Smith’s first assist injected energy into the team as he went coast-to-coast along the right side, slipped past a check, and took hard low shot that created a rebound.

It certainly was a moxie-filled moment for Smith, even if he doesn’t know what that means.

“I asked couple a guys, I have no idea to be honest,” Smith said. “I’m pretty sure that means something good. So that’s all I know.”

Hitchcock elaborated on what moxie meant in his post-game comments.

“He’s a hockey player. He acts like a hockey player and plays like a hockey player. You don’t have to tell him twice,” Hitchcock said. “He has a feel for the game and does a lot of things that just help you win hockey games. He’s underrated offensively and he’s competitive and really good on the boards. He builds you good minutes every night. Right now, you have 15 or 16 really good minutes coming from him every night. You don’t have to talk to him and he just plays.”

Smith was further rewarded after the game when he was presented the spartan helmet by his teammates as the player of the game.

That presentation embodied the ideal night for Dallas, which needs further depth scoring as the season progresses.

“That’s what we need. (Tyler) Seguin’s line is probably going to play a lot of heavy minutes against the tough line every home game and I think they’re winning that battle right now, but we need other guys to score on the team,” John Klingberg said. “I know they’re going to start getting more.”

Saturday was a big step in the right direction.

Remi Elie, who had hit a bit of a wall with his play recently, re-found his pesky form and was in the right place at the right time on the first goal.

Antoine Roussel, the original pest, did a bit of everything with a goal, an assist, and a handful of trips to the box.

Klingberg, who had three assists, said Roussel’s goal was a nice reward for a player that is always working in practice.

“He’s obviously really good at tipping that puck right to the net and we do actually practice a lot, me and Rous — shooting and tipping in pactice — so it’s nice to see it pay off,” Klingberg said.

Even Radek Faksa, who left the game with a lower-body injury, made an impact and was arguably one of the best all-around players before he got tangled up with Kyle Okposo on a post-whistle fracas in the second period.

It all provided a nice perspective for Kari Lehtonen, who had a relatively easy night and didn’t have to make many difficult saves in a 27-save showing.

“Got some scoring from guys who haven’t done it too much,” Lehtonen said. “So that was huge and got the ball rolling and we went from there.”