DALLAS — All eyes were on the game American Airlines Center on Tuesday night, as the league awaited the season debut of three-time Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck. The goalie — who was traded last week from the Winnipeg Jets to the New Jersey Devils after a contract dispute kept him off the ice to start the season — was finally set to appear in net. The question was whether Hellebuyck would be ...

The Dallas Stars' Joel Kiviranta keeps the puck away from the New Jersey Devils' Jonas Siegenthaler in the first period at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in Dallas.

Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images North America/TNS

DALLAS — All eyes were on the game American Airlines Center on Tuesday night, as the league awaited the season debut of three-time Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck.

The goalie — who was traded last week from the Winnipeg Jets to the New Jersey Devils after a contract dispute kept him off the ice to start the season — was finally set to appear in net.

The question was whether Hellebuyck would be able to stifle the Stars in his first game in months.

But the Stars ultimately did that to themselves, falling 5-1 in one of their flattest performances of the season and snapping a five-game win streak.

"For sure, our worst game of the season," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "It was from the top down of our team, so we have to look at ourselves and what we did the last few days that we came out that flat."

Hellebuyck only faced 17 shots, saving 16, in his first outing with New Jersey, as the Stars were outplayed from the start. New Jersey put 27 on Stars goalie Casey DeSmith, who saved 22.

"You have to give credit to the team in front of him," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "We didn't even really test him tonight."

Devils captain Nico Hischier scored the first two goals of the game. The first was on a 2-on-1 just minutes in. The Stars unsuccessfully challenged the play for goaltender interference when Timo Meier collided with DeSmith. Hischier added a second less than a minute into the second period, and Jesper Boqvist made it a 3-0 game midway through the second.

The Stars finally got on the board when Justin Hryckowian deflected a point shot from Tyler Myers. After not scoring in his first 10 games of the season, Hryckowian now has goals in back-to-back games.

But 28 seconds later, the Stars had another sloppy play in the defensive zone, allowing Luke Hughes to make it a three-goal game again. His brother, Jack Hughes, added a fifth and final goal late in the third period.

The one bright spot for the Stars was the penalty kill, which went its sixth consecutive game without giving up a goal. The Stars had to kill three penalties and were again without four of their top penalty killers in Sam Steel, Radek Faksa, Oskar Bäck and Esa Lindell, who are all out with injuries.

The Stars lost another player during Tuesday’s game. Defenseman Kyle Capobianco went down with a left leg injury after a collision behind the net and couldn’t put any weight on his leg as he was helped off the ice. Gulutzan had no update on the defenseman postgame.

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