Subscribe
Follow Us
Although the milestone came in losing fashion, Jamie Benn has now played more games than anyone else in the history of the Dallas Stars. The captain skated in contest No. 1,143 for the organization in a 5-3 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, per The Dallas News' Kellen Bulger.
The record previously belonged to Dallas legend Mike Modano, who played in 1,142 tilts as a Star — and a couple hundred more beforehand as a Minnesota North Star.
It's an impressive achievement either way for Benn, who has played his entire career in Texas after being selected 129th overall by the organization in the 2007 NHL Draft. He helped the club reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, as well as back-to-back Western Conference Finals in each of the last two postseasons.
Although he's been unable to guide the squad to a first championship since 1999, he's been a heart and soul player for the franchise and continues to produce at age 35. Benn was again on the scoresheet on Wednesday, recording an assist for the sixth consecutive game. The captain is up to six goals and 20 points in 31 games in 2024-25 while still maintaining his spot on the top powerplay unit.
Unfortunately for the Stars, the achievement for Benn was overshadowed by a tough loss to the Leafs on home ice.
Stars lose in Jamie Benn's milestone game
Despite directing 39 shots at Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll, Dallas was able to manage just three goals. The Leafs led 4-2 before Colin Blackwell got his team within one with 17:44 remaining in the third period.
William Nylander would score into the empty net to seal the 5-3 final.
“We had some looks that we didn’t score on, and they had some that they did. Frustrating for sure. We played a lot better than the score showed,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said afterwards, per NHL.com's Taylor Baird. “I guess you’re going to have some of those in this league. We’ve won a couple of games like that, I don’t know if it was quite like that, but it happens.”
“We played a pretty solid game. Just some pucks got through us. Their goalie played well to his credit,” echoed forward Sam Steel. “We know there’s certain things when we are scoring that we’re doing, so we just have to get back to that. Once [scoring] does happen, you get a little pep in your step and get some confidence. So we’re going to stick with what we know works and we know we’ll have some success.”
With the loss, the Stars fall to 19-12-0, good for third place in the Central Division. Dallas remains nine points back of the first-place Winnipeg Jets with three games in hand.
Benn's squad will look to get back in the win column against the struggling New York Rangers at American Airlines Center on Friday night. Puck is set to drop just past 8:00 p.m. ET.
