Seguin gets last word Friday with winning goal in overtime against Capitals

The dust seems to have finally settled from the all of the national talk surrounding the Dallas Stars.

But it seems as though the players, from the top of the roster on down, are getting the message.

On Friday night at American Airlines Center, with the score tied at 1-1 in overtime, Alexander Radulov carried the puck with one hand on his back hand around the Washington Capitals net and slid (or shot, depending on how you look at it) the puck across the crease and to find Tyler Seguin on the back door.

Seguin then slammed it home to give the home team a 2-1 win.

The victory came roughly a week after Jim Lites, the organization’s CEO, told The Athletic that the play of assistant captain Tyler Seguin and captain Jamie Benn (to that point) had been “terrible,” among a few more colorful expletives.

Seguin and Benn both responded to the criticism by simultaneously admitting that their performances this season have been subpar. But both also remained self-assured that they would turn things around.

Many of the other players also seem to have taken Lites’ comments as a challenge. The Stars have responded by claiming seven points in eight games and improving to 14-5-2 at home.

The Capitals have struggled as of late, losing their past two games by a combined 11-5.

But they are still the defending Stanley Cup champions and have been in first place in the Metropolitan Division most of the season. And until Friday night, coach Todd Reirden’s team had not dropped more than two games in a row.

Seguin had posted 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in the previous three games since the public criticism, and added two more on Friday night.

His first goal came with 6:40 to go in the first period. Radulov ripped a shot that redirected off the visiting goalie and right to Seguin into a virtually wide-open net for a power play goal.

Benn, meanwhile, missed his first game in nearly two years with an upper-body injury he sustained during a 5-4 win over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.

Anton Khudobin was terrific in net, stopping 36 out of 37 shots for Dallas.

The Stars next open a three-game road trip Sunday in Winnipeg with a tough matchup against the Central Division-leading Jets.