DALLAS -- For all the talk of change, the Chicago Blackhawks looked a lot like the team of a year ago on Friday in their opening night 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Their core guys played well enough, but where were the newcomers? They may not need to lead the Hawks to the promised land, but they have to help out a little.

“Not up to expectations. [It’s] still a feeling out process,” winger Andrew Brunette said of his one-shot effort. “Gotta do some things a little different.”

Brunette was just one of many players making their Chicago debuts who had a quiet night. The seven newcomers totaled six shots and very little in the way of positive contributions. Of course, they don’t play as many minutes and some are considered sandpaper or grit guys but even then, the Hawks were outhit 37-19.

“Brunette was OK,” coach Joel Quenneville said when asked about the new guys. “There were only a few guys that jumped out at me. I thought [Michael] Frolik had a good game.”

No one ever doubted what the Hawks needed in the offseason, but the question was whether they got the right guys to fill their needs. Steve Montador epitomizes that idea. Brought in for four years and $11 million, he played a mop-up role on defense as an extra guy and took a few meaningless shifts at wing on the fourth line. Sean O'Donnell was nearly beat on the first shift of the game while Sami Lepisto and Rostislav Olesz didn’t sniff the net, registering zero shots as did O’Donnell.

Change is good, if it’s for the better. With only a 60-minute sample size it would be unfair to make harsh judgments on the newcomers, but if judgments were to be made, that’s exactly what they’d be.

Early mistakes: Both teams had their issues in terms of mistakes, as Quenneville called his team “jittery” in the opening period. Jonathan Toews was more deliberate about it.

“It’s not the way we wanted to start the season,” he said. “We made a lot of mistakes and gave up too many quality chances. We have to make sure we’re talking. It’s early, and we’re not going to be perfect. Guys have to have good sticks and just better awareness of where guys are. I think we were getting sucked into the puck too much and just leaving guys open behind us.”

One miscommunication occurred in the Hawks’ own end between Duncan Keith and Marian Hossa and led to the Stars’ first goal. Keith was pressured behind his own net and flipped the puck around the boards to a vacated right wing area. Hossa was already leaving the zone.

“I thought we were going to rim the puck hard,” Hossa said. “Duncan tried to pass it to me, I thought I was going to fly away and try to catch up to the puck. So [it was] one of those things, the puck hit their player and [the] shot was in the net.”

Hossa was nowhere to be found when Mike Ribeiro easily grabbed the turnover, setting up Alex Goligoski for the game’s first goal. It’s one example of sloppy play by the Blackhawks.

Crawford’s night: The second-year netminder had a stellar first period, stopping 13 quality chances, but he gave up a goal on the first shot he saw in the second and later dropped a shot, leading to the second goal.

“I didn’t see the first shot off his stick,” Crawford explained. “The second one was a bullet. I just couldn’t hang onto it. I was so stretched out I couldn’t do anything on the next [rebound] one.”

Sheldon Souray, known for a hard shot, sent Crawford sprawling and when the puck came out of his glove Jamie Benn was there for the put-back. Still, Crawford wasn’t the problem.

“Crawford kept us in the game in the first period so you could say they could have had a bigger lead on us coming out of the first 20 minutes,” Toews said.

Crawford stopped 31 on the night.

Slappers

Hossa was flying all night long. He led the Hawks with eight shots on net.

The Hawks avoided the shutout when Nick Leddy scored with an extra attacker on the ice with under 14 seconds to play.

Brandon Saad played 13:05, registering two shots in his NHL debut. He became the youngest Hawk since Patrick Kane in 2007 to play for Chicago. He was dropped from the top line after the first period, eventually getting shifts on the fourth line.

After the game, Quenneville said he was “optimistic” Dave Bolland could play Saturday night.