AfterThoughts: On Five-Game Losing Streaks for the Dallas and Texas Stars

The playoffs are coming for us all

On Saturday night, the Dallas Stars hosted their final home game of the season: a 5-3 loss to Utah. I didn’t see it yet, because I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan alongside my old pal Sean Shapiro to watch the Texas Stars play the Grand Rapids Griffins.

That means I haven’t yet watched the Dallas Stars game outside of a couple highlights, although based on some comments about streaming issues last night, some of you may not have seen all of that game either.

Both Texas and Dallas entered Saturday trying to snap losing streaks. Texas was playing the second game of a three-in-three set (which they’ll finish with a day game in Chicago this afternoon) after dropping five straight and slipping out of the top spot in the Central Division.

Dallas, meanwhile, had lost four straight, and they entered their fifth with nothing to play for. Pete DeBoer said as much afterward, stating candidly that if he could fast-forward to the end of the season and begin the playoffs, he would. These last three games before Dallas faces Colorado in the first round are all about preventing injury, first and foremost, and perhaps working on a few details, to whatever extent that’s possible at this point.

Nowhere was that approach more apparent than the blue line for Dallas, where Matt Dumba led the group (and all skaters) in ice time. Alex Petrovic’s recall to Dallas, which was necessitated by Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley both sitting out for maintenance, meant that Texas also had a hole to fill in their top-four, but it’s fair to say the AHL group bore up under that absence better than the NHL team did.

In Texas, the blue line impressed me, or at least one player did: Trey Taylor, whom the Stars recently signed out of Clarkson University following his junior year of school. Taylor was active and aggressive, and his reads were largely excellent at 5-on-5. The 23-year-old Taylor has also been getting time quarterbacking the second power play unit since he arrived in Texas seven games ago, and he didn’t look out of place doing so on Saturday.

Sean and I got a chance to chat with Taylor after the game, and you should check out what Sean wrote about him this morning. Taylor also mentioned that he really loves the Texas system, especially as a younger player.

“Predictability is a big thing,” Taylor said. “As a D-man, I know where I’m putting the puck. I know that my forwards are going in that spot to get the puck. I find it actually a really good system as a young player to come into, becuase you’re not forced to make pretty plays into the middle. Obviously for me, I like to use my feet, so they give me the green light to get up in the rush and make plays, so I like that a lot. It’s been good.”

The 6-foor-2 Taylor hasn’t had much practice time at all since arriving in Texas, so it’s a testament both to Neil Graham and his coaching staff as well as Taylor that he’s fitting in as well as he has through seven games in the AHL.

The 23-year-old left-shot defenseman acknowledged that he probably still has a year or two of learning and growing to do, but if he keeps building on what I saw on Saturday, that process should be a very good one for him.

Grand Rapids are in third behind Texas and Milwaukee in the Central, and it’s certainly possible that Texas could be seeing them again at some point in the playoffs. While it was both teams’ second game in as many nights, Texas thoroughly deserved the 4-1 win they walked away with on Saturday.

I’ll give you a few of my notes on the game for free at the end of this story because I am Such A Nice Guy, but check out what Sean wrote at his site about the game, as I particularly think the notes on Arttu Hyry and Justin Hryckowian are well-worth keeping in mind when thinking about how the NHL team is going to build next year’s roster under a likely cap crunch.

(Also, the hot dog cannon.)

AHL Shap Shots bowl: On Taylor in Texas, Danielson, Lombardi, Blumel, Buium, Cossa, and more

After a frustrating loss on Friday when the team probably deserved to have snapped their skid a night earlier, you could sense the vindication after Texas’s Saturday victory—even without Alex Petrovic.

Remi Poirier was in goal, and while he didn’t have much work to do, he was good when called upon, and played a much cleaner game than Sebastian Cossa at the other end of the ice. That was more than enough to ensure that Kole Lind’s hat trick held up to give Texas the victory.

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In Dallas On Saturday, the blue line sported a top pairing of Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin—two right-shot defensemen. I genuinely can’t remember the last time Dallas had two righties on a defense pairing in a meaningful NHL game (if meaningful isn’t too strong a word), but it’s surely been a bit. (I just shouted this question to Sean, whose dining room table I am writing this at, and if the guy who wrote the book on the team doesn’t have such a pairing to name off the top of his head, it’s probably safe to say this was A Rare Thing Indeed.)

Lian Bichsel, meanwhile, was paired with Petrovic, whom he was familiar with from his recent time in Texas. Cody Ceci and Brendan Smith were on the other pairing.

The story for Dallas was the penalty kill, or rather the lack of one. Utah went 4-for-4 on the power play, which is either a dire warning sign for the Stars as they continue to struggle with their defensive game, or else a karmic turnabout after the Stars went 4-for-4 themselves against St. Louis not too long ago.

The Stars can take some solace from the fact that they scored a shorthanded goal when Brendan Smith put his first of the season past Karel Vejmelka (who has started 23 straight games for Utah).

Smith said after the game that it’s been a hard year for him, as it always is for veteran players who have to adjust to lesser roles and more scratches. Colin Blackwell gave Smith credit for how he’s handled himself and worked during the season, and Smith was effusive in praising his teammates for encouraging him this year.

It’s good to remember the human side of a hockey season when building out a fantasy roster. Some players are dealing with physical injuries, and some players are dealing with unmet expectations and disappointment of another kind. But in the end, they all want the same thing: to play and win together.

The Stars, of course, did not win, for the fifth straight time. They’ve still technically avoided their first three-game regulation losing streak (in the regular season) under Pete DeBoer, although I’m not sure that provides fans much in the way of consolation. But at this point in the season, the Stars are basically playing pre-season games to end the season. If the coach doesn’t care about the results, you’re probably going to be happier not caring too much about them yourself, either.

(That said, Monday’s game against Detroit will be interesting, with the Red Wings having been eliminated officially, and the Stars’ spot being locked in for good. Pride is a strong motivator, but balancing that with injury avoidance and natural end-of-season apathy could make for a very interesting game. I’ll be at that one, too, so I’ll letcha know how it goes, no matter what.)

Texas Stars at Grand Rapids Griffins Notes That I Said I Would Give You for Free

First Period

New signing Trey Taylor was running the second power play for Texas, and he also sprawled to perfectly block a pass on a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush by Grand Rapids. Taylor also had a big collision in the end boards with a Griffins forward after which he help up a hand to say it wasn’t intentional. College Hockey courtesy, you know.

Kole Lind tipped in a Michael Karow show after some extended pressure by the second line that started with Lind beating out an icing call and getting to a puck in front of the net that Cossa probably should have come out to play.

Chase Wheatcroft took the Stars’ first penalty of the night after losing a step along the boards, but the Stars were able to kill off the penalty without too much trouble for Remi Poirier.

Luke Krys got into it with Carson Bantle later in the first period, and the back-and-forth resulted in both players sitting and four-on-four action. Kole Lind got another look off the rush, but he couldn’t beat Cossa with a quick snap shot from between the circles.

Second Period

Tim Gettinger lost an edge behind the Texas net early in the second, and as he fell hard into the boards, his stick caught a Texas skate. He woozily got back up from the ice, only to be instructed to shake it off in the penalty box.

Texas got a couple of good looks by crashing the net, but the best chance was a nifty little pass to Lind above the crease that didn’t connect.

Matěj Blümel nearly doubled Texas’ lead three minutes in, sliding a quick pass back through the crease to Hyrckowian at the back door.

Harrison Scott also got a shot off from a good spot halfway through the game after an exchange with Romano, but Cossa flashed his blocker arm to take it away.

Texas looked better and better as the period went along, outshooting Grand Rapids 7-1 through twelve minutes of play. That must have annoyed the Griffins, as Emilio Pettersen and Antti Tuomisto got into it after a whistle, leading to another 4-on-4 set.

Trey Taylor looked as confident as anyone on the ice in the second period, and he put two shots on Cossa that the Griffins goaltender had to squeeze hard. But the biggest save Cossa made was on Hryckowian, who got a golden chance after a cross-crease feed from Lind off the rush, only for Cossa to stretch out the left pad and rob one of the AHL’s best rookies, keeping the score at 1-0.

Texas was outshooting Grand Rapids 13-1 in the second period with a 1-0 lead, but after Michael Karow couldn’t quite close down the corner, the Griffins got two quick shots on Poirier, and the second went it. The Stars were now outshooting the Griffins 13-3, and the score was tied.

From there, Grand Rapids got some shifts running together, and Poirier had more work to do, making stops on Nate Danielson and Gettinger.

With 32 seconds left and an offensive zone draw, Luke Krys was put out with Taylor and the Stars’ top line. Nothing came of it, but it was a sensible response to how good Taylor had looked throughout the period.

Third Period

Things tightened up in the third period, but despite taking a couple of penalties, Texas was the team pushing for the lead. And they finally got it when Kole Lind was sent in on a clean breakaway from the blue line in and ripped a wrister by Cossa’s glove hand with ease.

Shots were 31-15 for Texas as the game entered its final 10 minutes, and the 32nd one tested Cossa’s glove again when Capobianco stepped up and ripped one that Cossa grabbed.

Chase Wheatcroft followed suit with a shot from the left circle a couple minutes later, but Cossa looked calm in gloving that chance down.

Less calm was Poirier with 4:10 remaining, when he fanned on a bump pass after receiving a dumped-in puck, leaving it sitting at his near post for a half-second before he pounced on it to cover. With shots 36-16 for Texas, they had a chance to slay the demons of Friday night, when a similarly dominant performance ended in defeat.

Kole Lind completed a hat trick with an empty-netter at 2:04, when Texas refuted the Griffins’ first effort at 6-on-5 to easily skate up the ice and seal the game. Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard empty-net goals are supposed to do.

Matěj Blümel made sure, however, by scoring a second empty-netter by winning a race to a cleared puck and protecting it well enough to fire it into a still-empty net for the 4-1 exclamation point, and his 39th goal of the year—extending his newly-set season record for the Texas Stars franchise, which Blümel had previously claimed a few games back.