Dallas Stars Training Camp: Jamie Benn Day-to-Day as Stars Hit the Road, and a Trip Down Colin Blackwell Memory Lane™
The next time the Stars play in Dallas, we'll likely see a pretty complete NHL lineup
NB: I’ve stopped numbering the days of training camp in the titles for two reasons: First, because it’s impossible to decide whether to count game days as training camp days; and Second, because training camp really isn’t what most people think of when they hear the phrase “training camp.” It’s a lot of practicing and some orientation things happening behind the scenes. But all in all, there is very little camping happening of any kind—which is a shame, really. Who doesn’t love tents and fresh air?
The big news out of practice on Wednesday was that Jamie Benn wasn’t on the ice. Glen Gulutzan said afterwards that Benn is “day-to-day” with what he termed “a little upper-body thing.”
“You didn’t see him in overtime, and you probably would have,” Gulutzan said of the game Tuesday night. He said just a little upper-body thing, so we’ll see how it is. He’s gonna be day-to-day. And we’re not rushing anything right now.”
In watching Benn’s last shift of the game late in the third period, I couldn’t pick out anything unusual. But in watching his second-to-last shift, I did see Benn head back to the bench a bit earlier than the rest of his linemates right after driving to the net, and he’s a little bit hunched over.
I’m not sure there’s enough here to really determine whether anything happened on this play, though, unless he got chopped in the hand or something. Anyway, Benn did come out for one more shift later in the third, so it doesn’t sound like it was anything incredibly traumatic. It’s the preseason, so there’s no sense rushing anyone back, least of all the oldest player on the team.
(Did you know Jamie Benn is the only Stars player on the roster now who was born before 1990? Now you do.)
Roster Decisions and Implications
Only a handful of likely NHL roster players have yet to play in a preseason game: Wyatt Johnston, Lian Bichsel, and Casey DeSmith.
From the sound of things today, at least one of those players sounds like he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow night when the Stars fly to Minnesota: Casey DeSmith, whom Gulutzan said he believes will play tomorrow. But Gulutzan also emphasized that he prefers Jeff Reese to make the final call on the goaltending deployment during the exhibition games, so perhaps a little wrinkle could still be in store.
“I’ll be frank with you,” Gulutzan said when asked about how goalie schedules are determined during the season. “I’m leaving that to Reeser.”
Gulutzan went on to say that of course there could be big games where the team would want to plan around making sure Oettinger was fresh for them, and that his input would certainly come into play at times. But by and large, it sounds like the new coach really does want his goalie coach to make those decisions, given how well he knows the goaltenders in question.
Gulutzan also referenced how the coaching staff’s dialogue around big decisions also incorporates “research,” which I am guessing might involve anything from basic team-specific analytics to “rested vs. tired” metrics for the goalies and everything in between. (When they start sending me all the spreadsheets, I’ll let you know.)
With that said, my understanding for the preseason is that both Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith would prefer to play two games apiece. And with the sixth and final preseason game back in Dallas likely to feature nearly all of the Stars’ presumptive Opening Night lineup (which I’d guess would feature Oettinger), that means we could see DeSmith get two of the three road games coming up.
Gulutzan said earlier in training camp that some more veterans than usual may have to play at least one road game during the preseason, since the Stars have all three of them in a row. Still, road teams in the preseason usually have a thinner lineup than the home side when it comes to NHL experience, so it’s likely that DeSmith will face plenty of shots in whatever game(s) he does end up playing over the next week or so.
As for the rest of the lineup for Thursday, we’ll probably have to wait until later tonight or Thursday morning (when the game group will skate in Frisco before flying out) to find out what the full gameday roster will be.
But personally, I think it’s likely that we see both Bichsel and Johnston get into that game as well, if they’re both fully healthy (as we presume they are, based on their participation in practice today).
And if you’re one of the players on the outside looking in when it comes to the likely NHL roster, Gulutzan has a message for you, too:
“I think it’s important for a young player, when I talk to these guys, and the assistants talk to them—it’s a new coach, a new set of eyes. At the end of the day, the roster, it’s pretty set. But we’re here to win, so if there’s somebody else that we can put in a spot that’s gonna give us a better chance, that’s when you can beat the door down a little bit.”
So, what does that mean for training camp right now?
“It’s important for these guys to show well, and I think some of them have,” Gulutzan said. “For me they have, certainly. And we need that push from the bottom. The guys that aren’t here, or that maybe end up in Austin, we need that push from the bottom. Because then the guys that are here, they know they gotta keep pushing here. That’s what a good organization does.”
Glen Gulutzan on Why He Values Hierarchy
Going back to that point above on Jeff Reese having the responsibility of determining goalie playing schedules, Gulutzan has repeatedly emphasized the importance of trusting his people. This has come up since he was hired, when he emphasized how he would be letting assistant coaches like Alain Nasreddine and Neil Graham have full reign in their respective special teams areas, and that he would primarily be available to help more than to tell them what to do.
On Wednesday, Gulutzan gave a little more context as to why he values that approach so much.
“I saw too many guys get fired because the hierarchy was out of whack,” Gulutzan said. “So when you get to observe as an assistant for ten years, that I have, and you see people getting displaced, you realize what caused the displacement. And it’s usually when there’s a little chain of command breach.”
Of course, Gulutzan has also talked about how collaborative he wants his coaching staff to be, so you can be sure that there will always be input from multiple people on his staff (himself included) for the big decisions, whenever they come. And given Gulutzan’s experience running an excellent power play, Graham himself has said that he’s planning to take advantage of that expertise:
Yes, a power play is going to be a huge part of my responsibilities, but you look at Glen Gulutzan, and he’s run the best power play in the NHL for the last handful of years. What an ally. So yes, I’ll be doing a lot of those meetings, bringing ideas to the table, but I think it would be foolish to not use his strength and talk to him about areas or “Hey, I’m thinking this. What do you see?” That’s how you get the best out of each other.
Much has been said about how Pete DeBoer tended to be the ultimate decision-maker on the team in prior years, and given the team’s record under DeBoer, he obviously made a whole lot of good ones. But the thing about always wanting to have the final word is that it also means you can take every failure personally, rather than share it as a group—and I’ve seen that approach bring crippling pressure to people I’ve worked for in other industries. I can’t imagine what it would do to a head coach in the best hockey league on the planet.
Anyhow, after Jim Nill’s decision to bring in a different voice, Gulutzan’s emphasis on trusting people has been a noticeably different approach, at least from what we’ve heard and see thus far. Though as we keep saying, the proof will also need to be in the pudding. But for Gulutzan, it really is something he believes in.
“You’ve got good people, you gotta use them.”
Colin Blackwell and Toby Petersen Go Way Back
Finally, I wanted to mention something I didn’t get a chance1 to include last week.
One of the big themes at the beginning of this season has been all the connections between players and coaches that go way back. Gulutzan and Dallas, of course, but also Gulutzan and Toby Petersen, Nathan Bastian and Alain Nasreddine, and even Adam Erne and Casey DeSmith.
Petersen actually connects a lot of dots on the roster, as he’s played with Curtis McKenzie and Jamie Benn, as well as his assistant coaches in Cedar Park, Max Fortunus and Travis Morin.
But one player that Petersen also overlapped with outside of Texas is Colin Blackwell, who found his way to Rochester in the AHL during a particularly dicey time in his hockey career. And Blackwell still holds Petersen in very high esteem.
“He’s a guy that’s a similar size to me,” Blackwell said, “And he played a long time in this league. He also played here.”
And when the two found themselves in Frisco together at the beginning of camp, Petersen still remembered his old player.
“First day,” Blackwell said, “He saw me sweating pretty bad. He still remembered some of the cramping up, and he asked me if I was still running hot from back in the day. That was like eight to nine years ago.”
For someone who has worked as hard as Blackwell has to carve out a career in the best league in the world at just 5-foot-8, running into an assistant coach from a decade ago who still remembers one of your quirks clearly means something.
It’s the little things that tell you everything, I’m told.
Wait, One Last Colin Blackwell Thing Actually
Last year, I tested Blackwell in camp by asking him if he knew who had assisted on his only playoff goal up to that point.
Of course Blackwell knew it immediately. (As I recall, he answered before I had even finished asking the question.)
But something I don’t think I remembered to point out last year is what happened after Blackwell scored his second career playoff goal last spring against Colorado.
It was a big one, you may remember.
But…did you notice who was the first player to come over and celebrate with him?
Someone whom you can see streaking from the point to scream with joy alongside Blackwell as he celebrates into the boards?
That’s right.
Blackwell-Lyubushkin is the playoff duo you can count on. Book it.
Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, some things do actually get left out of these pieces every now and then. Like, for instance, the cool thing about Jason Robertson I was going to include today but decided to save for another time. See?
That last bit about Lyubushkin and Blackwell... hockey is cool
Did I miss something where Wyatt has been recovering from some kind of sickness or injury?