Five Quick Thoughts about Game 4
Before this quick-hits list, I want to acknowledge that the site is looking slightly less “templatey” than before. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this, because honestly, it was offensively banal. Thanks to Our Glorious Webmaster for making things actually look like a human being cares about appearances.
Dallas has to get the first goal again. The goaltender is in their heads something fierce right now (well, excepting Wyatt Johnston), and you have to continue building momentum early if you want Vegas to start hearing footsteps.
Power plays are probably going to continue to be scarce, which is good for Dallas despite its regular-season superiority at special teams. Vegas just feels more dangerous with more space, and the numbers in very limited quantity back that up. Dallas seems to get better the more complex the problem is. Complicate things at evens, and Vegas should start to try drawing more penalties. That should favor the Stars.
I’m getting really tired of Jason Robertson not getting more love in this series. He hasn’t been Johnston, but he’s been better than he’s getting credit for. People just seem to want to label him as a softer, non-physical player trying to score from the perimeter. He’s battling all over the ice, defensively and offensively. Give the man some credit. He’s scoring goals and playing hard. Save the criticism for the few who deserve it.
Dallas has generated far more chances than Vegas, but Thompson has been insanely good. We already saw Thompson make a gaffe in Game 1, and he’s been shaky at other times, too, but Dallas hasn’t been able to clean up rebounds. Don’t be shocked if it all comes undone for him at once. Is this wishful thinking? Yes, but that’s still a kind of thinking, so you can’t tell me to stop.
Roope Hintz seems like he’s protecting himself in some way. I know we all know this, but a lot of players are probably banged up already, especially after the hit fest that was Game 2. But it probably best for most of us to be restrained in our criticism unless we have good reason. That’s probably a good approach to life, actually. I often find that when I’m angriest a people, I’m the least curious about them. When I actually force myself to ask them something about their life, empathy usually creeps in no matter how hard I try to fight it. Maybe loving people by default isn’t the worst idea? There’s an oversimplified bit of litotes for ya
