Friday Dallas Stars Roundup: Masked Men, Minute Management, and Mop-Up Duty
Casey DeSmith has a new mask, while Matt Dumba is on the power play, for now
Good afternoon! The Stars are finally back for a home game in Dallas for the first time since playing Columbus on February 2 in a 5-3 Stars win.
While the Four Nations break split up Dallas’s six-game road trip with three games on either side, that meant tournament players had been on the road for almost the entirety of February. Pete DeBoer even mentioned after practice the other day that his skates somehow wound up in Jon Cooper’s bag at one point. (Must be a lawer thing.) Unsurprisingly, the unanimous theme I heard from players today was, “It’s good to be back.”
Let’s get to a few notes before the Stars take on the Los Angeles Kings tonight at 7:00pm. Jake Oettinger will be in goal, while the defense will look the same as last game.
When the Stars played New Jersey last Saturday, some fans noticed that Casey DeSmith was sporting a new design on his mask that depicts elements of an old western train robbery.
I had a chance to ask DeSmith about the new design yesterday after practice, and he said he simply wanted to go with something “Texas.” (Aside: my grandfather worked on the railroad for most of his life, so I have a special affinity for old steam trains. But alas, the only foamer in the room was I).
DeSmith said he goes back and forth with the designer, but that the goaltender is the one who comes up the designs, generally speaking.
DeSmith is 1-0-0 so far with the mask, so you can expect to see it again soon.
Colin Blackwell is coming back out of the lineup tonight in favor of Oskar Bäck. DeBoer said at morning skate today that it’s been tough for players in that mix because competition is so tight for those forward spots on the fourth line.
DeBoer also mentioned that Blackwell had a great game in New Jersey, so he stayed in against the Islanders, and that’s the level of play that is needed to stay in the lineup.
DeBoer was also asked about whether they dress players situationally (i.e. bigger players against bigger teams), but he largely dismissed the question.
“Listen, when we’re having those conversations, you’re never going, ‘let’s dress a smaller lineup tonight,’” DeBoer said with a laugh. He went on to say however, that “if it’s between two guys, size does come into play, for sure.”
DeBoer acknowledged today that the heavier workload on his top defensemen is a little worrying.
Thomas Harley played 28 minutes against Columbus the other night, with no other defenseman even reaching 20 minutes. Lindell finished with 19:27, his eighth-lowest minutes in a game this season.
“I’m not as worried about Thomas Harley. I think he’s a young guy, you know, we didn’t overuse him early in the year,” DeBoer said. “He plays, but he wasn’t playing 27, 28, 29 minutes a night [early in the season]. Esa, I think we’ve tried to manage his ice a little bit. I’m a little more concerned about him, just because of the hard minutes he has to play. The physicality, shutdown, the penalty-killing….they’re harder minutes on him, so that’s why we’ve got [Matt] Dumba on the power play. We’re trying to take some of those minutes off [Lindell’s] plate.”One other note: the Stars are 3-7-0 in games where Lindell plays under 20 minutes. Chicken/egg that one away, folks.
As DeBoer acknowledged, Matt Dumba drew in on the power play the other night, but it doesn’t like it’s all that big of a deal in DeBoer’s eyes.
”Are we drawing up our power play around Matt Dumba’s shot? No. I think Matt Dumba’s got a good shot, but he’s not Alex Ovechkin. I think if he has the opportunity to shoot the puck up there, we want him to shoot it.”
After talking further about the nature of having the right-shooting Dumba at the point, DeBoer said this: “Bottom line, Thomas Harley is probably gonna play a minute-and-a-half of every power play. So [Dumba’s power play time] is gonna be mop-up duty. “
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but an honest one all the same.How does DeBoer handle player’s egos when it comes to moving guys around (or off) the power play, or changing roles? He said it’s pretty simple.
“I think that’s all leadership. When your captain has the smallest ego in the room, it’s tough to not follow and get in line behind that. I think that’s a great advantage we have, as far as guys accepting roles.”
Jamie Benn may not be the most talkative person on the team, but there’s a reason he’s been the Stars’ captain for over a decade, now.Penultimately, DeBoer gave another update on Lian Bichsel, who skated today in Frisco.
”Bichsel still out. Skating, getting better. Still in protocol, so I would call him ‘day-to-day’ now.”
We talked about how Bichsel’s timeline works earlier this week, so check out that piece below (or just skip to the TL;DR dection toward the top, if you want). But right now, if he has no setbacks, I could see Bichsel drawing in to play on Tuesday, against New Jersey. If today was his first time skating, then that would put him around step three of the six-step protocol.When Can Lian Bichsel Return: I Read the NHL Concussion Protocol So You Don't Have To
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Yesterday, Sean Shapiro (and later Pete DeBoer) confirmed that Lian Bichsel is in concussion protocol after being hit in the head by Casey Cizikas.
But of course, the Stars are not going to rush Bichsel back if they have any reason at all to be extra cautious.
Finally finally, Drew Doughty is going to play tonight. The veteran defenseman played two games after Four Nations last week, but he missed the game against Vancouver the other night with a lower-body injury.
Doughty acknowledged that he’s probably going to be playing hurt all year at this point, which is tough to hear. Doughty broke his ankle in a preseason game against Vegas, and he just returned to action at the end of January before playing in the Four Nations Face-Off.The Kings are going with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen again tonight, so they’ll at least have some insurance, should Doughty need it.
By the way, I’ll be covering the game a little bit differently tonight, so post-game AfterThoughts won’t be up for a while afterward. It will make sense when you read it. (Or it won’t. But either way, tough cookies.)
"Tough cookies." Such language! Is that any way to talk to a valued paid subscriber?? :D
RE: Bishcel, I can see Stars management playing safe and holding him out against NJ just to ensure he's getting as healed" as possible. Better to have him in May than play a Tuesday game in March.