Game 1 AfterThoughts: From Your First Cigarette to Your Last Dyin' Day

Are you ready for 81 more of these?

The Stars are 1-0 after opening the season with a tough road matchup against the team with the best record in the NHL last year. That’s a great result—the best one possible!—but probably, you don’t feel entirely like celebrating.

Now, the goal of every game is to win. The Stars did that! So this game is a success on the most important level, particularly for a new coach. But this was also one of those wins that had Lessons To Be Learned From It.

I would imagine that most video coaches are well aware that the more interesting their job becomes, the more annoyed the players will be at the next film session. Coaches love boring games, and players love not having to watch their mistakes over again. But if there’s any consolation in letting a 5-1 lead metastasize into a 5-4 nail-biter, it’s that this one had a pretty clear narrative arc to it.

In the first period, the Stars got up 2-1 after a couple of great plays from Rantanen’s line and Rantanen himself. Kyle Connor victimized the Stars with a counterpunch off the rush with Miro Heiskanen racing back to get into position. Probably, the Jets should have been at least tied, and they hit a post on the power play just before Lundkvist’s goal to grab the lead back.

In the second period, Winnipeg rang a second post during another of what wound up being two more fruitless power plays, but the Stars came on strong to end the second period, drawing power plays of their own after a couple of calls the Jets did not like one bit.

In the third period, Dallas finally cashed in right as the 5-on-3 expired with another Rantanen feed that Robertson stuffed home, and that seemed to deflate the Jets entirely. Duchene found Seguin with a highlight-reel spin-and-pass play just moments later to make it 4-1, and Wyatt Johnston added another one a minute or two later with traffic in front to turn a tight division contest into an apparent cookie night.

And it was a cookie night after that—just not for the Stars. Because it turns out that the only way to inject energy into a lifeless crowd watching the home side lose 5-1 to the team that eliminated them in the spring is to let them score a shorthanded goal. And if you’re not sure one shorthanded goal will be sufficient to the task, why not add a second one, just in case?

The Stars got caught hunting a bit too hungrily to burst the points piñata, but this game called for a more surgical draining of its lifeblood. I’d imagine that’s where Gulutzan’s postgame talks to the players were pointed: Yes, you’re hot stuff, way to go lighting up Hellebuyck, but guess what? That team is pretty good, too. At a certain point, you need to swap out your complicated shirt from Dan Flashes for some work boots and a mop.

The 5-4 goal is where you really started to fear the worst for the Stars, as Miro Heiskanen—one of the most poised and gifted skaters I have ever seen—fell down as he turned, surely catching a rut in the ice. And that left Kyle Connor, who scores a lot of goals and is extremely good, a red carpet to walk down and shoot from, and he did. 5-4.

I joked after the second shorthanded goal moments earlier that Dallas probably needed to take a penalty just to settle things down, but it turns out Alain Nasreddine has no time for jokes, and that’s exactly what happened. Thomas Harley got tagged for delay of game on a mid-air whack of the puck that I still am not 100% certain I’ve seen clearly, but but the Stars’ PK was nails, as it had been all game, and Dallas avoided a very ugly blown lead on the first day of Glen Gulutzan’s second tour of duty in Dallas.

Now, instead of having to explain why this wasn’t really a concerning loss or overtime win or whatever, the Stars can simply chuckle nervously at a close shave and hop on the plane with the two points. That’s a much more pleasant Thursday for everyone involved. Plenty of time to watch video tomorrow.

---

After the game, Gulutzan reiterated what he’d said pregame:

“Nothing mimics the first round of the playoffs more, in my opinion, than the first five or six games of the season. Everybody’s juiced up, there’s a lot of energy in the building […] and the games can get a little crazy. That’s what happened tonight. It’s a good lesson for us.”

Gulutzan also referred to the three basically breakaways that the Stars allowed, and yeah, that’s pretty much the exact opposite of his preseason emphasis on reducing odd-man rushes. A breakaway is 1-0, and what’s odder than that? Probably nothing, by definition! (If you know about math, don’t tell me.)

This game was all kinds of odd, in every sense. I’m sure there were some folks talking about The Goalie as the lead started melting away, and sure, you’d like Oettinger to have at least one of the Connor rush chances or the Morgan Barron shorthanded foray. But the bottom line is that Oettinger found a way to beat Connor Hellebuyck, and that’s the most important thing, and perhaps the only thing! Nobody was critiquing Stuart Skinner when he was silencing Stars shooters in the third round, as I recall.

So, that’s the most obvious takeaway from this game: The Stars capitalized on early chances with Winnipeg looking dangerous, then they grabbed hold of the game halfway through and drop-kicked it into laughingstock territory, only to decide that hey, tortoises are like so slow, why not take a bit of a nap on this power play before finishing the race. What could happen, right?

I’m starting to suspect that the oldest lessons persist in our cultural consciousness for a reason. We’ll get to the fun stuff in a moment.

Unexplained Soundtrack of the Game (USotG)

Explanation: I said it’s unexplained. What did you expect?

Lines

The Stars began with this lineup:

Steel-Hintz-Rantanen
Blackwell-Duchene-Seguin
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Hryckowian-Faksa-Bastian

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Lyubushkin

Oettinger in goal

They did not finish with this lineup, not by a long shot! Here’s a crazy chart you sickos can read to prove just how mixed-up things got.

Read into that if you want, but my main takeaway is that Gulutzan was serious about searching for combinations that worked. After the game, he said he found some combos that did work, but that he also wants to avoid over-mixing things, too. The rash of penalties obviously didn’t help either, so we’ll see how they start in Colorado before jumping to conclusions.

---

The Jets countered with this lineup:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Nyquist-Toews-Chibrikov
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Iafallo
Pearson-Barron-Koepke

Morrissey-DeMelo
Fleury-Pionk
Stanley-Schenn

Hellebuyck

Like the Stars, the Jets began the season without their captain, as Adam Lowry is out for a few weeks. With Cole Perfetti and Dylan Samberg also banged up, the Jets weren’t exactly icing their ideal lineup to begin the year.

AfterThoughts

• Jonathan Toews looked like an NHL player in this one, playing 18 minutes or so and probably wishing he hadn’t missed the net on a Grade-A chance from the left side earlier on. But the details are really secondary for him, as just being able to hack in in the NHL after all of the health battles he’s fought is a victory all its own, for him. The Stars are getting used to seeing these comeback stories by now, and Miro Heiskanen seemed a tad sick of them as the game went on.
  

• Mikko Rantanen’s puck protection on the Stars’ first goal was unreal. He is so big, and so strong. He puts in a ton of work off the rink, and you can see it paying off in sequences like this, when nobody can make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. Both teams got full value out of their respective $12 million players tonight.

• On the Jets’ first goal, Heiskanen did well to get back at all, but he and Harley got crossed up back in the zone, and Heiskanen couldn’t quite seal the ice before Scheifele got it over to Connor on the far side. Oettinger pushed over desperately, and if he’d known Connor would fan on the first attempt, he probably could have stayed bigger. Instead, he sprawled, then fell, and Connor’s second effort was put in a perfect spot: top corner.

• It was crucial for the Stars to get something out of that 5-on-3 set, and Rantanen’s easy-does-it feed to Robertson in front is very pleasant to watch.

• How about the Stars’ hackles being up in this one? Roope Hintz took a roughing penalty for clocking Vilardi after Oettinger suffered an extra whack after a whistle, and he was far from the only one to mix it up with the Jets. Maybe it’s just how the game went, but everyone from Lian Bichsel to Mikko Rantanen and even Justin Hryckowian was getting into it, big time. But of course, Rantanen’s antics with Neal Pionk were the most entertaining, with Rantanen exacting revenge for a couple of cross checks with one or two shots of his own. I am beginning to understand the “Moose” moniker Rantanen earned, as he just casually tossed guys aside like so much detritus.
  

• Rantanen’s pass to Nils Lundkvist was sumptuous, and the goal was equal to the setup. Lundkvist’s shot went far side past a screen, which was eerily similar to how Thomas Harley scored his overtime goal in Game 6. Great moment for Lundkvist, who hadn’t scored in over a year. But an equally good moment for him came late in the second, when he set up Tyler Seguin by doing some good ol’ fashioned hard work. Gumption, sticktoitiveness, or what have you: This is gettin’ the job done.
  

• As ever, I’m duty-bound to remind you that Jake Oettinger made some excellent saves before the goals went in. His stop on Niederreiter on the delayed Lyubushkin penalty was top-drawer, and his work through the first two periods might be the only reason the Stars were able to amass a lead to (almost) blow. Again, he wasn’t excellent, but for a weird, scrambly game where momentum swung wildly from one direction to the other, he did enough. For Game 1, that’s probably all you need to worry about.

• That Matt Duchene to Tyler Seguin goal was just plain fun.
  

• Wyatt Johnston found his way up to their left wing after Sam Steel and Colin Blackwell got re-assigned later in the game, but even before those three started having a laugh at Winnipeg’s expense, the Duchene-to-Seguin connection (with Mavrik Bourque driving the net) was a great way to kick off the season. Perhaps especially so because I keep running across people talking about Tyler Seguin’s contract like it’s an albatross, which is absurd. He is healthy, and he is dangerous. And Matt Duchene makes him even moreso. That’s a very good thing for the Stars, full stop.

• Another good thing for the Stars was Jason Robertson, who was his usual deadly self tonight, with eight shots on goal, as well as a goal and an assist. Robertson was feisty, creative, and flexible, looking good on Johnston’s line in the first period before the shuffling, and looking good after. Robertson and Rantanen were the Stars’ two best players in this one by a country mile, which I presume is like, 1,800 metres or something.

• Special Teams were pretty much the difference, as it turned out. Check out how much action Dallas got to the doorstep on the power play, compared to Winnipeg. (And note how few of Winnipeg’s power play shots actually hit the net.)

  

  Power play chances

• Now, here’s the fun fact buried in the shorthanded goal-a-palooza: Winnipeg actually generated better looks while shorthanded than they did on the power play, both in expected and (as you know) actual goals.

  

  Shorthanded chances

  To my eyes, the shorthanded goals were pretty simple breakdowns: on the Jets’ second goal, Rantanen creeps into the low slot and Duchene tries to hit him, but Barron perfectly deflects it away, and he’s off. Not the best pass or positioning from either Stars player involved there, with a 5-1 lead. Cookie night mentality, as we said.

  

  And on the second goal, a Heiskanen shot bounces off someone down low and back up toward the boards. Heiskanen tries to whack it back down low rather than backing off, and he gets beaten, as Scheifele chips it off the boards and banks it to Connor, who is rushing up the guts of the ice with Hintz on the weak side.

  

  

  Hintz actually does keep up with Connor, who has to swing out for the puck, but the problem is how Oettinger, who makes the first stop, only for the puck to trickle away to his left, where Connor finds and buries it.

  

  

  The shot slightly handcuffed Oettinger, but overall, you just can’t give up that chance after you’ve already surrendered a shorthanded goal.

• All the folderol culminated in a frantic penalty kill and a 6-on-5 situation late, where they finally bowed up after the Jets had all the momentum in the country and held on. But two little plays stuck out in the final 20 seconds or so, and both of them were made by the same person. The forward who played the most minutes out of any Stars forward, as he often did under DeBoer: Wyatt Johston.
  
  First, look at Johnston, tied up and on one knee, staying locked into the play and cutting off a pass in order to bump it to Blackwell for a clearance. Massive, massive play here.

  And finally, you surely remember the final clear of the game, right? Johnston was somehow balancing on one skate, twisting around in a flurry of action at the net front, but he finds and flings the puck away from the Danger Zone like he’s mopping the floor after a busy night at Torchy’s:

  I mean, look at this, and tell me you could copy this under no pressure whatsoever without absolutely winding up on your face. I certainly could not tell you that.

  

  Perhaps it’s fitting that on a night with so many frantic swings in both directions, the Stars were still saved by the young player whose arrival has coincided with every bit of success they’ve had since 2022. And perhaps this will be far from the last time we talk about how he made a big play at the end of the game. And by “perhaps,” I mean “duh.” (Technical term.)