Game 11 AfterThoughts: Just Deserts
Tyler Seguin has played 1,000 NHL games in his career
Before talking about this game, it’s worth taking another moment to appreciate Tyler Seguin, who played his 1,000th NHL game tonight.
You know all the stories about injuries and maturity and fitting in with the team’s culture. But something else about Seguin that always strikes me is how he is able to stay locked in as a player while also being entirely himself, on and off the ice. He really is the same guy, more or less, no matter what.
And with Seguin being here for the entirety of Jamie Benn’s captaincy, that’s something that must have been incredibly important for countless players, including Benn himself. To see the stoic, fierce Benn alongside the skilled, irrepressible Seguin, and to see both of them appreciating and even enjoying how the other goes about their business? I think that does a whole lot for a lot of people the first time they walk into that room. It’s nice to know there is more than one way of doing something as difficult as playing NHL hockey.
Remember, in the early 2010s, Jonathan Toews was winning championships with the moniker Captain Serious. So when Seguin found himself being traded away from the team he won a Cup with due to perceptions about his approach to the game, he could have made a hard pivot to shut down, to be more boring, and to try to fit into the existing norms of hockey culture rather than bring his full self.
But he hasn’t done that. Instead, he came in completely himself, and while it wasn’t without a bump in the road here or there, I think it’s been a gift for Benn and the entire organization to have Seguin become so embedded within the fabric of the Dallas Stars for these many years.
Something about watching Seguin become the leader he is today just means more than any single season, highlight, or All-Star selection can. By simply Being Tyler Seguin on the Dallas Stars—for well over a decade now—he’s proven over and over again just how wrong the Bruins were about what was plaguing their culture back in 2013. (Sometimes the call is coming from inside the house.)
Jim Nill clearly didn’t need to see Seguin play a thousand games to know that, but I’d imagine getting to do so is a pretty nice bit of confirmation.
Okay, there was also a hockey game tonight.
The Stars spent the first period getting completely overrun by Tampa’s breakout. Tampa was getting speed through the neutral zone and forcing Stars’ defensemen to back off, which created room in the offensive zone above the circles for dangerous passes and more-dangerous shots.
Here are the first period shots for each team:
But to the Stars’ credit, they sorted it out a bit more in the second period, backing into a slightly safer structure against Tampa’s speedy breakout. That reduced Dallas’s offensive potency a bit, however, as they themselves only had one shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the middle frame (by Kyle Capobianco).
Overall though, that steadying of the ship in the first intermission was crucial in getting the Stars a point out of a game they probably didn’t deserve to be rewarded for. But when you’re shorthanded and playing a recent Cup champion on the road, I figure you take whatever points you can get.
The main goal is to keep things close and strike when opportunities present themselves. Like on special teams, for instance.
Tampa Bay was 1-for-19 on the power play coming into the game, so you knew it was gonna happen, right? And the way it happened was that the bill for those two goals Miro Heiskanen scored off Carolina players last week finally came due:
The referees pointed “goal,” then waved off the goal, despite the spotlight popping. And before the review, they announced that the call on the ice was “no goal.” So when the video review determined that the puck had, indeed, crossed the line, I was surprised to see a look that appeared far from definitive, as this was:
Computer, ENHANCE:
Okay, well, that didn’t really help. But I’m going to trust that the Rumpus Room in Toronto has a vested interest in getting these right, so we’ll assume they have better tools for geometric calibration on hand than I do. Because if it’s not conclusive, then the call on the ice should stand—no goal. So it obviously was conclusive, for somebody. (At least, that’s my conclusion.)
But hey, given the fortunate bounces the Stars (and Heiskanen in particular) have been getting in recent games, you kinda figured one was bound to go against them (and Heiskanen in particular) before too much longer, right?
Speaking of fortunate bounces, the Stars got two more posts in their favor early in the third, and that was enough room for the fourth line (or a cobbled together version of it, since the Stars were going 11/7 tonight) to strike.
Adam Erne tipped an Alex Petrovic point shot into the net for his first NHL goal in nearly two years.
That’s a really cool moment for Erne, who again, had the same hip surgery as Seguin on the same day of last December. And it ended up being the Stars’ only goal of the game, so yeah—pretty big, for reasons both hockey-related and perhaps more than that.
Both teams had power plays in the third period with chances to win it as well, but Dallas got a premium one after this high-sticking call on Seguin to put Dallas on a 5-on-3, which you can imagine Tampa Bay didn’t love.
Is this karma for the phantom high-sticking call against Ilya Lyubushkin a few games back? I hear these things even out.
Anyway, the Stars didn’t score on their chances, and neither did the Lightning on their final power play, which came right after the Stars failed to score on theirs. Overtime was probably what both teams deserved, really.
It didn’t have to get that far, though. Because there were two nearly identical Grade-A scoring chances in the first period, one for each team. And this was the point when we should have realized that neither squad was going to be racking up goals in this one.
First, Jake Oettinger had to come up with a big blocker save on Cirelli after stopping a wraparound chance from Hagel:
And shortly thereafter, Adam Erne tried a wraparound of his own, which set up Alex Petrovic to also get denied by Vasilevskiy:
I suppose you could do worse than to steal from Tampa’s playbook, all things considered. Now they have a chance to go copy the Panthers—it’s what they’re trying to do in the context of the season, anyhow.
Esoteric Song of the Game
Lineups
Without 12 healthy forwards, the Stars once again went with an 11F/7D lineup:
Steel-Seguin-Rantanen
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Erne-Hryckowian-Blackwell
Faksa-Bastian
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Petrovic
Capobianco
Oettinger in goal
Tampa Bay went with an 11/7 format as well:
Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli
Bjorkstrand-James-Goncalves
Holmberg-Gourde-Girgensons
Hedman-Moser
McDonagh-Cernak
D’Astous-Lilleberg
Raddysh
Vasilevskiy
AfterThoughts
To honor Tyler Seguin before the game, the team went completley helmet-less in warmups, as well as arriving to the rink in matching shirts and wearing some fake tattoo sleeves. It was a fun time.
The Stars made a trade this morning, moving Christian Kyrou to Philadelphia in exchange for forward Samu Tuomaala. It’s a move that should help Texas, who need scoring help up front, as Tuomaala can put the puck in the net. One thing about Texas is that they have a few first-year AHLers, and that comes with a huge adjustment. Getting a more experienced AHLer who can help on the power play and so forth will be a boon, whether he ever plays in the NHL or not.
As for Kyrou, the writing was kind of on the wall as his playing time started slipping away last season. This was a Hockey Trade, with both teams admitting that a second-rounder didn’t quite work out and giving them a change of scenery. In a perfect world, it works out for all concerned.
Heiskanen has been QBing the league’s 3rd-best power play to start the season, but at 5-on-3, I really do think Harley’s outstanding shot is a better fit than Heiskanen’s. I know teams don’t treat power play QBs that way, but it’s something that makes a lot of sense to me, given how much more crucial the point shot is on a 5-on-3, when the defenders are all collapsing to the net.
That said, Harley had another giveaway in this one after not quite being able to escape from pressure. Then again, he also made a nice play to lose his man in overtime. Tough night for Dallas as a whole, but you can’t be upset about any particular mistake, given they got a point despite being the second-best team on the ice.
Wyatt Johnston got the first scoring chance of the game after intercepting a poor Hedman breakout pass, but Johnston’s stick broke, and it went for naught. Sometimes the game lets you know what sort of night it’s going to be right off the hop.
The Lightning ramped up the pressure from there in the first, as Kucherov & Co. generated multiple great chances on an extended bit of dominance that would have resulted in a goal if not for Jake Oettinger on the initial chances, and Ilya Lyubushkin saving his goalie’s bacon by shoveling away a puck in front of the netmouth at the last possible second. The first few minutes of this game felt a lot like 2020, in that sense. And hey, that Cup Final Stars team was also fairly beaten up and shorthanded, too.
The Stars did get chances as the period went along, though. Esa Lindell got a plump rebound 12 feet out, but he tried to slide it back door rather than firing it, which Darren Pang chastised him for on the broadcast, shortly before Gulutzan not-so-subtly did the same during a bench interview with Jackie Redmond, talking about how his team needed to put more pucks on net. He wasn’t wrong.
This play was perhaps a sign that Tampa wasn’t going to get any easy goals, as the post came to Oettinger’s aid with him sprawled in front. It was a hectic first period.
Oettinger made a big, big save on Point early in the second after a really nice pass to send the forward in. Tampa would have been livid if they’d lost this game, right? I’d imagine they already were livid even before this game, given the fact they came into the night at .500. (The Stars remember what that was like.)
The third period started with Tampa Bay hitting another post off a 2-on-1 look, followed by Robertson getting robbed by Vasilevskiy on his own 2-on-1 look, followed by Kucherov hitting the crossbar with a scorching shot over Oettinger’s shoulder. But we’ll just look at the one Stars chance here, given how few of those there were, and hey, at least Robertson puts the puck on net, right? Good choice, too, given he’s on his off-wing with a good angle. That’s the chance you’d want to take, if you’re Dallas.
Oettinger made a whole lot of quietly great saves in this game, including this one on the power play (Tampa’s, I mean), where he somehow squeezed his pads while sliding across, never letting the puck slip out. Technically masterful stuff, this.
For Oettinger even to get this game to overtime is nothing short of outstanding. And unlike the Colorado game early in the year, this wasn’t filled with spectacular glove robbery, but rather all the things that make Oettinger so good: Great balance, smart positioning, and excellent puck-tracking. If you go in for expected goals, then Natural Stat Trick had Tampa with just shy of 5 xGF. Pretty remarkable. (A few posts never hurt, either.)
Justin Hryckowian played on the penalty kill in this one, which is either a testament to how much Alain Nasreddine trusts him or how shorthanded the Stars’ forwards are. Either way, he didn’t look out of place doing it, and isn’t that what matters?
Mikko Rantanen did do everything he could to get back to stop the breakaway after probably taking a bit of a hook on his hands to lose the puck in overtime. But them’s the breaks. One team scored a power play goal in this one, and the other didn’t. Still, you have to give Rantanen credit for not giving up on the play.
Wyatt Johnston led the team (including defensemen) in ice time tonight, with 26:49. That’s not sustainable, but you gotta figure something out when you’re as short on bodies as Dallas is right now. Credit to Johnston for going over the boards as often as he did—but he looked pretty weary at times in the latter part of this one. We’ll see what the Stars do against Florida on Saturday. That team can make you a whole different kind of weary.
Finally, Tyler Seguin’s 1,000 Games ceremony will take place before the Stars play the Panthers in Dallas on December 13. I’d imagine it will be a good time.
Not too bothered with this one. The Stars are severely undermanned right now and sooner or later it catches up to you. They still got a point on the road against what should be a very good NHL team (although they are off to a very slow start). They need to get Roope and Dutch back ASAP.
Frustrating to see injuries hold this team back yet another season