Game 12 AfterThoughts: Dominance, or Something Like It
In the postgame presser tonight, my colleague Sam Nestler asked Pete DeBoer whether it’s even possible for a team to dominate a game for a full 60 minutes in today’s NHL. After pausing for a moment, DeBoer said, no, it probably isn’t. Teams are all so good these days that, even if they’re at the bottom of the league, there’s just always going to be a push of some kind.
Tonight, Chicago had a couple of pushes. One came in a flurry in the second period, when Jake Oettinger saved four shots in quick succession, including a really clean push across to attempt a poke check on what should have been an A+ chance by Chicago. It led to a standing ovation by the Dallas crowd, and it was well-earned.
And the second push came in, well, a good portion of the third period, which culminated in a couple of other great Oettinger stops, as well as an unfortunate goal allowed on the penalty kill to Tyler Bertuzzi, who was unmarked on Oettinger’s doorstep. It wasn’t perfection, not by a long shot. But it might have been dominant, all the same.
It’s just that dominance doesn’t look that embarrassing anymore, unless you look under the hood a bit. Take, for instance, how Jamie Benn went 16-for-16 on the faceoff dot, or how Roope Hintz himself went 12-for-14. Or take how the Benn-Johnston-Stankoven line controlled play relentlessly, despite only getting a goal when Chicago finally pulled Arvid Soderblom (who was very good, it must be said).
Or, most of all, you could take Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene, who seem to have forgotten that their line is supposed to sag when one of their trio goes down with injury, as Mason Marchment did after getting punched a few times by Nate Schmidt in Finland. Dominance doesn’t mean they scored five goals, but it does mean they scored two, including one by Sam Steel. And make no mistake: Steel wasn’t riding any coattails. He’s been one of the most underrated (if that word means anything anymore) finds of Nill’s tenure in recent years, both for his ability to scale up the lineup and to never limit his game when doing so. He’s about as perfect a bottom-six player as there is in DeBoer’s system, even moreso than Evgenii Dadonov.
Sam Steel's opening goal got … an unexpected assist #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/o8om095Px1
— Stars On Victory+ (@StarsOnVictory) November 8, 2024
It was really reassuring to see Tyler Seguin looking like he hasn’t missed a beat, too. After sitting out the second game in Tampere due to a soreness situation DeBoer says they’ll be managing all season, you’d be forgiven if you were expecting Seguin to look a little tentative in this one. Instead, he looked anything but, as he capitalized on a great Nils Lundkvist rush (that drew a delayed penalty) and an excellent Sam Steel stuff attempt before doing what snipers do: scoring, and winking at their buds.
Tyler Seguin's shot accuracy is rated right now.@DallasStars | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/2KUh15eazM
— Stars On Victory+ (@StarsOnVictory) November 8, 2024
I mentioned this on the postgame podcast with Gavin tonight, but I really don’t think Lundkvist’s healthy scratch in Finland is anything to worry about. He really has been doing everything the coaches have asked of him, more or less. It’s just that the contracts and the handedness don’t work to his advantage when Harley and Heiskanen get paired together, as the team then has three righties and only two pairings to put them on. And when the other two right-handed defensemen are veterans with multi-year contracts who play on the penalty kill, you’re going to be waiting a lot more than 10 games before you’re taking either of their lineup spots. Maybe Lundkvist gets scratched again if the Stars try to pair their two best defensemen together, and them’s the breaks. For Dallas, it’s far more important that they get those two defensemen going than it is for Lundkvist to play every night. It’s not fair, but that’s the world we live in. Many things happen that aren’t fair, aren’t right, aren’t even palatable. But all we can control is what we do and the attitude we take, and you have to give Lundkvist credit: he’s had an amazing attitude all year, before and after the scratch. If he doesn’t end up earning DeBoer’s trust this year, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying to.
Esa Lindell also had a great play to save Jason Robertson’s bacon, when Robertson got a bit too ambitious walking the blue line an trying to curl down into the slot, only for his pocket to get picked and Connor Bedard to find himself with an apparent breakaway. Only, Lindell was able to catch Bedard with a stick check and foil the chance. It was a great example of how Lindell defies categorization, or at least the reductive sort. He’s got a lot of little tools in his pocketknife, like the deluxe version that won’t fit in your pocket, but you always know where it is. Also, the tweezers went missing a while ago, but that’s fine because they were probably gross anyway. All the other parts of it work great, when they need to.
It was crucial to break the two-game skid (such as it was) before facing Winnipeg, who look as unstoppable as a team can look these days. Obviously a win would be a massive stroke of encouragement for the Stars after their showing in Finland, but to flail against Chicago and then to lose against Winnipeg could have really sent the season spinning. Instead, they can probably handle whatever happens on Saturday and keep their momentum going. This team is more resilient than they probably get credit for, just because they haven’t needed to get credit yet. Being 8-4-0 is a start I think any coach would take to the season. It’s akin to a 55-27-0 start, just for reference. And while the Stars’ schedule hasn’t been brutal, they can only play the games they have. So far, they’re doing just fine, if not always dominant.
Marchment skated in Frisco this morning, but he never participated in practice this week. I’d be surprised if he went on the trip with the team, but also, I don’t know anything more than you do. Maybe I am just easily surprised.
One other thing on Sam Steel’s goal: the camera well’s cover had gotten loose, and it lay on the ice right before the puck bumped into it, slowing down nicely for Steel to collect it. I suppose there’s a world in which someone tries to use replay to do something about that, but I can’t muster up the energy to care. Them is the breaks, my friends.
When Seguin scored, he not only winked, but he also turned away from the goal with something like disdain. That’s a good sign, I think, for a player with six goals in the Stars’ 12 games, not all of which he’s even played in. That pace, combined with Seguin’s dominance alongside Duchene (who has been otherworldly, it must be said) makes me wonderful if his response to his goal is a bit of a parallel how Oettinger is wont to flip the puck back out of his glove after a slick save. Sort of a, “Yeah, I know I can do things, whatever, ho hum, so what if I’m amazing, big deal.” Confidence is important, I am told.
Wyatt Johnston is close, I think. DeBoer said as much the other day after practice, but I really thought Steel had set him up for a goal at the end of the first period, only for Soderblom to find it. Gavin mentioned on the show tonight that Johnston didn’t really get his scoring roaring until January of last season, so maybe it’s just a matter of time. Also, Jason Robertson. Also, Roope Hintz. Maybe these top-scoring players just need to keep doing their thing, and no major adjustments are required. If the Stars keep winning two of every three games, they can enjoy the luxury of that attitude, and why shouldn’t they? I wouldn’t want someone bugging me at my job, telling me to do better if I knew I would end up doing just fine when all was said and done. What a drag it would be, for someone to have a problem with the way I do my job. Thank goodness I haven’t experienced that, though. Seems like it would be a real drag.
Final words tonight: look to the power play. When the power play gets rolling, I really think it will cure a lot of the other ills along with it. Or, it won’t.
Look for the new Spits and Suds podcast I just recorded after this game at this link, whenever it gets uploaded. And tomorrow (Friday), keep an eye out for my latest piece in D Magazine. I quite like that publication, you know. Hopefully you feel the same way. If not, don’t tell me. Nobody likes a bummer.