Game 15 AfterThoughts: Lucky Number Sevens

First off, allow me to plug my appearance on the postgame Spits and Suds podcast tonight. It’s always a fun one to do with Gavin, and moreso when the Stars score seven goals.

Second, because of said podcast (and various other postgame conversations), I’m writing this a bit later than normal. So let’s get into things in no particular order.

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If the Stars had set out to purposefully confuse their fanbase, they couldn’t really have done a better job en route to a 10-5-0 record.

They’ve had three big “measuring stick” games so far: two in Finland, and one in Winnipeg, and they’ve failed all of them. The power play has looked frightfully ineffective many nights, and three of their best forwards have had too many quiet nights. Their presumptive top-pairing defenseman has been scratched twice in a row with no assurance that streak won’t reach three in Minnesota, and the other exciting rookie who tore up the AHL last year is likewise fighting for lineup time.

On the flip side, they’re getting excellent scoring from a rookie (Logan Stankoven), and they’re seeing monumental resurgence from Tyler Seguin, Matt Duchene, and Mason Marchment. Jake Oettinger looks like a goalie proving everything you can prove in all but two games so far, and some of the defensemen have been even steadier than expected, in particular Ilya Lyubushkin and Nils Lundkvist. And heck, Brendan Smith scored another point tonight, so who knows if his offensive onslaught can ever be stopped?

Evgenii Dadonov is the perfect example of how confusing Dallas has been so far this year. He’s a player who I’ve seen draw some mild ire from fans who think he’s taking a lineup spot that would be better given to younger players, but he’s also scored the same amount of points as Wyatt Johnston, and the same number of goals as Mason “Wayne Gretzky” Marchment, Jason Robertson, and Jamie Benn. He’s a player who seems to get tons of breakaways with too rare results, but who also is an 80% finisher in penalty shots. He’s not a common sort of player in a lot of respects, but there’s no denying that, from his first arrival a couple of years back to now, he’s often scored timely goals for Dallas, no matter what line he’s playing on.

So, right now, the Stars are scoring enough timely goals to have won two of every three games, no matter who’s been doing (or not doing) the scoring. And that’s okay.

In contrast, look at Boston. Since being humbled by the Stars in October, the Bruins had bounced back from the precipice of drama and losing to do, well, sort of what the Stars have been doing lately. Pete DeBoer mentioned that the team has sort of been in a “one step forward, one step back” mode lately, and the Bruins have certainly qualified for a similar label. Coming into the game, Boston had gone 5-3-1 since their last matchup with Dallas. It’s not exactly world-beating stuff, but given where the Bruins have been this year, they’ll take “just above .500” until more of the gears start clicking into place.

Well, the clicking into place did end up happening in this game, but it was more of a click of the lock on a closing door than functioning gears on a vehicle. The Bruins hung in the game for the first half of things, but after Jake Oettinger made some huge saves on Brad Marchand late in the first, Dallas never really gave them a sniff at the game again.

Last week, it felt like the Stars had managed to win some games but never really looked “dominant” in any of their contests. But after kicking extra points in two straight games, I think it’s fair to say the Stars have managed to exhibit some dominance.

You can write it off if you want, of course. Just like with Dadonov doubters, you could say penalty shots aren’t indicative of a scoring resurrection, or that Jeremy Swayman was having a bad night, so these goals aren’t an indication of future success. If you prefer the cold security of pessimism to the warm cliffs of hope, you can sulk as much as you like.

But Jim Montgomery (and Nikita Zadorov) said after this game that the Bruins just haven’t been able to string wins together, and you can sense the frustration in Boston. The Stars, for all of their hiccups and letdowns in big games lately, have managed to do the necessary work, even if the dog keeps eating their extra credit. And when it comes to finding your sea legs at the start of the season, that’s perfectly fine. At the start of the season, at least. It’s perfectly fine.

Jamie Benn’s hit on Brandon Carlo wasn’t perfectly fine, as Zadorov communicated to him shortly afterwards (in a fight Benn pretty solidly lost, understandably). My read of the hit was that Carlo pulled up well short of the boards in an effort to put Benn off balance, only for Benn to almost instinctively throw a hip into him, sending Carlo flying face-first into the boards.

Thankfully, Carlo would return to the game. And also thankfully, the officials would review the initial major penalty call and determine that this was not a flagrant foul, so to speak. In looking back at the hit, it really does seem about right. That was a nasty collision, and probably it’s good to just never ever hit guys in that no-man’s land close to the boards, but there were mistakes on both sides, and a downgrade to a mere minor felt justified.

Benn would use his big body elsewhere in screening Jeremy Swayman while Logan Stankoven picked up a rebound and stashed another goal. He’s contining to battle for the rookie scoring lead with Matvei Michkov in Philadelphia, and that’s a lot of fun, but don’t discount Benn’s hard work on that shift both collecting the puck earlier to sustain the possession, and to get to the net and perfectly screen Swayman.

Also, don’t discount the fourth line, as they created two goals in this one. The first one was Oskar Bäck’s first NHL goal, and how cool was it that his own stick-check to disrupt the puck on the breakout would lead to his first NHL goal? The goal, in fact, also utilized an appropriately defensive maneuver in what Bäck called after the game a “PK poke check,” which ended up being a one-handed, bar-down masterpiece in a two-point night. It’s always cool to see players who have worked hard for so long get moments like that. They never forget them.

The other fourth-line goal was Dadonov’s second, which came off a brilliant pass by Sam Steel, who reminded us that those two players were originally slated to be fourth-line linemates, only for Dadonov to be more urgently needed elsewhere in the lineup. It’s a testament to the Stars’ depth that these two players can play anywhere, but that they can connect for a goal like that one out of nowhere. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of those same fourth-liners (and also Dadonov) were given power-play time toward the end of the game. Yes, there’s some class involved in not running up the score at 7-2 with only a couple minutes remaining, but it was also a reward for what they had done. Coaches like to reward players when they deserve it. Who doesn’t like giving good things to people when they work hard, and especially when they score goals? I mean, fans give away their own personal hats just to thank a player for scoring three goals. We’re a generous sort, hockey fans.

Speaking of the goals, which of the following reasons do you think Jeremy Swayman was left in the net for despite getting repeatedly lit up in this one?
a) To punish him for underperforming after signing a huge contract
b) To save him the embarrassment of getting pulled against an opposing USA goalie
c) To fix the culture of mediocrity the Bruins are in danger of channelling

Matt Duchene had a rare slip-up—literally, he slipped and fell in his own zone —but if that line scores two goals a night, then they can give one back without it being too much of a problem. Besides, Duchene’s goal was far prettier than the one David Pastrňák got after the turnover, so he also wins on style points, not just the raw points.

Seriously though, that line was elite tonight. From the drop, they were outchancing the Bruins 3-to-1 any time they came over the boards. Marchment’s one-handed lay-off for Duchene’s lethal snipe was repaid in full when Tyler Seguin took a Duchene pass at the blue line, then looked off Swayman and perfectly set up Marchment for a can’t-miss one-timer that Marchment one-timed, and couldn’t miss. It felt a bit like a party for that line when Marchment scored, and who could blame them for celebrating?

For all of the goals, however, let’s not forget the other big plays. Brendan Smith kept a beautiful gap to foil a Boston breakout, and his touch was then collected by Jason Robertson, who fed Roope Hintz in front for a goal scored almost in the act of falling down. Sometimes you can tell elite skill from how it endures gravity rather than how it defies it.

Smith’s defense partner, Nils Lundkvist, was also quite good in this one. Lundkvist rang the crossbar later in the game (after which the puck ricocheted directly into the referee, who was thankfully all right), but he also played an odd-man rush very well when Smith’s stick broke at a bad time. Lundkvist prevented the pass across, and Oettinger stopped the shot. It was a textbook example of how to defend a bad situation, and everyone did their job when called upon. Lundkvist has begun to “separate himself” as we said earlier on Thursday, making it a tougher call to pull him out of the lineup for a player like Matt Dumba right now. We’ll see what the Stars do in Minnesota, but how on earth do you make a significant lineup change right now, after two straight massive wins? Being an NHL coach seems difficult, actually.

Back to that Hintz goal for a moment, however. I had just been talking with my press box neighbor Sam Nestler of the DLLS Dallas Stars Podcast, and we were discussing how these high-scoring games would normally be great spots for players like Robertson and Hintz to start getting their offensive games going more steadily. Then the Hintz goal came right on cue. One goal isn’t fixing everything (or anything), but it’s also not nothing. Hintz has six goals, but he’s only fifth on the team in points, while Robertson now has eight points in 15 games. That’s not up to either of their standards. Food for thought: Who do you think starts getting hot first: Hintz, Robertson, or Wyatt Johnston?

Tyler Seguin scored 800 points tonight, and you can’t help but smile when he hits these milestones, particularly after everything he’s been through (and everything he’s about to go through as a new father). You wonder if that milestone means a bit more not because of Boston, but because of a coach on the other bench who tacitly endorsed the Jim Lites rant about Seguin a few years back. But only Tyler knows, and I suspect he’s not telling.

Seguin also could’ve had two more goals tonight if not for great saves by Swayman, including a really great one with the paddle. Maybe there’s a Boston telepathy thing going on that favors goalies, who knows?

Maybe Boston would be better-served by using that telepathy amongst their own players on breakouts, because my goodness me, have you ever seen that many failed zone exits? The Bruins were turning pucks over left and right coming out of their zone, including turnovers that led directly to the Stankoven, Bäck, and Hintz goals. It’s just not good times in Boston right now, and so make sure, if you have to talk to a Boston Bruins fan in the near future, that you try really, really hard not to smile at their misfortune. I know it’s tough, but we must be strong in these times.

I don’t know what the answer is for Jim Montgomery. He’s tried being hard on his best players, but they’re still at .500 as a team, which isn’t good enough. There are mistakes all over the ice, and multiple players were taking frustration minors towards the end of the game (much as Crosby did in Pittsburgh). Sometimes, the only thing you can change about the message is who’s delivering it, but we’ll see what Boston ends up doing. It’s hard to see a clean way out for Montgomery at this point, though.

Jake Oettinger has successfully lowered the temperature in what could have been a very stressful start of the year for Pete DeBoer. As much as goalies can win their coach a Jack Adams award, I think it’s less often reported how goalies can also save their coaches from the fate that often befalls recent winners of the Jack Adams award. So far this season, Oettinger has been his head coach’s best friend, most of the time.

For now the Stars can only ride the wave and hope to pass the next test. Certainly Minnesota is going well enough right now to qualify as that. They’re also one of Dallas’s likely playoff opponents as things stand, so there’s an additional element of motivation in this weekend’s game, just in case the Stars needed more. It never hurts to have a wake-up call scheduled.