Game 18 AfterThoughts: Getting Hurt and Getting Healthy

When the Sharks came to Dallas a month ago, it took a shootout for the Stars to prevail. The Stars admitted that they hadn’t started out well, and it allowed the Sharks to capitalize on some self-inflicted mistakes and force overtime.

In this one, Dallas managed a much better start, which is one way of saying they didn’t go down 3-0 like they did to Anaheim on Monday. But well and truly, the Stars deserved to win this game, even if they didn’t quite dominate as much as you’d expect them to. Perhaps that’s a credit to San Jose, who is still years away from being truly competitive, or perhaps it’s a warning light on the dashboard for Dallas.

Personally, I’m inclined to say a win is a win, especially right now. Getting on a roll is more important than putting up seven goals every night, although it would obviously be nice to do both. We’ll see if the Stars can manage to string more wins together on their upcoming road trip to the Southeast.

***

Colin Blackwell sat for his third straight game, but if there’s a veteran that you could trust to keep an even keel through some scratches and jump right back in when needed, I think he’s your guy. It’s a good problem for the Stars to have right now, as Mavrik Bourque had his second solid game in a row. My guess would be that Blackwell will come back in for Oskar Bäck on the fourth line during the road trip at some point, but it’s a credit to both of them that it seems unfair either way.

After the game, Lia Assimakopoulos of the Morning News asked DeBoer what made now the right time to put Wyatt Johnston back up with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz. DeBoer’s answer was pretty pointed: “We were waiting for [Bourque] to catch up and get up to speed, and play a game where we felt comfortable to move him into the nine at center, which would allow us to move Wyatt and give him a chance to play there. That was our plan coming into camp, but you know, injuries and different situations haven’t allowed it.”

It was an interesting bit of confirmation that the Stars truly did want to have Johnston up on the top line out of camp. If Bourque can build off his last two showings when the Stars hit the road for three games, everything else really does slot into place much better for the Stars. It’s also yet another testament to this coaching staff’s dedication to giving younger players a real shot at winning spots up the lineup, which hasn’t always been the case under other administrations.

With Nils Lundkvist coming back into the lineup for Brendan Smith, the breakup of the Lindell-Heiskanen pairing was inevitable. But the notable thing in warmups was that Ilya Lyubushkin was the one to take Esa Lindell’s place beside Miro Heiskanen, while Matt Dumba paired up with Thomas Harley, and Lundkvist was back down with Lindell.

It’s worth noting that Lyubushkin played primarily with Morgan Rielly after Toronto acquired him late last year, so he’s no stranger to playing on a more skilled pairing. Still, it was a sign that the coaching staff hasn’t really arrived at the defensive alignment they’re looking for.

But any hope for a full-game tryout next to Heiskanen went out the window midway into the game, but not by choice. Lundkvist left the bench just six minutes into the second period, and the Stars announced after the second intermission that Lundkvist would not return to the game with a lower-body injury.

Here is the last shift for Nils Lundkvist early in the 2nd period #TexasHockeyHe gets caught from behind and calls for a change right away (but is also at 0:40 of his shift)…

— Sam Nestler (@samnestler.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T02:46:53.720Z

Fortunately, Pete DeBoer said after the game that they don’t think Lundkvist’s injury is serious, but that the team would know more on Thursday. Still, it’s a bit of a bummer for any defenseman to get banged up right after coming back into the lineup. It’s a long season, though, so here’s hoping he gets another shot before long.

***

As for the game, the Stars started off with a few minutes of offensive zone time without every generating a dangerous look. It would be a sign of things to come on the power play, of which the Stars got three in the first 20 minutes.

On the first power play, Hintz tried a fancy between-the-legs shots that Mackenzie Blackwood stopped, and Jason Robertson also fired a good shot after curling into his office in the high slot. I remember thinking at the time that Robertson hasn’t been getting as many of those looks he used to generate from higher in the zone, so it was a good sign that he’s going back to what’s worked in the past.

On the Stars’ second power play (after Kostin gave a nasty trip to the back of Logan Stankoven’s leg at the blue line), Dallas didn’t generate much besides a shot or two through traffic that Mackenzie Blackwood handled without too much trouble. After the game, DeBoer called out the first slate of power plays as “too slow, too cute for me.” And while the Stars did have some looks, they never really got San Jose scrambling, which is probably a sign that DeBoer was right about their not playing fast enough on the man-advantage.

After Dumba took a holding penalty shortly after that, the Stars were on the other end of special teams after going 0-for-2 on the job, and it was exactly the sort of chance a road team looks for to gain purchase against a strong opponent. It almost went that way, too, after Oettinger denied Tyler Toffoli twice from in close, and Cody Ceci rang a shot off the post. But Dallas would escape.

Maybe five-on-five was where Dallas needed to be all along, as that’s where the top line ended up scoring all of their goal tonight. Robertson broke the seal when he potted a turnaround shot 15 minutes into the first period, and you could see the joy from his linemates, as much as you could sense the relief from Robertson. It was a textbook example of getting a puck on net with a scorer’s awareness of the latent danger of that particular situation, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered for the newly minted first line.

Dumba also mentioned after the game that, while he didn’t care about getting his first point with Dallas on an assist on Robertson’s goals, it was pretty neat that two players with Filipino heritage combined on the goal.

Dumba laughed after the game that while he doesn't care about points himself, "it might be the first time two Filipino guys connected on a goal, so that might be cool."

— Robert Tiffin (@tiffin.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T04:28:36.980Z

Unfortunately, the Stars were given their third power play of the first period when Jamie Benn got high-sticked, and Dallas would cap their struggles on the man-advantage by allowed a shorthanded goal. As the cherry on top of the cruelty sundae, it was the best-looking of the three Stars power plays in the frame.

But the cruelty came when Mikael Granlund tied the game back up with a breakaway where he had to fend off Roope Hintz on a frantic backcheck, and Granlund did so quite well. Oettinger got a blocker on the shot, but not enough to keep the puck from looping over him and just over the goal line.

All in all the Stars’ power play in the first period generated some looks, but it’s telling that San Jose generated nearly equivalent danger on their one power play to the Stars’ three. Here’s how it looked after 20 minutes:

In the second period, Wyatt Johnston took a beautiful saucer feed from Roope Hintz on the rush, and he cleanly beat Blackwood to restore the Dallas lead, in what was already beginning to look like a Get Healthy game for a couple of the Stars’ most dangerous scorers. It was a slick bit of stickwork by Johnston to avoid Jake Walman’s stick check, and he made a point after the game to credit both Robertson (who had a beautiful blind backhand pass to Hintz) as well as Hintz for setting up the play.

And one of the Stars’ most vaunted rookies nearly got on the board shortly after that, when Mavrik Bourque combined with Johnston for a beautiful zone entry, only to defer on a chance from the most dangerous part of the ice in a play that never even resulted in a definitive shot. That’s one you know the coaching staff wants to see him shoot, and I’m sure Bourque will agree with them after seeing it again. Confidence is a tenuous thing, but it’s a powerful tool when you have it.

Ilya Lyubushkin is not lacking for confidence, as he showed by taking a puck near his own net on the penalty kill and skating around and through three Sharks players in order to set up a very good shorthanded rush. Lyubushkin had his head up, and you could see him correctly gauging each opposing forward’s stick and simply beating them. Have I mentioned that Lyubushkin has defied everyone’s expectations of his this year?

Logan Stankoven is also defying expectations, or at least a certain type of them. He’s racking up points, which no one is surprised by, but he’s been doing it far more with assists than goals so far. But when you can easily beat Cody Ceci with an assist from Gretzky’s office to Jamie Benn on the front porch, who needs goals? Benn put a crafty push-off on Ceci that sent the Sharks defenseman off-balance towards Stankoven) then one-timed the pass past Blackwood at the near post, and it was 3-1 Stars halfway through the game, with Dallas only feeling more dominant as the periods wore on.

That dominance extended to the goal crease, where Jake Oettinger made a couple of big saves in the middle frame, including a big one right after Benn made it 3-1, stopping Eklund all alone in front with a bit of a snow angel effort on a broken play. Oettinger followed it up with another great blocker-side save minutes later on Will Smith off a 3-on-2 rush, and Dallas entered the second intermission feeling much better than they did at the first one.

Thomas Harley took one on the chin, literally, when an Eklund shot in the third period ramped up and split him open. The officials immediately whistled the play down, but thankfully, Harley was able to get up and skate back under his own power. Dumba also got dinged up earlier in the game, and Lyubushkin missed the end of the first period for an unknown reason. Along with the injury to Lundkvist, things were very dangerous for Dallas Stars defensemen in this game, and it’s a credit to the five defensemen that they were able to keep the game under control, though I suppose playing a huge chunk of the playoffs last year with five defensemen was a good bit of practice. DeBoer pointed out afterwards how crucial it was to have veterans there to hold things together.

The Stars’ power play redeemed itself in every way you can except for scoring on their fourth try, midway through the final periods. Jason Robertson hit a post, and there were multiple chances on an extended possession that San Jose only escaped thanks to a timely shrug of the shoulders by Blackwood that ended up preventing the puck from trickling down his back and into the net. Sometimes shrugging is all you can do, and that turns out to be enough.

That final kill by San Jose ended up making things tense a minute later, when Jake Walman walked in and ripped a puck past Oettinger on the far side, making it a 3-2 game with 6:33 left to play. It was another reminder of how weird it was that Detroit actually paid a team to get rid of Walman, who appears to just have one of those big personalities that coaches don’t particularly love. In any case, Dallas once again found themselves in a close game with San Jose down the stretch.

Matters got more complicated when the Stars then had to kill a Mason Marchment delay of game penalty, which they did successfully, only for the more eventful time to follow directly after, when both Lyubushkin and Wyatt Johnson laid some hits on the San Jose top line, including a high hit on Granlund that got him pulled off the ice by concussion spotters for the rest of the game.

And that all came right before Tyler Seguin got his second breakaway in as many games, only for him to hit his second breakaway post in as many games. One suspects Seguin is getting tired of hearing that sound by now.

San Jose pulled Blackwood with a couple of minutes remaining, and the Stars had to weather a small storm before getting a very cathartic empty-net goal from Hintz, who easily potted a slick Wyatt Johnston feed to make it a goal apiece for the top line. It was a nice bookend to Robertson’s goals, giving the top line a goal from all three of its forwards, which is a feat the Duchene line also pulled off against Pittsburgh.

Actually, make that a goal apiece for all four top-line forwards, because Dadonov got his own nice feed from Oskar Bäck after the Sharks optimistically pulled Blackwood down 4-2, and Dadonov sailed one into the net to give the Stars a 5-2 victory that felt sorely needed.

***

Instead of writing anything else about the game, I wanted to end by talking about Hockey Fights Cancer Night. It’s always an emotional one for a lot of folks—all of us know someone who’s suffered from cancer or been taken by it—but it was neat to see the Stars bring in a guest of honor for this event. Twitter links haven’t been embedding correctly over the last week or two, but give that one a click. How a society treats its children is an indication of what it values, and it never gets old to see a kid’s day get made. We could stand to make more millionaires stop what they’re doing in order to pay attention to a child. I’m told they have things to teach us.

(It’s a shame about the NHL banning special warmup jerseys, though. Hopefully they reverse course very soon.)