Game 2 AfterThoughts: Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Some Observations on Victory Plus
This is just a quick writeup as I wasn’t able to watch the game live last night, so let’s get into it.
The Dallas Stars shut out the New York Islanders 3-0 behind Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. You’ve all seen the amusing quotes from Seguin rebuffing the notion that he’s in the “older players” group, but I think this quote from Peter DeBoer was even more telling: “They really lead the way. Their messaging on the bench, their composure, settling the group down when they’re running around a little bit.”
When you step back and think about how much has changed since 2013, it’s hard to believe. Benn and Seguin started as something like an indie version of the more mainstream Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Occasionally finding themselves in hot water on or off the ice, their stubborn excellence on the ice has largely outpaced some of the not-unexpected follies of youth, and their entire Stars catalog is well worth appreciating with each year that goes by.
Now, in 2024, Benn has turned into a beloved-yet-taciturn leader with one of the longest tenures of any captain in the NHL (who occasionally still gets into hot water), while Seguin has become an outspoken advocate in the community who doesn’t apologize for his beliefs, and a steady presence in the dressing room who has already begun to fill the leadership vacuum created by Joe Pavelski’s departure. So when you have a night where they win a game for the team, there’s an extra sense of fondness around those goals, because you know that they know how much each of those players means to the team, and how much more they appreciate these moments each time they happen.
Jake Oettinger was great, of course, as were the three posts the Islanders hit. It’s funny, but I think you could fairly say that Oettinger was more important in the 4-3 win against Nashville than he was in the shutout against New York. But the Stars’ goalie was great in both games, no question, and that’s a good sign for Dallas after the bit of a rough start Oettinger had last year.
Nashville created the more dangerous-looking chances but also had more obvious breakdowns, whereas Dallas seemed more systematically resilient against the Islanders. After the game, Patrick Roy chalked up the Stars’ victory to a couple of isolated moments that upended an otherwise superior performance by the Isles:
“There’s a lot to like about this game. If we could just fix our turnovers coming out of our defensive zone coverage, we’ll be fine. We’ve done a lot of good things. Kept them under 27 shots. We had 33. We had a lot of good looks. Couple of posts here and there. So, on my side if we keep playing like this, I know we’re going to win our share of games”.
Obviously it is in both DeBoer and Roy’s best interests to say that their team is doing Just Fine, Thank You, rather than blaming or lauding their goaltender for the outcome. Jay Woodcroft could tell you what happens if a talented team looks bad early, and the Edmonton Media is already sharpening their knives after a slow start, once again. So I don’t begrudge any coach for saying they’re happy with wins rather than focusing on the mistakes. It’s a long season, so perhaps there’s little point being surly early when you’re more focused on things going great, late. I suppose these Stars have earned a fair amount of optimism.
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On the pessimistic front, Matt Dumba’s right knee twisted under him early in first period, but he battled for a while before it was announced he was doubtful to return for the second period. Indeed, he did not, and DeBoer said Dumba would get “pictures taken” on Monday. I don’t like to speculate on injuries when it comes to situations like Mavrik Bourque’s, given how little we know, but I don’t think it’s crazy to guess that Dumba might be dealing with one of the collateral ligaments in his knee having been forced to do more than usual.
Here’s a look at the Matt Dumba injury. He was tripped up on his second shift of the game.
He still played six total minutes in the first period but didn’t return to the bench in the second. pic.twitter.com/Ee6X7oXlUe— Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) October 13, 2024
If it’s a minor strain, then Dumba might not be out too long, but there’s every possibility he could miss at least 2-4 weeks, depending on what the scans show. Knee braces are pretty amazing these days, but I would expect Dallas to be fairly careful in order to ensure Dumba will be available for the bulk of the season. Alex Petrovic is just a few hours away down I-35, although Stephen Meserve pointed out on Twitter today that the Texas Stars also just played back-to-back games, so any call-up for today would be potentially playing their third game in three night. I initially thought the Stars would absolutely bring up at least one extra body for tonight, but Taylor Baird thinks otherwise, and she might be right. Then Sean Shapiro mentioned that the Stars could bank an extra day of cap space by waiting until 5pm today to do the recall.
In any case, that’s all just minor cap issues. We know the lineup decision (probably) for Seattle: Brendan Smith will draw in tonight, but I’m more curious to see whether they move Thomas Harley up next to Miro Heiskanen, or whether DeBoer gamely tries Nils Lundkvist up there. They rotated the pairings pretty consistently in the final two periods, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Lundkvist stay with Esa Lindell while Smith plays next to Ilya Lybushkin. He (Lundkvist) did take a regular penalty-killing turn in Dumba’s absence, so that’s not nothing, but all eyes on on his ice time right now, so skepticism will prevail until it doesn’t.
Speaking of, Lyubushkin had a couple of nice plays to start Stars’ offensive rushes, one a good step-up, and another a nice up along the boards. He’s an interesting player who doesn’t confine himself to one defensive archetype, sort of like an inverse of Trevor Daley, who started out being used as a heavily defensive defenseman before finally being allowed to use his skating and puck handling more in the latter days of his Stars career. Lyubushkin profiles as a “nasty” penalty-killer who can protect the crease, but he’s not afraid to play more dynamically, and I think he can back up that desire with his actions, depending on the situation. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Through two games now, the Seguin-Duchene-Marchment trio has evoked every bit of its excellence from last season. If everyone continues to be available on that line, I don’t really know how you stop it, unless you’re a referee. I was talking to Marchment about that line the other day, and while he’s an excellent F1 in many ways, he said that anyone on that line can be the primariy forechecker, so they’re not as easy to scout for. Sure, he’s the biggest and (I would say) strongest of the three, but Duchene can manufacture entries and pass as well as any player on the Stars, and the other two players have each scored a brace already. They all have great shots, and they all anticipate each other’s movements really well. It’s a fun weapon to see when it’s fully operational. Marchment could’ve easily had another two goals in this game.
The Stars’ whole forwards corps is a luxury right now, though. The fourth line looked ever better with Oskar Bäck moving to the wing last night (good catch by Sam Nestler on that, by the way), though I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing for Bäck’s chances to stick in the NHL this season. He didn’t take any faceoffs (while Colin Blackwell calmly went 6-for-6), and he’s not much of a scoring forward. In other words, I wonder if Bäck, lauded as a Radek Faksa replacement, might end up being subject to a Faksa-like fate this year if he isn’t trusted to center the fourth line. In any case, when Mavrik Bourque is back (whether tonight or next week), I suspect Bäck will draw back out, and practice next week will be pretty revealing.
The Stars have been solidly out-shot and out-chanced through two games, but I really don’t think it’s worth caring about until we’re at least 10-15 games into the season. If you’re finishing your chances right out of the gate, you’re going to win some games even if your opponent might be creating a few more. It reminds me of Detroit ca. 2007, when you felt like Dallas played them really tough all game, only for the Red Wings to score on the first real chance they had and end up winning. It’s nice to see Dallas on the other side of that equation. Having a really good roster helps, I think.
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Finally, I wanted to talk about Victory Plus for a moment. I had a chance to watch the broadcast afterwards, and I have to say, I kind of love it? Sure, the technical side sounds like it’s had some of the expected streaming hiccups on some other platforms, but my Fire TV has been just fine, and it actually skips forward and backward even more efficiently than ESPN+.
I think I detected some delight in Josh Bogorad’s voice at the end of the game when he mentioned that they would be bringing much more postgame content after the break. So many times in years past (and still on too many national broadcasts) you find an abrupt, almost urgent sign-off because the network wants to get to different programming. This year, fans get to soak in great postgame content and bask in the victory/wallow in the defeat for a while longer. That’s pretty cool.
If you’re in the camp who’s had some technical issues, then I have all the sympathy in the world for you. There is nothing more aggravating than anticipating puck drop, only for the technology not to cooperate. But as far as the programming, direction, and the platform, it’s hard to be anything but grateful for how much better things are likely to get. The forced ad breaks are no one’s favorite, but at least for this year, I think it’s more than a fair trade-off for its being free and available to everyone, regardless of their cable or satellite provider. How quickly we forget, eh?
After watching the Nashville game on ESPN+, the contrast is even starker. This is a veteran hockey production crew getting great shots of pucks (like the one resting on a goalie’s pad under his arm right before a scrum), syncing up replays and commentary, and being able to bring you the delightful nuances of a hockey game without telling you about Steven Stamkos for the 83rd time of the broadcast.
When you start to poke around the classic games (did you notice the new ones recently uploaded?) and other archived features and interviews that live on the platform, I personally think you’re silly to complain about anything other than tech issues. It’s like the old, pre-NHL-standardized Dallas Stars website, that had things like 20+ minute highlight packages from Cinco de Morrow. It’s a wealth of Stars content. It’s just too good not to be exciting, so long as you can watch it.
It wouldn’t shock me if they have a paid, ad-free tier in future seasons, but I think the broadcast is only going to get more excellent as they continue to combine expertise with newfound freedom from FOX/Bally’s. But then, I’m an optimist* about a team trying fun, new things.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start writing up the inevitable Jamie Oleksiak hat trick for tonight. At least we’ll get plenty of replays of it!