Game 2 WCQF AfterThoughts: Losing the Plot
Don’t be slow
Oh, no, no, no
Oh, no, no, no
And I don’t know if I’m ever coming home
***
Well, that wasn’t fun.
Or at least, it was, right up until it turned into a rigged carnival game where you also get punched in the stomach every time you toss a ring. And also, the carnival barker that lured you into the game is actually a lawyer, he only happened to be working this job because he lost a bet to a coworker in Anaheim on the last day of Carnival Season (a real thing, probably), and now he’s just using his professionally persuasive skills on your cocky little self because he’s bored. Also, he owns the entire carnival. Maybe just don’t go to carnivals, actually!
First, the good. Dallas came out with a newfound aggression to start Game 2, and the cavalcade of hits just kept on coming. Mason Marchment, Jason Robertson, and Jamie Benn (many times) clearly received and gave marching orders to the effect of, “Run over these bunch of silly geese!” And they did that, culminating eventually in Jason Robertson’s power play (that he drew) and Jason Robertson’s goal (that he scored) to give Dallas its first lead of the series.
Jason Robertson rips one home on the man advantage! pic.twitter.com/4MBkS8lBZ4
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 25, 2024
All seemed lovely, if still tense, and the Stars simply needed to build on that lead and force Vegas to open up a bit more. They did not do that.
Because, well, Vegas happened, piling up blocked shots and clogged lanes, resulting in Dallas turnovers and failed dump-ins. You may have seen this once or twice before, in fact:
This happened tp the Stars against Vegas in the playoffs last year & why they're frustrating to play against. They let you into the zone & turn the puck over quite a bit, but nothing ever happens after that. pic.twitter.com/VZoPDnQ707
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) April 24, 2024
None of those turnovers was more costly than Radek Faksa’s failed deposit at the offensive blue line that immediately got turned into a Jack Eichel-Jonathan Marchessault 2-0 rush that was only ever going to end up behind a stricken Jake Oettinger. I don’t love the positioning of Thomas Harley and Ryan Suter on this play, but with the Stars’ aggressive forechecking mentality in the early part of this game, you can understand that they’d be caught leaning the wrong direction here.
It was a frustrating night for the Stars’ fourth line, as they ate a minus on that play. They also failed to generate much of anything through 40 minutes, and DeBoer started juggling the forward lines in the third period, understandably so.
Anyway, that tying Vegas goal sapped the momentum for Dallas, and Vegas then got what they wanted: a clogged, shotless contest where they could cycle for hours and throw pucks across the ice in hopes of getting one of those killer passes through. They never managed to capitalize on one of those, but they did get some good fortune when Esa Lindell made a good play to poke a puck out of the frying pan, only to get fired right back down their collective throat:
Noah Hanifin has his first career #StanleyCup Playoff goal! @GoldenKnights | #VegasBorn
pic.twitter.com/aYZ01VzS9V— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) April 25, 2024
You can point to Marchment’s not-quite-diligent defensive work there if you want, but the reality of the situation is that Hanifin was aggressive, as Vegas always is on the cycle, and the puck fortunately popped to him. He was patient enough to wait for a clear shot, and he put it past Oettinger—who again, never really had a chance on it.
That made a frustrating game an infuriating one. Stars getting frustrated, trying to force things, as exemplified by Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen’s refusal and/or inability to get the puck into the crease with the extra attacker on the ice, eventually turning it over (multiple times) along the boards.
Tactically, you have to look at a lot of things with a critically eye. The Stars were trying a lot of stretch passes during the final two periods, and they rarely resulted in anything more than a dump-and-change scenario. As Dallas got more desperate, they again succumbed to the desire to skate into the teeth of the Vegas trap, losing the puck most every time.
This was the same lineup, and the same starting lineup, even. DeBoer projected all the confidence in the world, despite being down 1-0 in the series. With a veteran coach, you take it or leave it. They didn’t get here by accident.
When Dallas had more rhythm early, they were attacking the blue line with speed after good bump passes and skating in the neutral zone. Whether they chose to dump it in or make a play, they were creating the space to do so successfully.
As the game wore on, they seemed to slow down, and the space disappeared. They would frequently lose the race to a dumped-in puck, either because they hadn’t come with enough speed (thanks to a clogged neutral zone) or because Vegas had forechecked effectively enough that Dallas didn’t have the skaters available for passes and puck recovery of any kind in the offensive zone.
One exception to this, especially early, was Jason Robertson. You may know (as Mark Stone now does) that Robertson is a big guy, and he uses his size in a lot of different ways, both offensively and defensively. It’s one reason he’s undersold as someone who’s just a power play contributor who disappears when the game gets tough. He’s gotten better each postseason, and he’s been the best player on the top line for two games in a row, although Logan Stankoven’s promotion might give him a run for his money if things continue as they have.
Joe Pavelski was swapped with Stankoven in the third period, and man, does his four-goal night against Seattle seem like a long time ago. I’m still not counting out Pavelski in a playoff series, but the Stars’ top line was better in this one, but not in the way you need to turn a series around. Roope Hintz seems a bit wary of Vegas’s blue line defense, and you can’t really blame him. The space just isn’t there for him to exploit, and Dallas doesn’t have other players on that line who have shown an ability to make things happen against Vegas.
One thing I’d consider, presuming players are healthy enough to do so, is moving Seguin up with Pavelski and Robertson. That trio is clever enough to find space and shooting lanes without the speed that Hintz brings. It also frees up Hintz to play with Duchene, who has looked ineffective (which is what Vegas does to a lot of players) through two games so far.
Things were really tight all night long, with Dallas going long stretches while failing to produce a shot on goal. A Jamie Benn hit on Chandler Stephenson was one of the only punctuation marks in the first part of the second period, as both teams were fighting tooth and nail for space around the net, and they weren’t wasting possessions with long shots on goal, or any shots on goal, really. But Vegas is happy to play in a desert like that, while Dallas tends to look for the nearest river.
But hey, we haven’t talked about Logan Stankoven enough. He set up Robertson for another gorgeous chance in the second period, but a rolling puck got put just over the crossbar by Robertson. Bad luck for Dallas, good luck for Vegas. It’s not an excuse, but it does explain why Dallas has lost two one-goal (effectively) games in a row. They just haven’t been good enough to overcome the universe’s margin for error.
Another place you could clearly see their struggles was during 4-on-4 hockey, which is not fun against Vegas. Every offensive zone possession feels like a Golden Knights power play, with Eichel and company even cycling back out of the zone to reset and try again as though it’s 3-on-3. Vegas generated some chances off unforced errors after wearing Dallas down on the cycle (you’ll hear that word a lot over the next two days), but Jake Oettinger denied Shea Theodore (who kind of worked over Miro Heiskanen?) three different times, twice from a prone position, announcing that he was, in fact, still here to make life difficult.
OTTER LARCENY! pic.twitter.com/6i0NdnyoGY
— z – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 25, 2024
Oettinger hasn’t been the problem, and I think this game will help more folks to see that. This is perhaps not as much consolation as we would’ve hoped to get before this game began.
More positives? Sure, I gotcha. Wyatt Johnston fought to get in alone with the puck from the half wall, fighting off the back check to nearly tuck a puck by Thompson’s pad, but kudos to the backup/starting/third Vegas goaltender for stretching his left leg just far enough to stymie Johnston.
In fact, Dallas’s biggest problem here is Vegas’s source of pride: Dallas couldn’t get to any real rebounds in this game, and that’s despite Thompson giving up more than his fair share. Dallas’s timing was all out of whack, which again, is going to happen when Vegas is fronting (and blocking) shots all the time. You can’t really rely on Joe Pavelski to get clean tip opportunities when he can’t see the puck. That’s why power plays are so crucial for Dallas, but alas, they only got one of them (as did Vegas) all night.
The first (and only) Vegas power play, meanwhile, came after an officials’ conference following a puck shot out of play, when Roope Hintz apparently sent it out untouched despite a lot of inconclusive video angles. Oh boy, I just can’t wait for that to be another challengeable play next year. This league just keeps gettin’ better, aside from the preposterous trapezoid and the inane fear of a missed offside before a goal.
As for this game, it ended with a whimper. Dallas rarely had the puck for much of the third period, and the unforced errors by the Stars down the stretch made Oettinger work far harder than he needed to in Game 1, and that was just to keep the game in reach.
Other worrying things that happened to Dallas, aside from, ah, losing the game, were injuries. They lost Faksa and Marchment shortly after the penalty kill, and it’s hard to believe the news is going to be all that great.
No update postgame on Radek Faksa & Mason Marchment — who left Vegas/Dallas during the third period
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 25, 2024
Other than the human element, the most concerning thing, by far, was how Dallas was having to fight hard to beat Vegas’s forecheck even late in the third, while Vegas barely had to do anything to get the puck behind Dallas’s defense from their own zone. You quite simply cannot make it as easy on Vegas as Dallas did for the last two periods of the game, and it was troubling to see how easily Vegas adapted to Dallas’s early strategy in order to restore their grinding, boring balance, short-circuiting Dallas’s usually clinical attack.
The Stars have been forced into a game they never wanted to play, and they don’t look particularly good at it. They can’t really stop Vegas’s cycle in their own zone, and they haven’t managed to make them pay for it outside of Jamie Benn’s breakaway goal in the first period of the series. They’re having to work harder than Vegas to hold onto the puck less, and that’s not a recipe for anything other than soul-searching and tee times.
There’s gotta be more juice in the orange, because they’re pressing hard and not getting much of anything in return. As a fan, watching a game like this is downright awful, like playing basketball at Recess with taller kids, helplessly jumping and stretching, but immediately getting smacked down on the rare occasion you managed to touch or shoot the ball. One of these teams has felt like the eight seed more and more as the series has worn on, and it is not the team that it should be.
Peter DeBoer is, no matter what you think a Vegas series proves, one of the best coaches in the world, by definition. His staff has two full days to rest and re-evaluate before what is, unfortunately, a must-win game. The Stars need better execution from some of their players, but they need a better approach by all of them, collectively. Both of these games have been close on the scoreboard, but the gap between these teams is starting to feel miles wide. The only way to fix it is to force Vegas to do the jumping, for once.