Game 21 AfterThoughts: It's How They Finish

And thank goodness for that

If this is an example of how Vancouver’s season has been going, I don’t know how anybody there is staying sane.

Jake Oettinger rebounded from a wild first period to go 25-for-25 in the final 40 minutes, and the Stars got one goal apiece from four different lines to win a game the Canucks probably still can’t believe they didn’t even get a point out of.

Any neutral observer after 50 minutes would surely have been able to tell you which team looked like the more dangerous one, but it turns out looks aren’t the most important thing in hockey. Even if the Canucks had a fair amount of them—and they sure did have them.

Here is where I would love to be able to use the NHL’s new tracking data to tell you what each team’s actual time with the puck was, but because that information is still reserved for those more deserving than the public, here’s what I can tell you: the Canucks had roughly a bazillion more shot attempts than Dallas did: 74 to 41, in fact. That makes for a whole lot of work on the defending team’s part.

But at even-strength, the quality of those attempts was roughly level. And that’s where the difference in goaltending quality showed up for Dallas.

Even strength shot attempts

In fairness, all four of the Stars’ goals were pretty unique ones. From Bourque’s “thank you very much” opener and Robertson’s turnaround laser to Blackwell and Rantanen going top-shelf, it’s not like Lankinen was overly leaky or anything.

But Oettinger’s real artistry came on the power play, where the Canucks came in hotter than anyone else in the league with an extra man, only to feel like they ought to have gotten more than one goal out of the five chances they got—especially given that one of those chances involved 80 seconds of 5-on-3 time.

Here are the power play shots for both teams. It is remarkable that Oettinger only surrendered one goal here, and so I am remarking upon it.

Power play shot attempts

Oettinger didn’t look like he had his best stuff from the start of the game, and it showed on the first goal of the game for Vancouver, which beat him stick side without needing to be bar-down. But as we seem to be saying so often this season, it’s important to have a high floor as well as a high ceiling, and Oettinger was able to raise his floor tonight far above Vancouver’s shooters’ ceilings. (If someone wants to illustrate that metaphor for me, I will give you two dollars.)

In fairness to Oettinger, most of the team didn’t appear to have their best stuff either, which is why Dallas found themselves defending nearly twice as many shot attempts¹ as they generated. As a proxy for possession, those attempts tell an accurate story: Dallas was under siege for much of this game. Vancouver’s forecheck came down the ice hard, employing the “gain zone and pull up” strategy along the wall that other teams have started to use against Dallas, attempting to draw a defender to the puck-carrier before exploiting space with a pass to a more dangerous area. Oh, and also they were generating a lot of rush chances. I have to think Lindell and Heiskanen were genuinely exhausted by the end of this one.

But despite how much work Dallas had to do on defense—Miro Heiskanen logged 28:13 in regulation—they ended up winning the battle where it counted with four even-strength goals. Gulutzan expressed some disappointment after the game that Dallas didn’t gain any energy from their successful penalty kills, but going 80% against a power play that came into the game on a 7-for-18 heater is still something to celebrate, and I’m sure the Stars will do just that, as they prepare for the next three games of their road trip.

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Kevin Lankinen tried to collect the puck after making a nice stop on Bourque, but he tried to to bat it back into his lap, and ended up passing it underneath his posterior, allowing the Stars to recollect it and feed it to Bourque, who got them on the board early. This would turn out to be a prophetic vision of Vancouver’s night.

However, the first Dallas lead didn’t last long, as a Vladislav Kolyachonok stretch pass kicked wildly back the wrong way instead of connecting with Colin Blackwell. It’s hard to see if it kicked off Blackwell’s skate, the boards, or both, but either way, Linus Karlsson took the gift back up the ice on a 2-on-1, and he made the deposit.

However, the Canucks’ lead also didn’t last long. Because, I don’t know if you’re a big hockey person or not, but Jason Robertson has been kind of feelin’ it lately, and he ripped what suddenly feels like a trademark turnaround shot past Lankinen to finish a very diligent shift for the Hintz/Seguin/Robertson line. 2-1, Dallas.

Note the work by Hintz to win his battle along the wall there to keep the puck free for Robertson, too. Roope Hintz has looked fantastic since his return from injury, and it’s made the Stars extremely difficult to defend, at times.

However, leads in this game weren’t built to last, because it turns out the Stars aren’t the only team with a dangerous power play. The Canucks would eventually mash a puck into paste at 5-on-4 before its remnants tumbled over Oettinger’s pad after numerous whacks.

For my money, there were not quite enough Vancouver bodies being challenged down low at the net before Elias Pettersson (#40) hammered this one home, but your mileage may vary.

At the start of the second, Dallas got whistled for three penalties, the latter two of which came close enough together that they had to kill 80 seconds of a 5-on-3. But Oettinger and the Stars’ top defense pairing were outstanding, and in fact it went so well that Heiskanen even got a 2-on-1 with Steel late in the set, but nothing came of it, and the pair had to turn and hustle back lest they give up the same back at their own end.

If you want to talk about big moments in tie games on the road, that penalty kill felt about as big as it gets. But again, as Gulutzan said, the team didn’t necessarily draw energy from the huge accomplishment. Other than Oettinger, at least.

The pressure would persist for Vancouver as the period went on, culminating in a wild sequence entirely emblematic of this game.

First, Esa Lindell lost sight of his man, leading to Oettinger’s making a remarkably casual-yet-desperate blocker save while, whoops, also managing to trip Lindell, before Jamie Benn hurdled Lindell’s prone form to assist with the loose puck.

You know, standard stuff.

(I didn’t put any music underneath this clip, but I’m sure you could think of some good soundtracks for it.)

The bulk of this game for Dallas felt like basically that clip, running perpetually, with the Stars repeatedly getting counterattacked by a horde of Canucks, and it was all they could do to flip the puck out and get a new group on the ice to face the next rush far too often. Vancouver was sending numbers every single time they got the puck, and the Stars bent about as far as you can bend without breaking. That’s because Jake Oettinger was perfect in the second period despite facing 15 shots on goal, many of them high-quality ones.

After starting the third period with a fantastic Robertson pass and a nearly-perfect Seguin shot that hit the shaft of Lankinen’s stick to stay out (one of two Robertson setups that somehow didn’t get finished in the third period), Tyler Myers turned back the clock and went inside out to force another penalty out of Lian Bichsel.

And after some good killing by Dallas, Oettinger had to make perhaps his best save of the game, which he did, making an awkward-but-effective stop on a Grade AA+ chance from EP40:

The third period sat on the edge of a knife, with Oettinger making another big stop shortly afterward, only for Dallas to finally get a second power play, during which they withstood a tenacious Canucks’ penalty kill (they did a lot of withstanding tonight) to set up Hintz (the other nice pass by Robertson) for a shot that Hintz was furious at not having scored, taking his frustration out on his stick.

But just when the top guys were having trouble scoring, the fourth line found daylight and showed them what’s up.

Radek Faksa and Colin Blackwell took matters into their own hands with a gorgeous connection and a top-shelf finish to give Dallas the lead. What a shot this was.

And I can only assume that Mikko Rantanen took that personally, because he went ahead and did something unbelievable shortly afterward, spinning around and putting a backhand past Lankinen’s ear and into the net to silence the crowd and crush the hopes of his opponents.

This is nonchalant and laughable, absurd and delightful. Again, take a look at this:

I don’t think Brock Boeser will be switching to defense any time soon, but still—that’s a play every bit worthy of the astonishment that Josh and Razor expressed on the broadcast.

Anyway, that’s the main thrust of the story here: Despite a game that was as bonkers as a pizza in a library, Dallas wound up getting two points.

The Dallas Stars would be leading the entire NHL at this moment if not for whatever nonsense Colorado seems to think they’re up to. Someone really needs to tell Colorado that fable about the Winnipeg Grasshopper and last spring, and how the Grasshopper may have gather a ton of food in the regular seasons, but he ended up losing in the second round in six games. (This is actually a real story, not a fable, in case you didn’t notice—but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.)

Esoteric Song of the Game

Lineups

Dallas used a familiar group to start, though Steel was moved down to the Faksa line after like three shifts in the first period, with Benn mostly playing up top, as we suspected he might.

Steel-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Hintz-Seguin
Bäck-Hryckowian-Bourque
Benn-Faksa-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Capobianco-Kolyachonok
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal

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Vancouver went with this:

Kane-EP40-Sherwood
Boeser-Kämpf-Garland
O’Connor-Räty-DeBrusk
MacEachern-Sasson-Karlsson

Hughes - Hronek
MP29 - Myers
EP25 - Willander

Lankinen in goal

AfterThoughts

• In case you missed it, I have a piece up at D Magazine today on Ralph and Razor, so check that out if you’re into that kind of thing.

• Jamie Oleksiak played his 700th NHL game tonight. I remember him coming up for the first time way back when and playing with gloves that had a distinctive red lining inside. He’s a third-pairing defender for Seattle who has had a nice NHL career. Hard to complain about that.

• Another Jamie (Benn) got another good look at goal number 400 tonight (see image at beginning of story), but fate conspired against him. What is fate waiting for, exactly?

  • Benn played a bit more than he did on Tuesday, finishing with 12:06. I am sure they’re being careful not to overtax him on his repaired lung, but just the fact that he can play NHL hockey at all right now feels pretty impressive. And hey, he also logged a primary assist in this one with the old “Here, you take it” play to Rantanen. (Good choice, turns out.)

• Point-to-point passes are pretty routine for NHL defensemen, but that doesn’t mean they’re automatic, and Lian Bichsel’s pass to Alex Petrovic in the first period crossed him up something fierce, creating a situation where Steel ended up taking a desperate slashing penalty (on which the Canucks would tie the game).

  It’s understandable why Bichsel sends it over so quickly—he wants to give Petrovic as much time to make a play as he can—but the accuracy is important, too. He’ll be fine, though.

• Speaking of Bichsel, this game featured two of the players with the most hits in the NHL: Kiefer Sherwood, who leads the league (again), and Bichsel, who was twelfth in the NHL in hits before delivering this enormous one to Conor Garland.

• The first Dallas goal was a development-driven one, as every player on the ice for it had previously played for the Texas Stars. Cool fact that was pointed out by 100 Degree Hockey:

  

• I don’t think anyone will blame Jason Robertson for taking a shot that hits the post from three feet away, but I’m sure Roope Hintz died just a little bit inside when this pass didn’t go across the crease with him wide-open on the back door. Then again, is anyone really wanting Jason Robertson to pass right now?

• Miro Heiskanen played 9:59 in the first period, which is a lot of minutes. I’m not a math expert or anything, but that is a 30-minute pace for a regulation game that was intact after two periods, when he was at 19+. It’s a good thing Heiskanen skates so effortlessly, because his eventual 28:13 isn’t the most ideal way to begin a road trip. But the Stars’ roster being what it is right now, he just might have to do it again a couple more times.

  • I’m told Norris Trophy voters look at ice time when voting, at least.

• I can’t imagine that David Kampf went down on purpose here, given the impact he takes into the boards. But man, this seemed like a really soft touch by the stick to bring him down.

• This one was much more obviously a penalty, as Mikko Rantanen knew. I think it’s fair to call this one a bit cynical. Man, it’s still kind of awe-inspiring to watch him shatter a hockey stick like he’s snapping a breadstick.

• Midway through the second period, the Stars were getting leaned on pretty hard for a couple of shifts. It all spiraled from there, with four icings in a row piling up for Dallas, and Oettinger finally froze the puck with three of the five skaters being over the two-minute mark.

  

• Jason Robertson didn’t score on this play, somehow, and he couldn’t believe it. How he didn’t have a hat trick tonight is a mystery, which means we have officially reached “Robertson scoring just one goal feels like a disappointment” territory. That’s a compliment.

• Alex Petrovic began the season as the team’s 7th defenseman, but he has played 20+ minutes in two straight games now with the Stars’ blueline severely reduced in manpower.

  • Tonight, he led the team with a +3 rating (I know, I know) while also chipping in on the penalty kill. The Stars have desperately needed help from their depth in recent weeks, and Petrovic deserves a lot of credit for how he’s been handling the increased responsibilities.

• Conor Garland always feels like he has a turbo boost no one on Dallas can match in the moment, constantly threatening and creating with the puck. (I assume it’s the shoesturtleneck.)

  • With that said, I can’t remember seeing Garland take a hit like he did from Bichsel tonight in any game in recent memory. But of course, I don’t watch all that many Canucks games, on account of I’m not a masochist.

• We will never know what Jamie Benn said to Mikko Rantanen after his goal, but I have to imagine it was something complimentary. Credit to Rantanen for zoning out and basically refusing to smile during the aftermath of that goal, too. Most of us would not be so stoic after doing something like that, but maybe he’s been reading himself some Seneca.

  

1. Shot Attempts (or Corsi) include shots that are blocked, that miss the net, and that the goalie saves.