Game 22 AfterThoughts: Good Points, Looming Absences, and Squandered Chances

Mikko Rantanen is in the news again, folks

One quick note: I’m going to be minimizing (though not entirely eliminating) my use of video clips for AfterThoughts posts from here on out, because I think it’s made these stories too cluttered. More explanation in the footnote, if you want.¹

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Let’s start with the big news here: the Dallas Stars are likely going to be without Mikko Rantanen for a little while after he got ejected for boarding Matt Coronato late in the second period. It’s his second such ejection in three games.

A couple things on the hit: Coronato slows up a tad rather than going up into the boards, and the way Rantanen loads up here looks like he’s preparing for a shoulder hit before Coronato turns, only for the slow-up to put him in a worse spot than you probably anticipate if you’re Rantanen. .

But the responsibility to avoid hitting Coronato’s face into the dasher here is entirely on Rantanen, and he fails to prevent harm here. That’s the most important element of this, by far. Intentional or no, Rantanen cannot let this happen when he’s coming into the numbers.

Coronato thankfully was able to skate off, even with an obviously injured nose leaking heavily all over the ice, and he returned early in the third period, even taking one of the Flames’ shootout shots (which DeSmith saved). So that was very good news.

But man, it’s been a rough week for Rantanen, who has been ejected from two games and fined for embellishment. I don’t know if an elite player has ever seen their reputation shift so drastically in so short a time as Rantanen’s might have done this week, but if you’re his publicist, you have got your work cut out for you. (Good news: I know a guy.)

As for supplemental discipline, I’d expect Rantanen will get suspended for at least a game or two. At a certain point, even the generally passive Department of Player Safety can’t continue to turn a blind eye when a player keeps getting booted from games for hitting guys from behind and hurting them.

And for what it’s worth, Gulutzan kind of sounded resigned to that outcome after the game, too.

“The league’s gonna look at it,” Gulutzan answered when asked about the hit postgame. “You know, he’s tracking back there, I know he’s committed to hitting him. It’s unfortunate, I hope he’s okay. I know he got cut on the nose, and he played. He turns at the last minute, it’s hard to stop. But the league’s gonna look at it, and they’ll decide. They’ve seen enough² of those hits.”

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Devin Cooley apparently woke up this morning and decided that he wanted to ruin the Dallas Stars’ collective day. And despite many golden chances for the Stars to render him irrelevant, he ended up having the last laugh.

At the start of the game, Cooley denied great looks from *deep breath* Johnston, Robertson, Benn, Rantanen, Steel, and Hryckowian to prevent the Stars from jumping in front right out of the gate, and it was a fantastic first period from a goaltender whose teammates continually failed to break the puck out cleanly or hold onto it for extended stretches without turning it over.

In retrospect, the Stars’ failure to score on their opening power play was an ill portent (but an accurate one) of things to come on special teams, where the Flames scored two power play goals, and the Stars scored zero—despite having 1:22 of a 5-on-3 in the final two minutes of regulation with the game tied.

Even without Rantanen, you need to be able to do better than the one shot on goal the Stars generated on that two-man advantage. The game was there to be stolen late after the Stars failed to capitalize on good momentum early, and both chances slipped through their fingers.

The Stars did jump out to a 9-2 lead in shots on goal at the outset, with most of those being dangerous chances. But after Lian Bichsel got caught just a bit too high in transition, Colin Blackwell had to backtrack and haul down Kadri (and boy, did he ever haul him down), and the Flames scored on their second power play of the period. How? Well, Matt Coronato benefited from getting the puck down low with Heiskanen pulled a bit too high in the circle, and he backed into a vacant lane to the net and beat a lonely DeSmith five-hole (which isn’t ideal) to give the Flames a 1-0 lead that was thoroughly against the run of play.

Probably, you’d like Lindell to have slid over a tad after Heiskanen got beat low there, but overall, Heiskanen probably just shouldn’t have been that far out to begin with.

But, you know, the Stars probably ought to have generated at least another power play themselves (let alone a goal) with all the pressure they created early on, so the rest of the squad isn’t entirely blameless. And Calgary built momentum off their goal to own the back half of the period, which just goes to show you that goals…well, they’re good to score. (More great hockey tips like that one here at Stars Thoughts, every day.)

In the second, Cooley again came up with huge stops on another Stars power play (which featured some more shorthanded pressure by Calgary—something I suspect more teams are going to start trying against Dallas). But the Flames got the better of things in the second, as a more concerted breakout with four and even five skaters breaking out with the puck found the Stars often facing too many men to easily sort out on defense, and DeSmith had to be sharp as ever in the middle frame.

Calgary basically turned the tables on Dallas in the second period in terms of shots on goal, but Dallas couldn’t reciprocate in terms of a goal. Poetry doesn’t always rhyme.

Then, what we thought was the scary news: Esa Lindell was not on the Stars’ bench, and there was a trail of blood being cleaned up on the ice. And it turns out, his teammate was the culprit.

In fact, Lindell was hit in the throat by Hintz’s stick, and he missed the rest of the second period. But thankfully, he was able to return for the final period.

The end of the second period was when the Rantanen stuff happened. And the Flames, despite only (“only”) getting three minutes of a major power play, would convert on a traditional one-timer from the point. The shot caught a piece of a heavily screened DeSmith, but it still managed to trickle in for a 2-0 lead, and it felt like that was likely to be it.

But even as the third period started to feel like tough sledding, and even as power plays mounted to 6-2 in Calgary’s favor (with one of those being the major), Dallas still didn’t quit. Because a 2-0 lead is like catnip to these guys, and they just kept chasing the laser pointer until someone with good aim showed up.

And Jason Robertson did not quit. So he, of course, was the one to finally unlock Devin Cooley with a goal you wouldn’t necessarily expect to go in, if it weren’t Robertson shooting it.

That gave Dallas life and belief—sports psychology is absolutely fascinating, but we’ll save it for another time—and Robertson continued wearing the cape Rantanen left on the bench as the game ebbed away, until he finally set up Roope Hintz for the tying goal after a dominant string of possession on Number 21’s part, which culminated in this:

Robertson was using his reach and skating well, and I thought he was the best player for Dallas on the ice all night, even before the goals finally went in. So naturally, his assist would be the one to get Dallas a point after a game they very easily could have checked out of.

It’s a bummer for Dallas how this game ended. Because after trailing 2-0 with 13 minutes to go, the Stars got a gift-wrapped chance to complete their comeback in regulation when a puck over the glass by Calgary was followed by a blatant trip on Hintz on a power play entry, giving Dallas over 80 seconds of 5-on-3 in the final two minutes.

But when you only test the goalie a single time during that sort of an opportunity, you’re kind of asking for things to swing back against you eventually. Sure, not having Rantanen out there throws things off a bit, but these are NHL players here, and you could hear the disappointment in Robertson and Benn’s voices after the game that they couldn’t have capitalized on that tee-up of a second point.

As for overtime, I’d recommend skipping it on the re-watch, as it never got to 3-on-3, since no whistles happened after the remnant of the Stars’ power play began the period at 4-on-3, meaning things reverted to 4-on-4 shortly after. And despite one Johnston chance that nearly got put creatively into the net, it was largely a five-minute demonstration of why the NHL went to 3-on-3 a decade ago.

The shootout gave Dallas one last chance to grab the second point, as Robertson’s goal (five-hole, you know how he did it) evened things after Morgan Frost beat DeSmith in the first round glove-side. But DeSmith made two more saves, meaning either of Seguin or Johnston could have won the shootout, but Seguin hit the post, and Johnston couldn’t beat Cooley’s glove.

Then, Nazem Kadri’s backhand shelf move (a move that used to be one of the most common and reliable shootout choices in the league) beat a sprawling DeSmith, while Hintz’s casual shot back against the grain didn’t quite fool Cooley, and that was that.

It’s a good point, given where Dallas was midway through the third period. But it’s a disappointment, given how uneven Calgary was early and late. Then again, getting anything out of a game where Rantanen gets tossed and Lindell missed the last part of the second period and Miro Heiskanen has to play over 32 actual minutes…well, you decide.

All points are good points, is the real answer. Especially on the road.

(But man, you gotta score on that 5-on-3.)

Esoteric Song of the Game

Lineups

Dallas did this:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Capobianco-Kolyachonok
Bichsel-Petrovic

DeSmith

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Calgary did that:

Huberdeau-Frost-Coronato
Sharangovich-Kadri-Farabee
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Beecher-Morton-Klapka

Bahl-Andersson
Kuznetsov-Weegar
Hanley-Pachal

Cooley

AfterThoughts

• Mikko Rantanen was fined for embellishment on Friday afternoon, in case you didn’t see it. He was warned for embellishment after the game against Vancouver on October 16 (which may have been his reaction to this play), and he was then fined $2,000 for doing whatever you call this against Ottawa last week.

  • Embellishment has continued to creep into the NHL over the last couple of decades, and players’ overreacting to high-sticking incidents is a particularly virulent trend. The league is a lot more fun to watch when the officials aren’t buying these sorts of things—though it’s worth remembering that Rantanen isn’t the only player to have formerly or currently worn burgundy and blue to overreact in an effort to sell a high-sticking penalty. Nevertheless, Rantanen has a bit of reputational buttressing to do after this week.

• Texas recalled Aidan Hreschuk from ECHL Idaho today, giving them eight defensemen on the AHL roster. The Stars’ organization depth on defense is being stretched to its limit right now, as there are no other signed defensemen left in Idaho right now. And with Kolyachonok and Capobianco both in Dallas for at least the rest of this road trip, that depth will continue to have to prove sound.

  • Luke Krys was supposed to be due back from a severe Achilles injury early in 2026, so that should be a big help to Texas. But until then, both versions of the Stars will have to find ways to patch things together, as they have been.

• Rasmus Andersson turned over a puck in his zone early, leading to a great Mikko Rantanen chance that Devin Cooley had to stop. Not sure I’d recommend spending an awful lot to acquire Andersson at this point in his career, to be honest. He is not the player he was even two years ago.

• The Stars’ power play was absolutely terrifying early in the first period, when Cooley had to make multiple high-quality saves, and also saw a Rantanen shot go squarely off the post. It really is fun to watch that top unit right now, even when they don’t score. (And, I mean, they usually do.)

• On the other side of special teams, Colin Blackwell created a turnover that led to a shorthanded breakaway for Sam Steel, but he couldn’t beat Cooley’s blocker with a snap shot. And when Blackwell had to haul down Kadri for another penalty later in the period, the Stars would wind up somehow on the losing end of special teams after 20 minutes despite having almost all of the good scoring chances on both ends.

• Casey DeSmith made a huge save in the early part of the second period on Morgan Frost, when the Stars spent four minutes without a whistle largely defending.

  • DeSmith also made a big save on Coleman shorthanded shortly after this—a glove stop that looked like he was playing catch, rather than snagging a wrister labeled for the far side.

• One odd thing about the Rantanen major was that initially, nobody on Calgary was penalized, despite Jonathan Huberdeau dropping his gloves and jumping Rantanen. Jamie Benn appeared to make his case at length to both officials after the initial penalty on Rantanen was called, and then the officials deliberated for a bit more before appending the fighting majors and an instigator on Huberdeau, to reduce the actual major penalty time to three minutes—though of course Calgary scored on it, just the same.

• The Dallas penalty kill is going to be okay. I really believe that. Let Alain Nasreddine cook, folks.

• Wyatt Johnston is a joy to watch for a variety of reasons, but his tenacity is among the biggest ones. Look at this shift right here. Look at it!

• Lian Bichsel felled Adam Klapka (who is 6-foot-8) in the third period and stood over him with a smile that I don’t think I’m taking liberties with by terming smug. When you knock over a big guy, you get to smirk at him a bit. That’s the rule.

• Oskar Bäck has looked like a player slowly and steadily improving in little facets of his game every week. He still plays the puck a tad too deliberately at times, but I really do think he’s a bigger part of that Hryckowian trio than he sometimes gets credit for.

• Jamie Benn is going to score a goal this week. Just feels like the chances are coming fairly steadily (at least one or two in each game so far), and he’s looked more comfortable in each contest. This is not a prediction so much as me just acknowledging what the universe is clearly telling all of us. Those with ears to hear, etc. etc. etc.

1. This is especially true for goals, where you can easily find those clips and highlights throughout social media, including on the NHL’s website mere minutes after the goal happens. It’s silly for me to include them here, even for illustrative purposes. I may still include some of the more remarkable ones, but I don’t enjoy putting them in here, and I think most folks have probably seen them by the time these drop, or can easily see them elsewhere if they so choose. As always, let me know if you absolutely hate this decision, and I may or may not listen. But I’d like to get back to focusing mostly on the writing, rather than having 5-15 video clips in every one of these posts. It’s just too much.

2. This sounded to me like Gulutzan meant “they’ve seen enough of that sort of hit to be able to judge them appropriately.”