Game 26 AfterThoughts: Own Ice Advantage
It’s hard to fault any team that loses the last game of a road trip, particularly when they beat Colorado and Winnipeg right before heading out of town. It’s even harder to fault a team when you feel like they got a bit jobbed on the officiating, as I’m sure Dallas did after this one.
The Vegas Golden Knights draw the fewest penalties per game. They also entered the game 1-for-18 in recent history. That’s either because their play style and personnel don’t lend themselves to drawing or converting lots of power plays, or because of an imbalance the universe sorely needs to correct. And in this game, the officials clearly took the latter view, as Dallas took as many penalties (if not the most?) as they’ve taken all year. Hockey is weird sometimes.
You may remember what it’s like to play the Golden Knights, but in case you were in a hold in the ground like a hobbit for the last two playoff runs, let me illuminate you: they are big and annoying, and it always feels like the Stars leave some meat on the bone in terms of goals out of opportunities, with opportunities becoming rarer and rarer as the game progresses.
Mark Stone returned to the Vegas lineup after an extended absence from a pulled muscle of some kind, because of course he did. And his presence was no small help to Vegas in locking down a lead, as the game felt far too much like the seven losses to Vegas over the last two playoff runs.
Pete DeBoer used the same lineup as the Stars deployed in Los Angeles, which means Brendan Smith once again was a healthy scratch, while Ilya Lyubushkin was paired up with Miro Heiskanen. It wouldn’t shock me to see Brendan Smith draw in on Sunday, but we’ll have to see.
When you get a fourth-line goal on the road, you really want to get more for your trouble. But when you give Vegas four extra power plays, or are forced to give them said power plays, as the case may be, you’re always going to have a tough time of it. And credit to Vegas, they did exactly what they had to do to keep Dallas at bay, and it wasn’t until the extra-attacker portion of the game that the result even started to look in doubt. That’s what Vegas does when they’re rolling, and leave it to Dallas to remind Vegas what they can be.
***
Man, you have to feel for Jason Robertson. After being left off Team USA after spending the better part of a year as a near certainty to make the roster, Robertson poked at a rebound from Adin Hill and eventually jammed it in, only to have the goal challenged and called back, as Hill did get his glove clamped down on the puck before Robertson’s stick got there. I am going to say, with boldness, that the Stars are still owed at least one more goal of this type in order to make up for that Justin Abdelkader goaltender interference on Kari Lehtonen from like ten years ago, but today was not the day to cash that check, apparently. I look forward to that day, still.
The Stars did get a power play after Roope Hintz was held by Shea Theodore just a few minutes in, and once again, the Stars had a chance to get a power play goal to take the first lead of the game. They would not take the first lead of the game on that power play, it turns out. They would not take any lead of the game.
That said, I could watch Evgenii Dadonov run the power play from the half-wall for a long time, I think. He’s creative and patient in a way not a lot of Dallas players seem to be right now, but that patience didn’t result in a goal tonight. But the Stars did have a decent chance that turned into a juicy rebound with Mason Marchment in the Very Dangerous Area, which always bodes well for your chances against a goaltender.
Honestly, it’s a small annoyance that the Stars haven’t tried to run the power play from behind the net at all this year, but then again, who am I to tell NHL teams what to do on the power play? I’m absolutely biased toward recommending the Gretzky’s Office Power Play approach thanks to Ryan Stimson’s Tape to Space, which you should read. Advertisement over.
Jake Oettinger had a nice save on a rebound just after the power play, which he followed with an even better save on Mark Stone in the slot. The pair of saves felt like a shot across the bow of Adin Hill and Team Candada, as if Adin Hill being one of the best goaltending options for Team Canada wasn’t enough of a shot across the proverbial bow to begin with.
Vegas got their first power play of the game on what I have to say was a silken-soft interference call on Roope Hintz, who leaned into Brett Howden on his way to a puck along the boards, and that was enough to put Hintz’s penalty plus/minus back to naught in this game. Dallas’s penalty kill, however, stood strong. You might not know this, but the penalty kill has really been good, and this PK was especially stifling, with Dallas completely snuffing out the slightest candle of hope for Vegas on the 5-on-4 advantage early. You don’t get a top-ten (7th, actually) penalty kill in the NHL by accident. But then, even a great penalty kill isn’t going to hold out forever.
Mason Marchment got an even better chance shortly after the power play’s expiration after Logan Stankoven and Matt Duchene battled to recover a puck in the corner and feed him in the slot, but Marchment sent it just wide, keeping things scoreless, for the time being. The Stars really needed just one more goal from someone in the top six during the first 55 minutes of the game, but they never managed to get it, and that’s the real missed opportunity, I think.
Vegas got their second power play of the game when Sam Steel stick-checked Tomáš Hertl as he went to the net, and apparently if you drop your stick and wave your hands and are named Tomáš Hertl, you get a power play for interference. And really, when you think about it, aren’t all of the players on both teams incessantly interfering with the other team’s plans? That’s really all they do! They’re both just trying to interfere with each other’s beautiful goal-scoring plans, and it’s quite rude, honestly. I believe every game should have 60 minutes of power plays. No one else is brave enough to admit this.
Well, almost nobody, because it turns out this officiating crew was brave enough to admit this, as Mavrik Bourque, in a rare penalty-killing appearance (the coaching staff said during the preseason that Bourque wasn’t likely to get power play time, but would eventually get PK time when he was up to speed, which I guess is now), got nailed for tripping on what I honestly thought was another soft call with Pavel Dorofeyev along the boards. It was almost the sort of play that makes you wonder if the players had been briefed about the referees’ tendencies when it came to penalty calls, as the Stars found themselves down two men on two rather iffy calls. Personally, I do not think that was fair. Much like life, which is equally unfair. I sometimes think about this, and am tempted to despair. But take heart, my friends! Good is always getting better, even if bad is always getting worse.
Tomáš Hertl scored a goal really quickly on the power play, when he got a pass in the low slot and had time and space to turn to shoot it into the net. That’s something the Stars coudn’t manage on their own two-man advantage the other night, but it would be rude to get too picky about these things, so skip it.
Mason Marchment got stiff-armed away from the puck late in the period, but the NHL Referees opted not to call that, which Pete DeBoer was not particularly thrilled about that (which is one way of saying that he was screaming at the officials from the bench). It is always reassuring to find that your own distaste for penalty calls is shared by a generally calm coaching staff. That means I am correct, obviously.
The Stars nearly scored a goal akin to the Kings’ board-bounce goal from Wednesday, when Matt Duchene couldn’t quite get a juicy rebound by Adin Hill. But it was Oettinger who had more work to do in the middle frame, as he faced great looks from Nic Hague and Ivan Barbashev, among others, but escaped with his typical blend of hard work and good fortune.
After all of the great looks, it would be Mavrik Bourque with a scruffy, nerd-herder sort of tally after the fourth line got the puck bouncing around the net with bodies in the right spot. It was a nice bit of hard work by Bourque that got converted thanks to his high level of skill in whacking the puck out of the air, and that’s how the Stars erased three Vegas power plays and a waved-off Robertson goal to find themselves tied on the road halfway through the game.
If you really squint, you can see the puck getting bounced between Hill’s left skate, the post, and below his glove on its way into the net:
Anyway, let’s all congratulate Mavrik Bourque for being the most creative goal-scorer all night. Some people don’t need a ton of power plays to do special things, cough cough TJ.
The Duchene line would then kick things into high gear when Marchment drew a penalty on Noah Hanifin after a prolonged bit of pressure from the Stars’ best line. The power play looked snappier than the first one, but then fortune turned nasty, when Jamie Benn got tagged with a double minor for high-sticking Hague, giving Vegas ten minutes of power plays before Dallas had even gotten to four. It’s safe to say that giving up five minors’ worth of power play time is not the way to win a road game in Vegas, at least on paper.
And indeed, the Golden Knights would put pen to paper, as a great Oettinger save would not get cleared, and the rebound got sent to Jack Eichel for as wide-open a one-timer as you could ask for. That put the Stars down 2-1 with four minutes to play in the middle period, but with what you would hope would be a bit of a chip on their shoulder.
Unfortunately, Nicolas Roy would beat Oettinger with one of the more benign shots of the game, albeit from a dangerous spot, with some stick-checking make it unclear when Roy would actually be shooting the puck. It was the sort of play that, when you watch it, makes complete sense for a goaltender to be caught unawares, but it was no less frustrating for all that. Matt Dumba was worried about the weak side forward, so he backed off Roy and allowed the shot, but it was so quick in developing that I can’t really fault him for the snap decision in that moment, as you’d hope Oettinger would be able to win that battle, presuming he could see the puck.
Going into the third period down 3-1, I couldn’t help but think of Colorado, and how many times this year they’ve roared back in the third period to score at least a couple of goals. That’s where Dallas’s offense needs to show it can show up on command, where it can make a difference not just in the aggregate, but in crunch time, in concentrated doses. And after an immensely frustrating 40 minutes, it was up to Dallas to show they still had that level of offensive dominance in their golf bag.
Instead, the referees decided that the Stars hadn’t quite been penalized enough, and Marchment was given two minutes for a snow shower on Adin Hill. You know how there will be those hockey games where a team is up like 3-0 in power plays, then the referees will turn a blind eye to a blatant hook that would make it 4-0, and everyone just kind of understands that’s How It Works? Well, these officials definitely are not from that school of thought. Frankly, I would like to know what schools they are from, but let’s not get snobbish about who has a public school upbringing. We can’t all go to Eton or Harrow.
But for all the whinging, Marchment nearly turned the penalty into a good thing, as he got a pass right out of the box for a breakaway from an alert Colin Blackwell. And really, isn’t Marchment the player you would want to give a breakaway to right now, given how hot he’s been? But alas, it was One Of Those Games, and Marchment’s deke couldn’t quite find the space beyond Hill’s left pad. Marchment would score later, sure, but it really did feel like Dallas had their looks at this game, and they just didn’t quite get the one extra bounce they needed, whereas Vegas was given the game on a platter (whether by Dallas or the officials, depending on your point of view), and escaped with a one-goal win.
DeBoer changed the lines up a bit to try to find a spark in the third period, but it wasn’t enough. Wyatt Johnston was moved onto a line with Jamie Benn and Mavrik Bourque, while Dadonov was moved back up to the Hintz-Robertson line. And, as you would expect, Miro Heiskanen was paired primarily with Thomas Harley as well, though without result. I think it’s telling that Bourque is being given repeated looks up the lineup in certain situations and games, and hopefully he can find a good run of offense to justify that proclivity from his coaches.
Dallas pulled Oettinger with over three minutes to go, and yeah, that’s gotta be the right call. The Stars really couldn’t get any sustained pressure on the Vegas bunker, so why not throw the kitchen sink at them? And indeed, it would end up working in part, as a savvy bit of puck movement by Heiskanen and Duchene up top led to a great tip by Johnston in the slot, and an even greater bit of work on the doorstep by Marchment, who grabbed the tipped puck and controlled it in time to tuck it around the prone Hill, making the game Very Interesting with 2:30 to go. It was a really skilled play by Marchment. You would hope the Stars could have gotten one more of those in this game, but that’s because you are a Greedy Gustaf, and you don’t understand how to be thankful for the two goals you did get. This is not a moralistic tale, but just keep that in mind for the future.
The game almost got Extremely Interesting in the final minute, when Sam Steel, Dadonov, and Bourque funneled the puck to the doorstep, forcing some great work from Hill to seal his post against the Stars’ secondary attackers, who were forced into duty as a result of the 180 seconds of 6-on-5 hockey from Dallas. It’s always good to see the team’s depth being employed even in desperate times, and especially when it justifies those choices. The Stars really are a good team, you know. Maybe this has not been made clear! Often a frustrating loss can obscure that fact, so I’m typing it here just to annoy you.
With 20 seconds remaining, the Stars had one final faceoff in the Vegas zone, but they never tested Hill again, and the Golden Knights congratulated themselves on winning a home game in which they had a 6-to-2 advantage in power plays, including an extended 5-on-3. Congratulations to a franchise I definitely am not calling a Fake Team in a Fake City where everyone is drunk and the education system is filled with iPads and terrible grades. I am not saying that, to be clear. I am just being sporting and saying Congratulations, to that city. Great job, you bunch of people.