Game 27 AfterThoughts: Did Somebody Order a Top Line?

After two straight games where the Stars couldn’t do enough in the third period to get back into a game, the Stars once again found themselves having played 40 minutes with a chance to get something out of the game. In fact, it felt like more than that: a chance to demonstrate that they are, indeed, a team in serious pursuit of a Stanley Cup.

They’ve had some great wins lately, particularly against Colorado and Winnipeg, but they’ve also had some games against middling opponents where they looked like a team hanging around and hoping they had done enough to win, rather than a team dictating the pace. And in this one, they finally demonstrated their pace emphatically. Every member of their presumptive top line scored a goal, and they turned a tight third period into a rout when all was said and done to go into a three-day break on a high note.

***

Tied 2-2, Dallas didn’t look great to start the final frame, with Calgary rattling off the first five or six shots, and generally hemming Dallas into their zone for the first five minutes or so. But one of the things Pete DeBoer said after tonight’s game is that he was very, very proud of his players for how they had endured a stretch of 13 games in 25 nights, and Dallas capped that stretch off by scoring four goals to send Calgary packing with a 6-2 victory.

“We had a road trip East, to Florida and Carolina,” said DeBoer. “We had a road trip West to Utah and LA and Vegas in that 25 days. We were running on fumes, and I thought we dug deep tonight. I liked our start, we sagged a little bit in the middle, but we got some big performances and plays from some guys at important times, and now we get a well-deserved rest.”

DeBoer isn’t just playing up the intensity of that schedule, either. The Stars are taking the next two days off completely before returning to practice on Wednesday. It’s been a grind, and they found a way to win after a few road games where they found a way to lose. And those rest days are going to feel a lot better coming off a win like this one.

***

Let’s start by just taking a moment to bask in the glory of this Wyatt Johnston goal, which was genuinely beautiful.

Brilliant work from Wyatt Johnston (shorthanded).

— DavidCastilloAC (@davidcastillo.bsky.social) 2024-12-09T01:21:00.662Z

There’s a whole lot to love about this sequence, which starts with an incisive Sam Steel poke check to turn the puck over high inside the zone. Johnston then collects it and splits two Calgary players thanks to a slightly fortunate bounce that he makes the most of, kicking the puck back into his path, then batting it down just in time to pick the top corner, short side. Those are the ones that make it really easy to sleep after a game.

“We had some slow starts from some guys and probably not unexpected,” said DeBoer on Johnston and Company’s start to the season. “The heavy minute guys that you mentioned here so far all played big minutes in back-to-back Conference Final runs and short summer. It’s taken them a little while to get going, but I feel like they’re almost all there right now.”

Jason Robertson is certainly front and center when it comes to those heavy-minute guys. He’s a player always at or near the top of all Dallas forwards when it comes to ice time played, and he’s given significant defensive responsibilities, as is proper. But his scoring hasn’t been anywhere near his standards, as we discussed in our earlier piece Sunday afternoon, and something had to give.

And indeed, things looked bleak as this game went on. Robertson came off a game where he had a goal chalked off, only to see him and his brethren fritter away three power plays in the first period. Then Robertson took a penalty himself in the second period with the game tied 1-1, and you could also see the dread hanging off his back as he skated to the box.

But Robertson found a way to shake it off when he stepped back onto the ice. Oskar Bäck fed Robertson for a breakaway, and while he initially looked like he was going to get caught by Martin Pospisil, Robertson held off the Calgary forward long enough to fire a shot low and through Wolf to give the Stars a lead.

Dogged effort by Jason Robertson on this one.

— DavidCastilloAC (@davidcastillo.bsky.social) 2024-12-09T02:23:05.037Z

“Everyone, when they come out of the penalty box, the eyes light up,” said Robertson about his goal. “I just tried to move my feet, and I wasn’t gonna pass.”

That’s the exact sort of attitude you want to see from a player who profiles as a top scorer, too. Robertson has been working hard, staying out on the ice as late as anyone at morning skate today, and oftentimes when players like that finally get the ketchup bottle unstuck, more good things follow in quick succession.

“He’s doing the right things,” said Sam Steel of Robertson. “He comes in every day with a positive attitude, and it’s great to see him rewarded. We all know what kind of player he is, and you know he’s gonna go on a big run here.”

Robertson was candid afterwards in talking about his frustration, and how he’s tried to stick with it in spite of the lack of scoring.

“I haven’t scored a lot this year,” Robertson admitted after the game. “Just trying to get in spots, trying to shoot it. {…] I think I do a lot of good things,” Robertson elaborated. “I mean, offensively, I could do better things, but defensively, pretty solid in the details and everything, being responsible. But offensively, obviously I want to make more good plays.”

***

Jake Oettinger started his third straight game tonight with a mission to prevent the Stars from losing their third game in a row, and he did that, playing very solidly, particularly in the third period early when he came under the heaviest fire of the game. But Oettinger proved his coach right in going to him again, and Thomas Harley in particular gave him credit afterwards for keeping the Stars in the game after the third-period flurry by Calgary.

That flurry might have genuinely been a result of some cumulative exhaustion, at least in the team’s eyes. And generally, they’re the ones who know best. But it’s not a crime to start slowly, so long as you finish strong. (Also, it is not a crime to play hockey in any fashion, unless you’re trying to cheat or hurt people.)

“I just talked to the group about 13 games in 25 nights,” said DeBoer after the game, “And other than the Chicago game, I really believe we could have won every night. We were right there every night. We didn’t win them all, but we were right there, competitive every night, so that’s a good feeling as a coach.”

It’s a weird thing to think about how fans experience games as opposed to coaches and players. But to get through a long season without getting too rattled, that seems like a good way to view things. The bounces won’t always go your way, and sometimes you’re the one to blame for that. But when you’re losing winnable games while also winning a lot of games anyway, that probably validates a lot of things you’re doing, as a team.

There was adversity in this one, too. Jonathan Huberdeau is signed for a lot of years and a lot of money, but it didn’t take anything more than a semi-sentient being with a hockey stick to score the Flames’ first goal, thanks to a great pass on a two-on-one that developed after a really poor exchange at the blue line left Jake Oettinger on his lonesome. Miro Heiskanen wasn’t able to prevent the pass, leaving a whole lot of net for Huberdeau to use, and he did so. One shot, one goal, but it would be the Flames’ best an almost only real chance of the first period. Still, it was a bit of a gut shot, and the Stars wouldn’t draw level until Johnston’s shorthanded goal.

Adversity also sometimes has a name, such as, hypothetically speaking, a name like “referee TJ Luxmore”. Luxmore came up to the NHL in 2015-16, but he was also one of the officials who refereed the Vegas game the other night where penalties were 6-2 Vegas. He was also on call for this one in Dallas, and despite the power play advantage Dallas had, it felt a little rocky early on.

Luxmore called Benn for a trip when he tried to shoot a puck at the top of the crease, and his stick wound up getting into the legs of Yegor Sharangovich. It was a call I can understand in a vacuum, but it felt harsh in context. Benn would later have a couple instances where he himself was brought down, but without a penalty call the other way (though admittedly neither one was a clear-cut trip, either). But the lack of anything like a make-up call angered the fans in the building, as you’d expect.

But the Stars were really their own worst enemies when it came to power plays, as they got three chances in the first period. And after squandering all of them, you could feel the familiar narrative building about not taking advantage of opportunities. They also took two of their three penalties in this game while on the power play, which would normally be a momentum killer. But it ended up being just the opposite.

That’s because, the Stars decided to capitalize on the other team’s power plays, with Robertson’s goal coming just after the expiration of a power play to go along with Johnston’s shorthanded goal earlier in the game. And Thomas Harley’s final tally came on a 4-on-4 stretch when Logan Stankoven got nailed for slashing on the Stars’ fourth power play of the game. That is one way to get your special teams going, I suppose.

***

Calgary didn’t really test Oettinger much for the rest of the first period after scoring, whereas Dallas felt like they could have taken the lead. Here’s the shot chart from the first 20 minutes, during which you will recall they were given three power plays:

Again, you have to give the Stars credit, or kudos, or Resilient Points in this one. Sometimes your own lack of capitalization can be harder to overcome than the other team’s execution, but the Stars found a way to keep pushing, and they finally got through the spiderwebs they’d caught themselves in.

***

The second period had a couple of scary moments. First, Sam Steel collided with Jamie Benn when the two jumped over the boards, and Steel turned back up ice and right into the path of Benn. Steel left the ice to get checked out, but would return later in the second period ready to go.

“You’re getting updates from the concussion room on the protocol and how that’s going,” said DeBoer afterwards. “How that’s going, you know, ‘he’s almost out,’ and you’re trying to play around his return. But you never know how long that’s going to take, and you know, it’s just guesstimates for the most part.”

Steel would later score a goal on an assist from Jamie Benn, so it’s safe to say they are all square after their combined efforts in this one.

Interestingly enough, one line the Stars used during Steel’s absence the same one I suggested, half-seriously, this morning: putting Jamie Benn with Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston. The trio had four or five shifts together in the second period, and while it appeared to be an emergency measure, it was telling that the coaching staff didn’t just put Bourqe up with Benn and Dadonov, but rather chose to move Robertson down with Dadonov while elevating Bourque to third-line center.

If I had to guess, I’d say they used that as an opportunity to experiment without having to outright demote Robertson to a lower line. But given that the Robertson-Hintz-Johnston line was actually the Stars’ best line tonight, I wouldn’t expect to see Benn back up there any time soon.

(Probably.)

***

Right after Steel went down, Thomas Harley got caught up with a Calgary forward, and he spun into Mason Marchment with the back of his left shoulder. Harley also took his time going back to bench, but thankfully didn’t miss time.

The Calgary power play really did make the Stars’ power play look positively lethal in comparison. Benn and Bourque got a 2-on-1 among the chances they generated shorthanded, but Bourque couldn’t beat Wolf with the shot. It was tempting to say Bourque should’ve passed back to Benn through Mackenzie Weegar’s legs in the emoment, but getting a shot on a shorthanded chance is the priority, so it’s probably the right call. Bourque would find the net later in the period, but unfortunately it was his own, after he attempted to clear a puck out of midair, only to have it bounce of the shinpad of Connor Zary and back into the Stars’ net.

Again, adversity. But again, the Stars found a way to battle through it. It’s a cheap narrative, but sometimes you get quality merchandise on sale.

Every line was on the ice for a goal tonight (if you count Duchene and Marchment on Harley’s second goal at 4v4), but it’s not for lack of trying by the Duchene trio. Mason Marchment turnstiled Brayden Pachal in the second and nearly scored his latest Wonder Goal, but it turns out Dustin Wolf is actually good, and Marchment wouldn’t quite beat him with the same shot Johnston did earlier in the game.

Duchene, meanwhile, wouldn’t be foiled by Wolf, but rather by Nazem Kadri, who slid to just barely block a Duchene shot on an open net, sending the puck high (and I think off the crossbar) and away. The crowd collectively gasped in disbelief on that chance, as Duchene had the Flames dead to rights, only he didn’t.

Roope Hintz’s goal was perhaps the least dramatic of his line’s contributions, but it was still a textbook Hintz rush goal. It came from Johnston, who had himself gotten the pass from Robertson, with an uncredited assist from Matt Dumba, who laid a heavy hit on the pinching Rasmus Andersson:

Roop's heating up! pic.twitter.com/CVHgZRj2pJ

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 9, 2024

It’s not every night that all three of the top line forwards are going to score. But tonight was about as positive a sign as you could’ve hoped for that they are building in confidence and chemistry, that they are not afraid to take risks and make plays despite the middling success. And for fans too, the goals are always the ultimate validation.

***

Dustin Wolf is a great young goalie, but his puck handling isn’t quite seasoned yet. It’s not just about playing the puck, but also about judging how much time and space you’ll have to get back into your crease after doing so. Steel said after the game that he was trying to catch Wolf unprepared.

“I knew it was kind of an in-between puck for him to play it,” said Steel. “He ended up playing it. Chubbs was right there, and he made a little touch, so I was just trying to sling one in and hopefully beat him to it or re-direct off of him.” Not every beautiful goal has to be a top-shelf triple deke, is the point here. Smart players score the goals they intend to score, and Steel did just that.

That goal seemed to rattle Wolf, as he gave up two more from distance to Thomas Harley, one that deflected off a Calgary player, and one that whistled past him high in the late 4-on-4. Calgary has something there, but I’m not convinced Wolf was fighting as hard to see that last goal as he was earlier in the game, which I suppose is human nature when you’re disappointed at an inevitable loss.

As for Thomas Harley, who scored said two goals, he barely seemed to care about them at the end of the game. “A couple of muffins,” he said, further scoffing when asked about not even going through the first-bump line for his final goal. Harley also mentioned he thought Oskar Bäck had deflected his first goal in, but that Bäck had been adamant it didn’t touch him.

Calgary is now three points behind Dallas, but if they continue to stay in contention, I can’t imagine they’d want to part with Rasmus Andersson, who so many people would like to target in a trade. And frankly, why would they? The reason everyone wants to acquire Andersson is because he’s a decent, top-four right-handed defenseman. Those are valuable assets, and Calgary doesn’t seem interested in a long rebound. They seem more interested in winning. And good players tend to help you do that more than good sells.