Game 28 AfterThoughts: New Jersey Bedeviled

Adversity, Shmadversity

Old friends

With their win tonight, the Stars are 8-0-4 in their last twelve road games, and 10-1-4 on the road all season. There is no way to look at the Stars’ record of late (and their road games in particular) without coming away mighty impressed.

I generally don’t put a ton of stock in home/road records, as we’ve discussed before. But given the situations Dallas keeps encountering in these away games, their record is even more remarkable than it already seems.

Like tonight, for instance, when the Stars were coming off the devastating Tyler Seguin news. And playing without Lian Bichsel, or Thomas Harley, or Nils Lundkvist, or Matt Duchene.

Given how tired Dallas looked in the third period against New York, you could have excused a bit of a sag against the Devils, who have been one of the better teams in the NHL this year.

Instead, Jake Oettinger recorded a 3-0 shutout, the Stars blocked 23 shots, and three of their best players scored big goals when they needed them. It’s uncanny, remarkable, and downright impressive how Dallas has continued to pile up points with such a depleted roster all year, but tonight looked every bit like a confident, seasoned team overcoming some adversity en route to a very solid victory, as they’ve done so often this year.

This wasn’t complete robbery by Oettinger, but he had a couple of big saves when the Stars needed them (particularly late in the first period), and he looked exceedingly calm, sharp, and confident all night, which was even more impressive given how he’s been under the weather lately. And when you combine that level of goaltending with the fact that New Jersey had a lot of trouble getting pucks to the net from premium areas, you can imagine how frustrating this loss must have felt on the home side.

The defensive depth for Dallas really has been incredible, given how many injuries they’ve dealt with. Vladislav Kolyachonok has looked more confident every game, and the chemistry between the veterans Capobianco and Petrovic has to be of great comfort for Alain Nasreddine to be able to roll over the boards as regularly as he does.

But man, this defense really is driven by Lindell and Heiskanen, and they continued to be utterly dominant all night long. Lindell killed all but four seconds of the two Dallas penalties, and Heisaken’s stickwork and positioning tonight was as elite as that can get. And for that pairing to be able to keep their minutes relatively normal (24-25 apiece) is an even greater luxury, given the team’s situation overall.

The season is long, too compressed, and filled with a lot of questions about injuries and potential trades right now. But for Dallas to get three out of four points in these two nights is a reflection of what Glen Gulutzan’s group have been doing all year: Taking care of business, no matter what they’ve had to deal with.

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After a first period that was hard-skating but mostly played outside the interior of the ice at both ends, the Devils ramped up the pressure in the second, and the Stars had trouble keeping up initially. But sometimes that’s how road games go—you have to weather some storms and hang in the game, preventing the worst chances while waiting for your time to push.

Well, the Stars found their push when the Hintz line capitalized on some great pressure, which featured a couple of dangerous chances from Miro Heiskanen, the second of which he finished with a smart, far-side shot past a screen after some good work from Hintz and Benn along the wall to win the puck:

They nearly doubled the lead shortly after that, when a really slick Mavrik Bourque pass under pressure sent Justin Hryckowian in alone on a chance very similar to the one Juho Lammikko got late in the first. But Hryckowian couldn’t quite beat Jacob Markström, who made a nice save to keep things 1-0.

Then it was 2-0 later in the second, as the Stars’ push continued in earnest, and in case you forgot, Jason Robertson knows what to do when the other side gets caught out of position:

Dillon (#4 in red) tripping over Meier on the left doesn’t directly affect the play much, but it is a good example of just how out of sorts New Jersey was here.

From there, the Stars had a chance to add a dagger goal on the power play, when Mikko Rantanen drew a power play after sending Dougie Hamilton to the ice with a good fake, forcing him to trip the Stars’ forward. But from there, the New Jersey PK apparently studied the tape from last night’s game against the Rangers, because they refused entry to the Stars’ power play, and generated a couple of dangerous shorthanded looks in what the Stars really need to prevent from turning into a trend.

The third period saw the Stars looking to mount a stronger resistance than they did in their abysmal final frame in New York, but the Devils asked a lot of them. Jake Oettinger, however, started off looking as sharp as he had all game, including this nice (and tricky) stop:

The Stars’ penalty kill then had to come up with a big stop of its own after a Jamie Benn penalty, but as it’s done a lot lately, the group was outstanding, and Jake Oettinger didn’t have to make a single stop. On the night, the Stars’ PK went 2-for-2 with zero shots on goal allowed. That is as perfect as you can get outside of scoring a shorthanded goal.

But if you aren’t scoring a shorthanded goal, then scoring an even-strength goal will also do, and that’s what Mikko Rantanen, uh, did. Because tonight was Esa Lindell Setup Night (for those who observe), and Rantanen made sure not to miss it, stuffing in a puck that trickled through Markström. It pays to fight for space at the net.

It looked like the Stars were going to head to a power play with five minutes left in a 3-0 game, but after reviewing a play that saw Oskar Bäck’s face get cut with Dougie Hamilton’s stick up high, it turned out Hamilton’s stick hit Bäck’s, which caused the damage. So technically, no penalty occurred, and the call was rescinded.

Not that it mattered, though. Dallas calmly controlled things down the stretch, and they got Oettinger a shutout he thoroughly deserved. That’s a good way to end a tough road set.

Not-So-Esoteric Song of the Game

Lineups

Dallas had to make some adjustments after getting the awful Tyler Seguin news today:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Kolyachonok-Lyubushkin
Capobianco-Petrovic

Oettinger

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New Jersey did this:

Meier-Hischier-Bratt
Palat-Mercer-Gritsyuk
Cotter-Glass-Brown
Lammika-Glendening-Noesen

Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Dillon-Hughes
Cholowski-Nemec

Markström

AfterThoughts

• Before I forget, allow me to take this opportunity to share one of my favorite Brenden Dillon highlights (which I confess I probably do every six months or so):

  • Anyway, congratulations to Dillon on hitting 1,000 games played. His journey is really cool, and it couldn’t happen to a better guy. Don’t miss Amanda Stein’s wonderful piece on Dillon’s journey from undrafted player to Dallas Stars fan-favorite, and beyond.

• The Devils’ forecheck is a lot less aggressive than some other teams Dallas has faced recently, and it led to a pretty sleepy first period, with both teams more or less content to pressure and possess without ever generating much in the way of chances off the rush—until Juho Lammikko got sent in all alone late in the period, forcing Oettinger to make a glove stop on him and a rebound save on Stefan Noesen with his pad, which he did:

  • Dallas blocked 12 shots in the first period, so this was the bulk of the heavy work Oettinger was forced to deal with.

• Dallas has really found something with that Justin Hryckowian-centered third line. It’s easy to forget, but that’s a line with three players that all projected to be complementary wingers coming into camp, only for them to turn into a high-energy line that can work along the boards as well as add some offensive bite. That’s been huge.

• Razor called out this play by Ilya Lyubushkin as possibly a goal-saving one on the broadcast, and I tend to agree. Entertaining, is Lyubushkin always:

• Jamie Benn has been racking up points since returning to the lineup, and he added a couple more tonight. Who had the captain being a point-per-game player after returning from a collapsed lung?

• Brent Severyn and Brien Rea collapsed into what I can only describe as a fit of unexplained giggles during the second intermission. It’s good to know it happens to the pros, too.

  

• Jason Robertson scored again tonight. I wrote about him over at D Magazine on Tuesday, but if I could go back in time and insert this graphic into that story, I would:

  

  Then again, time-travel tends to have unintended consequences, so I’ll just tell you instead, and if you have a time machine, well…it’s up to you.

• This Kyle Capobianco reverse behind the net was one that surely brought some smiles on the bench. There is room for art in sports, folks.

• Hey, have you heard about the Dallas Stars and the second night of back-to-back games? Turns out, they’re pretty good at playing them:

  

• The Stars have zero extra healthy bodies right now on their roster. They have twelve healthy forwards and six healthy defensemen. And while Matt Duchene is still hopeful to return at some point in the next couple of weeks, the Stars can’t count on that for Friday, so I’d expect to see at least one player recalled this weekend, if not two.

  • With Lian Bichsel and Tyler Seguin both on Injured Reserve already, the Stars have two open roster spots. But if they need a bigger chunk of cap space than they have already, they can easily move one or both of Seguin and Bichsel to LTIR (though not season-ending LTIR) to free up some more space for the time being.

  • On defense, I still think Trey Taylor is probably the most logical recall, even if it’s just for insurance purposes. At forward, Arttu Hyry makes a lot of sense, given his versatility and bit of NHL experience already. But Jim Nill will be patient.

  • The Texas Stars are on an extended West Coast road trip through December 9 (and they’re playing tonight in Coachella Valley), but at the latest, I’d expect the NHL squad to bring an extra body when they head to Winnipeg and Minnesota after this weekend.