Game 29 AfterThoughts: Sink, then Swim

Dallas is getting pretty good at outwaiting their opponents

You can’t make old friends

The Stars keep doing this.

Against New Jersey, the Stars didn’t really start looking comfortable until midway through the game, and that would up being a shutout against the 5th-place team in the league (at the time).

Against the Rangers, Dallas was fortunate not to lose both points altogether, given how deflated they looked in the third period. But they got a point in an overtime loss.

Cut to tonight, against a scrappy Sharks team, and the Stars looked like they were just waiting for disaster to strike as the contest went on, giving up a breakaway during a 1-1 tie and taking back-to-back penalties right off the bat in the third period.

Somehow, that all translated into a 4-1 victory when the final buzzer sounded.

“We stuck with it. It was hard,” Gulutzan said. “I thought we started off good, then I thought they had a little bit of a push. Our penalty kill, the two kills in the third period, was massive […] I thought the penalty kill was the difference there.”

Indeed, special teams jump out when you look at a game where the Stars’ PK continued to roll with 23 straight successful kills, on top of a power play that went 1-for-2.

But this game was also about how the Stars have found ways to weather the inevitable pushes that teams will mount, relying on their underlying defensive structure along with the overriding skill of their top offensive players to win the day.

And win they have, to the tune of a .741 points percentage that would have easily bested that of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets of last year. The Stars have simply piled up victories, nipping at Colorado’s heels in a manner itself unthinkable, given how otherworldly the Avalanche have been.

“We just stick with it,” Sam Steel said afterward. “Guys can step up in big moments, obviously Mikko, and we got a lot of guys who can do that. Robo scores huge goals, all those guys. So we know if we stay in games…we’ll have a chance.”

I can’t help but think back to last year, when a Stars team that was likewise accumulating a good number of wins also mixed in a few stinkers, like a pair of losses before Thanksgiving where they gave up six goals to Chicago and Carolina, or a real clunker of a 4-1 defeat in early December to Nashville.

This year, at least so far, the Stars simply aren’t letting even their bad games get out of hand. And when you let this team stay in the fight, they usually end up finding the knockout punch.

It’s appropriate that Mikko Rantanen ended up delivering one of said punches, since he also took three minor penalties during the game to go along with his three-point night. Cleaning up after yourself is a virtue.

Gulutzan joked after the game that he asked Rantanen if he was chasing the penalty-minute lead or the points lead in the NHL, and both of them laughed about it. Yes, Gulutzan also said that they don’t want Rantanen in the box as much as he’s been, obviously. But I also think it’s worth contemplating how Rantanen’s more ferocious countenance has led this team to a new identity altogether.

They’re dangerous. Not always in the right ways, but very, very often in the effective ones. And hey, you don’t have to be safe, so long as you’re good.

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A pretty sleepy start to the game was livened up when Rantanen was able to take a puck off Dmitry Orlov and head in on a breakaway—one of a couple Dallas got in this game but couldn’t score on—drawing a delayed penalty in the process. However, Askarov made a blocker stop, and the Stars had to settle for a power play. And by “settle for,” I mean “they did not generate any shots on goal during the next two minutes despite a good amount of possession in the offensive zone.”

The Stars’ next power play came after Robertson fought through a Macklin Celebrini hook along the wall, but the Sharks’ penalty kill once again dared Dallas to do something, and this time they would Do Something Indeed:

That made it 1-0, and I tell you what, the Stars just continue to insist upon setting up Wyatt Johnston in that spot, and even when it doesn’t work, it works. This power play is something else, managing to defy even the most well-scouted countermoves in order to find the best looks and finish.

Mikko Rantanen would take a slashing penalty (he does that) with two minutes to go, but the Sharks wouldn’t muster much on it, and the Stars went to the intermission with a 1-0 lead that was entirely deserved.

The second period saw similar control from Dallas to start, with the San Jose third defense pairing getting hemmed in for nearly three minutes early on. But Rantanen would take his second penalty of the game with a trip that wasn’t terribly preventative, and the Sharks had a chance to equalize what had thus far been a pretty unequal game.

But the Stars’ penalty kill did what it has been doing, and the Sharks wouldn’t get a single puck on net. Their luck wouldn’t extend into 5-on-5 time, however, as Colin Graf made the most out of a point shot with traffic in front, sweeping home the loose puck before anyone else could find it to tie the game up.

Bourque is fronting the shot here, but perhaps he needs to be tying up his man’s stick as well. Alas, he wasn’t able to prevent the chance, but I’m not inclined to be overly harsh about this play.

Speaking of prevention, Vladislav Kolyachonok did marvelously to track down Will Smith on a breakaway that looked destined to make it 2-1 for the Sharks (clip down below), as the Belarusian’s skating and stickwork negated any shot at the last minute, and the Stars survived. Again, the work of these depth defensemen for Dallas is just unreal, and Gulutzan praised them accordingly after the game, saying that they haven’t just been net-neutrals, but that they’ve actually been positively contributing to winning games outright—not something you often expect of your 8th or 9th defenders on the depth chart.

But yes, surviving is what Dallas looked like they were doing for far too much of the second period (and early in the third). Outside of a 4-on-4 set, Dallas had trouble stringing good shifts together, and they were probably fortunate not to take on more water than they did in the middle frame, even if most of San Jose’s chances didn’t turn into shots on goal.

The second was the sort of period where you felt Dallas had been lulled into a false sense of security a bit, with occasional players trying to drive energy into the game, like Robertson did with a big solo rush and a shot through a defender’s leg, or Hryckowian did with a big hit at center ice. But overall, the Stars just looked like they were waiting for a reason to start putting the pedal down, and that didn’t really happen before the second intermission arrived.

The third period began ignominiously, as the Stars immediately took a penalty on a high-sticking call that was initially made on Kolyachonok, only for the call to be re-assessed to Lyubushkin, for reasons I couldn’t really understand in real time.

However, the Stars made it through that kill (which marked their 22nd straight successful one), only to take yet another one shortly afterward, when Wyatt Johnston got tagged with a hooking minor in the offensive zone.

But the Stars Penalty Kill happened again, so make it 23.

As the third period ticked down, Dallas continued to tempt fate. Alex Wennberg looked like he had an empty net begging for a rebound off the end boards, but his one-handed swipe didn’t quite work out, as you can see, and the tie game continued into the final 10 minutes of regulation, with shots on goal sitting at a less-than-raucous 16-15 in San Jose’s favor.

But games like these are where role players shine. And after creating some chaos in the Sharks’ zone for the first time in a little while, Sam Steel would follow up his own rebound, poking a puck through Askarov that doinked (technical term) off the inside of the post and in to make it 2-1.

It’s fitting that Steel ended up with the goal, given his work on the forecheck to turn the puck over initially behind the net. Also, every Sam Steel goal is a Thoroughly Fitting Goal.

An even more fitting goal was the next one, which Mikko Rantanen scored to make it 3-1 after Steel didn’t quite see a passing lane to find him. But Rantanen eventually got the puck anyway, and he quickly discarded Dellandrea and put a puck far side before Mario Ferraro could close him down.

The Sharks didn’t quit after that, however. Shortly after pulling Askarov with around three minutes remaining, Macklin Celebrini thundered in a cross-ice pass with a vicious one-timer.

Except, it turned out that Philipp Kurashev had jumped the gun on the dump-in, putting San Jose offside to begin the sequence. Dallas challenged the play accordingly, and after review, the tally was chalked off. Score one for Patrick Dolan and Chris Demczuk, I suppose. (Or rather, don’t score one. You know what we mean.)

“I’d like to say that I got a keen eye for these things, but I couldn’t tell you.” Gulutzan said. “Patrick and Chris, our video coaches, they had it right below our feet before the play even ended, that this play’s offside. So we knew right away. Give them a lot of credit, it was close. It was a skate in the air, and they picked it out, puck’s in the air. Good quick decision by them.”

That set up perhaps the most interesting statistical goal of the night in my book: the Stars first empty-netter since October 14, back when Hintz and Faksa both scored ENG’s against Minnesota. Because tonight, Miro Heiskanen fired a puck from below his goal line in a great impersonation of Esa Lindell, finally putting the game to bed at 4-1.

ESotG

Lineups

Dallas rolled with this group:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Kolyachonok-Lyubushkin
Capobianco-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal

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San Jose did with these lines:

Toffoli-Celebrini-Smith
Kurashev-Wennberg-Eklund
Skinner-Dellandrea-Graf
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette

Orlov-Liljegren
Ferraro-Klingberg
Dickinson-Leddy

Askarov

AfterThoughts

• I didn’t have a chance to mention it in today’s Roundup, but I also had a moment to chat with Kyle Capobianco today, and he set me straight on a couple of things.

  • He and Alex Petrovic didn’t really play much together in Texas, contrary to a phantom memory I had of them doing so at times last year. But he was very complimentary of Petrovic’s calm presence on a pair, and how it makes it really easy to play with such a partner.

  • Capobianco played primarily on a pairing with Luke Krys last year, the reliable right-shot Texas defensemen who is still recovering from an Achilles injury. Side note: how good will Texas’s blue line potentially look in January, when they could theoretically have all of Kolyachonok, Capobianco, and Krys back? Very good, is the answer.

  • Capobianco also said that playing second-unit power play minutes has been helpful for his game, as it’s given him more touches of the puck than he might otherwise have at just 5-on-5.

  • Lastly, Capobianco said he has recently begun to enjoy coffee in the last year or so, and he’s really developed a love for the Aeropress. (Which is an extremely good and affordable way to enjoy high-quality coffee, by the way. If you know, you know.)

• Kyle Dubas and Jason Spezza attended Friday night’s game, which makes sense, with Pittsburgh in town early ahead of their matchup against Dallas on Sunday. But with Julien Brisebois also on hand for Sunday’s game, you might also presume that those two members of Doug Armstrong’s Team Canada management group were doing a bit of first-person scouting ahead of the group’s three-day Olympic roster meetings that kick off on Sunday. We’ll see if Wyatt Johnston (or Celebrini) made a meaningful impression before the month is out, one suspects.

• Rantanen’s backhand is such a weapon most times, but I fear he telegraphed this early chance a bit too much:

• Jason Robertson has scored a whole bunch since January 1st. Specifically, this much: 4th-most in the entire league in the 2025 calendar year.

  

• San Jose didn’t get their first shot on goal until over 14 minutes into the first period, and it was a Ty Dellandrea dump-in from center ice. That’s not quite ideal, if you’re San Jose.

  • Here is a shot chart from the first period, in which San Jose had a full two-minute power play:

    

• Macklin Celebrini is an entertaining player, even when things don’t work out for him. If you can’t put the puck in the net, may as well get in there yourself, right?

• Mikko Rantanen took three minor penalties in the first 35 minutes of this game. The third was a matching slashing minor with Jeff Skinner, and neither player was particularly happy with the call. Players often aren’t, though.

• Vladislav Kolyachonok somehow got back to track down Will Smith on a breakaway, finishing the defensive work with a brilliant poke check:

  • Take another look at the play from the other zone, and you can see how well Kolyachonok skates to stay in the play:

• In today’s Roundup, I mentioned that the Stars were one of only a few remaining teams without a 4-on-5 shorthanded goal yet this year, and that San Jose is one of the teams that has surrendered the most such goals. But Sam Steel’s opportunity to prove me a prophet came close, but without a cigar at the end of the rainbow or whatever.

  • (I appreciated the effort, at least.)

• A bit of levity arrived when a puck got wedged in Alex Wennberg’s skate with five minutes left in the game, and play had to be stopped as a result. Despite a few whacks, the puck remained stuck in Wennberg’s skate, until the person you call to solve problems finally managed to knock it loose: Esa Lindell.

• Tim Liljegren was pretty hard on himself for the goal Sam Steel scored. No word on whether Ty Dellandrea was equally self-deprecating after the Rantanen tally, but if you haven’t read Sheng Peng’s excellent piece on Dellandrea, however, you really ought to do so.