Game 3 WCSF AfterThoughts: Third Periods, Exclamations, Points

This was a very playoff-y playoff game

Look, you knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this. After two periods, the game was tied, the Jets felt like a team settling into a gritty road game, and you could feel disaster looming.

Then the Stars remembered it was the third period in the playoffs, and they just decided to the opposite of what they did for every third period of the last month of the regular season. Again.

It was a gift to the fans, that third period, which saw a wacky, fortunate goal bounce Dallas’s way right before Mikko Rantanen scored an encore goal less than a minute later. But because Dallas had managed to actually score first in this game, they never had to trail, which meant Winnipeg could never settle into the sort of game they really wanted to play.

But before that third period explosion, it was tense. I even felt, at the time, that if the Stars lost that third period, their hopes for the series as a whole might follow suit. Losing Game 3 would mean a must-win Game 4 before going back to Winnipeg at best even at 2-2 before playing two out of three in Manitoba. And despite the fact that Dallas won a game there just last week, Game 2 was the fresher memory. They needed to take care of business, but it was gettin’ nervy up in the ol’ AAC during that second intermission.

The playoffs are not for the casual consumer, something to dip in and out of when you’re bored. This isn’t the free sample stand at Costco. This is the weird tent at the circus where you poke your head in just out of curiosity, only to find that 30 years pass in the blink of an eye, and when you come back outside, nobody you used to know can even recognize you. You have seen things, things that change a person. Hockey, at its best.

And in this particular playoff hockey game, you probably found yourself suddenly having extremely strong opinions about the wording of NHL Rules about kicking, deflections, sticks, and propelling (or the lack thereof). You also found yourself feeling either aggrieved or embarrassed on Mason Marchment’s behalf, or perhaps both at the same time.

Playoff hockey—especially this year—doesn’t have to make sense. It only has to make you fall in love. And it does that, reliably, every time. Because if you’re not in love, why else would you feel so heartbroken when things go wrong?

This particular game was all of the best kinds of weird to experience. It is also very fun to talk about, and absolutely fascinating to reflect upon. But before we dig into all of those things, we need to start with something that hasn’t gotten enough love: the power play.

Thomas Harley gave a stock answer after the game when asked about the power play’s consistency in the playoffs, and I suppose that’s the best way to go if you want to spread the credit among all ten players on the two units combined. And there’s a lot of credit to go around.

Through 10 games in the playoffs, some data points, Dallas has a 30% power play so far, which would have ranked #1 in NHL during the regular season. They’re just off the playoff lead, in fact.

But the most important stat might be that Dallas’s power play has scored in every game other than their two shutout losses. It’s been consistently dangerous in almost every game, and tonight, it gave them a rare (lately) 1-0 lead. That matters. But man, they need to stop asking their penalty kill to take care of twice as many jobs as the power play does. That’s a great way to let teams get back in games you ought to be winning.

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Just as Winnipeg scored on their early double minor last game, so also did Dallas need to capitalize on one of their first two power plays to put Connor Hellebuyck on notice. This would not be another Game 2, a shutout in front of his home fans, with everything going his way. He was going to be just as uncomfortable as he’s been on the road all year. True to form, it never did get much better after that early goal. Hellebuyck was good, but he was entirely mortal. I’m sure that fourth goal felt all kinds of inevitable, for him. Oh, fantastic. Of course it’s Mikko Rantanen, with all the time and space he could ask for, right after that dumb goal I put in myself.

How uncomfortable has Hellebuyck been on the road? Well, He’s rocking a .772 Sv% on the road and over a 6.50 GAA in four games so far these playoffs. And those numbers that actually improved tonight, if you can believe it.

I’m not a big fan of using home/road splits to tell stories about teams, just because I think every hockey game tends to be its own unique little snowflake, disastrous or successful as it may be. Trends are worth mentioning, and some teams are clearly enjoying more home-ice advantages than others. But the teams that tend to be best at home tend to be teams that are good to begin with, so it’s not often that helpful to talk about “great home teams” in any sense other than describing what has happened.

But man, if ever a goalie looked like he had rabbit ears, it’s Hellebuyck right now. That St. Louis series might have done a number on him, because even though he’s clearly the best goalie in the game when you look at the regular season numbers, his postseason and especially postseason road performances tell a whole different story.

Dallas has a massive chance now to land a critical blow on Hellebuyck and Winnipeg by going up 3-1. All they have to do is win a game at home. If they can do that, they might not even need Game 6—which is also back at home—but it will be there if they do. They’ve won two of the first three. Now they only have to win two of four.

Of course, they were up 2-1 against Colorado, too, and that proved a bit more work than they’d hoped. And they were also up 2-1 in the series against Edmonton, last year. (Sorry.)

This year, though, they also have Jake Oettinger. Who, unlike Hellebuyck, has been biggest when the lights are brightest. Oettinger has a .911 Sv% in 10 games, which is the exact same figure Jakob Markstrom put up in 5 games while he heroically kept New Jersey alive despite playing behind a blue line held together with masking tape and filled with cotton wool.

Oettinger has faced down Nathan MacKinnon in seven straight games, and how he’s facing the NHL’s top everything team, and they’re starting to get frustrated. He loves every minute of it, and you can tell.

The confidence is high right now, and it should be.

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Back to the penalties for a second: Mason Marchment absolutely cannot lose his head like he did at the end of the second period. Yeah, he probably should have drawn at least one power play in that frame, but he’s earned the reputation he has through nobody’s fault but his own. And moments like Sunday evening’s tap/whack to the shins of the longsuffering Graham Skilliter are not going to help that situation.

But for all that, it sounds like Marchment will not suffer further/any consequences for his actions.

Still, the league discussed Marchment’s actions, and every single official in the NHL and AHL is going to be talking about this tomorrow. Marchment may have “gotten away with it,” but he can’t control his temper after the next no-call he has to deal with, I wouldn’t be on him getting anything close to this much leash in the future.

Two folks had Tweets I really resonated with regarding Marchment’s actions:

Also, let’s be real for a second: if you’re coaching a youth hockey team, you absolutely bench a player for this, right? This is behavior nobody should be remotely okay with at any other level.

But like Mark says about, there is a special relationship that exists between NHL officials and players, who curse and grab one another while also bidding a usually pleasant good night after the game, and swapping fun hockey stories in airport lounges should they happen to run into one another.

Again, it is better to control one’s temper, always. Marchment is getting away with one here (it looks like) because a referee was not threatened by his actions. Skilliter trusted that the tap to the shinpads (yes, officials wear shinpads) was nothing more than the way soccer players will put a hand on a referee’s shoulder while pleading their case. He will almost certainly not be so lucky the next time. Best to avoid a sequel.

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What does it say that this felt like sort of a “quiet” three-point night for Mikko Rantanen, by his standards? No hat trick (boring) only one goal (just one?), and even the one primary assist he had was on the power play (basically free, on this team). Call it a slump, right?

I have never seen something like this, not ever. Even the Leon Draisaitl five-game tear that we were all talking about the other day didn’t register quite like Rantanen’s run has, partly because we tend to eschew Oilers scoring records around here, and partly because scoring points with Connor McDavid is like getting rained on in the Amazon. It tends to happen no matter what you’re doing.

Here’s his goal from tonight. The Stars executed a night traversal of neutral thanks to Roope Hintz primarily, but in the end, Hintz hands the puck off and drives to the net, knowing good things are bound to happen, given whom he handed the puck to.

You can see the still image of Rantanen just after his shot release above, with the puck passing over Hellebuyck’s shoulder. I love how just after his release, because of his hard follow-through, he goes down to one knee after the shot.

Rantanen is so large, so skilled, and so smart. His passing is already perhaps the best on the team—I said a soft “wow” at two different passes he made tonight, just because of how ridiculous it was that he was able to manipulate the puck in such a way to get it to a spot the defending forward clearly didn’t want him to get it to. He’s just better than everyone else on the ice on any given shift, and it leads to a delightful array of highlights, whether they result in a goal or not.

He also, I think it’s worth pointing out, has avoided that scourge of hot scorers everywhere: overtry. He’s not getting too selfish, and he’s not trying to overtly defer to prove he’s not selfish. He’s simply taking what’s given, or forcing the door open just a little bit more, because he’s big enough to do it.

We’ve said it before, but when Jim Nill made the Rantanen trade, I heard not a small number of people expressing concern, because why were the Stars adding “another forward” when they really needed help on defense?

The answer, clearly, is that they were never adding “another forward.” They got precisely the player they paid for: a superstar. And you can’t ever really overpay for that sort of player, when they can do what Rantanen is doing.

Also, I low-key loved the argument-as-passing between Petrovic and Rantanen on the goofy third goal. My read was that Rantanen wasn’t actually expecting to get the puck right back, but he was ready to deal with it if he did, so he just flung it on net. Obviously, it rebounded out to Petrovic, and obviously, it worked out. (Definitely True Fact: 75% of NHL player interviews on camera feature the word “obviously” used at least twice. Listen for it.)

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As for that third goal, I read and listened to a whole host of opinions about the NHL ruling to allow the goal. First, let’s watch it again, if only to see that Lian Bichsel hop into the pile as he smothers his defense partner while he’s already being mobbed by his teammates.

It deserves to be reitereated: Bichsel played with Alex Petrovic in the AHL last year and this, but Bichsel always knew he was going to be in the NHL before too long. There was no such guarantee for Petrovic, this year, even after Petrovic’s playoff parachute drop late in last year’s run.

Bichsel could have just been one of those players whose NHL career gets started right when another player’s NHL days start to end. But that’s not how it’s gone in the playoffs. Instead, Bichsel sees the veteran teammate who was toiling away at a level below get brought back up in the biggest moment of all.

And tonight, he saw that teammate score a game-winning goal. Yeah, I’d say that warrants a hug or two.

Okay, back to the goal. Let’s start with the NHL’s official explanation:

Explanation: The Situation Room initiated a video review to further examine if Alexander Petrovic kicked the puck into the Winnipeg net. Video was then used to determine if the puck made contact with Petrovic’s stick prior to it entering the net. After looking at all available replays, video review supported the Referee’s call on the ice that Connor Hellebuyck propelled the puck into his own net.

And here’s some additional context for the decision.

First, let’s not skip over the fact that we are actually getting a version of what we’ve all been asking for: the reasoning of the on-ice officials. Friedman is hardly a pool reporter going in to talk to Graham Skilliter after the game, but he is at least, probably via the NHL Situation Room in Toronto, relaying what some of the conversations between the referees and Toronto were about.

Next, I think it’s important to note here that the officials apparently “felt strongly” that the puck was not “illegally kicked” in. That right there tells you that the officials, deep down, thought this goal should stand, based on the rules of the game they’re paid to officiate.

Is seven minutes (more, actually) too long to review a goal in the playoffs? In a vacuum, absolutely. after about five minutes, the video board showed the referees looking at the tablets, and the crowd all began to boo so loudly it was more like a collective “STOP IT, ALREADY” outcry. Doing that to the fans probably tells you something has gone wrong.

As for the play, my read of the video is this: Petrovic tried to kick the puck to his stick, but the puck bounces wildly off his skate, and he fans with his stick, right here.

I would be willing to bet that this, right here, was the thing that prompted so many different video angle requests from the officials. It looks just possible that the toe of Petrovic’s blade does, in fact, send the puck north along the goal line (as commenter David Unett pointed out earlier tonight), but the puck is spinning and bouncing so wildly that you don’t have the benefit of being able to tell if it really does change course conclusively here.

The puck then bounces toward Hellebuyck I think without touching any other Winnipeg player’s stick, and Hellebuyck tries to swipe it below the goal line. And he does, sort of.

In the end, the officials had a couple of ways to allow this goal.

First, they could have ruled the puck hadn’t been kicked in an intentional manner, like the officials did with the Artturi Lehkonen volley from last round. Intent, remember, is key to the rule, as you can note from the word “deliberately” here.

Well, Petrovic pretty clearly does kick the puck deliverately, though you could quite reasonably argue he’s not remotely trying to score with that kick, only to control it and stickhandle it afterward. But still, he does swing his skate at the puck, and it does travel toward the crease after he does so. That was probably a hard sell, hence the extended review.

So with that easiest and cleanest way to allow the goal not clearly available to them, the officials had another recourse: the fact that the puck was traveling away from the netmouth until Connor Hellebuyck deliberately turned and took a whack at it, sending it backward into his own net. If it just deflects off the goalstick and goes in, then it still doesn’t count. But if the goaltender is an active participant rather than a passive one in the contact between the stick and puck? Well, that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

The puck is at the top-middle of this shot. Great look, IMO.

As some Winnipeg reporters have correctly pointed out, such a call would mean you’re talking about an own goal, if indeed the puck was not going in until the goaltender put it in himself. But the NHL scoring does not reflect an own goal, but rather a goal and two assists. That sure does seem inconsistent to me, but alas.

By the way, here’s what happened: the puck basically shorthops on Hellebuyck, so when he swipes his stick at it, the puck bounces of the angled stickblade and spins up and off of it, fluttering perfectly into the net in another bout of karmic retribution for the weird bounces Dallas suffered in Game 2.

If you’re struggling to picture how this could happen, just think about what happens when you try to kick a short-hopped soccer ball right after it’s bounced on the ground: it’ll fly way up high, as the friction from the contact with the ground (ice) has given it torque. I won’t insert a physics video here, but you can watch this effect.

And because the puck isn’t a sphere but rather a disk hitting an angled stick blade, the effect is less symmetrical than Hellebuyck expects. The puck spins harshly off his stick rather than getting pushed horizontally away, and it tumbles end-over-end in the cruelest possible path, for him.

My final theory is that the referees simply looked over and saw Hellebuyck lying on the ice like this and concluded, “Yeah, he knows it’s his fault,” and went from there.

Tough, tough break for Hellebuyck. That will not be much consolation for him.

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This game goes very different if the penalty kill doesn’t go 4-for-4, by the way. It’s wild to me that Oskar Bäck, who has been playing serious shorthanded minutes with Steel on the opening PK duo, could come out of the lineup for Blackwell, who is also a very effective penalty-killing forward against the most dangerous power play in the NHL (regular season edition). The Stars have a lot of depth, even on the penalty kill.

Mikael Granlund’s work at the end of one such kill to carry the puck deep is really impressive, by the way. He goes from this situation, as the penalty expires:

To this situation, about to be closed down along the boards as he goes 1-on-4 in the Winnipeg zone. Donezo, right?

Not so much. Granlund completely loses Neal Pionk, forcing Niederreiter into a desperation dive as it dawns on him: there just might be an open exhaust port at the end of the trench Granlund is currently flying through. So he dives:

You know the rest: it’s the answer to the question about what happens when you have a tired, frustrated power play unit trying to backcheck. The answer is, they don’t.

Granlund falls flat, then gets back to his knees, with the puck still there. He sticks with the play, and he dishes it out to Harley, beating another couple of Jets with a pass after he’s already beaten two with his skates. Mikael Granlund won’t even bother to get back on his skates before he begins to celebrate the goal, still on his knees:

Many playoff goals are a result of exploiting big mistakes, or even small ones. But here, Granlund faces down four Jets skaters and the best goalie in the world (regular season edition) and decides that with Jamie Benn stepping out of the box, he can afford to kill some time and try some guys on. And on this trench run, there is no try. He does it.

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A couple of final thoughts before I sleep:

• Jason Robertson was playing back down on the fourth line by the end of the game after starting with Benn and Johnston. But by “fourth line” I really mean “with Rantanen and Sam Steel,” which is basically a top-six scoring unit, as is any trio involving Rantanen right now.

• The other way to think about that move was that Evgenii Dadonov was moved up to the third line, and he was involved in the Wyatt Johnston goal to make it 5-2.

  • First, I loved how Dadonov slammed his stick down at the back post once he saw Johnston was getting a pass from Benn to one-time at the net. Hockey coaches would be proud of that.

    

  • Second, don’t overlook the excellent play by Wyatt Johnston to spring Dadonov in the first place. He closes his skates to trap the puck that Morgan Barron is trying to get back deep in the Stars’ zone (note Benn backtracking in case it doesn’t get out), but Johnston will control it and spot Dadonov bolting for the far blue line

    

  • Johnston will find him, setting up the 2-on-1 with Benn

    

  • Yeah, it would’ve been slick for Benn to score on the initial pass from Dadonov, but it was a three-man effort nevertheless when it finally did put the game away.

• The fourth line (sans Rantanen) got hemmed in a couple of times, including for a goal. I’m not sure DeBoer will be able to resist bringing Bäck into the lineup on Tuesday after Josh Morrissey deked around Blackwell like he was cosplaying as Mikael Granlund or something, but then again, Morrissey has deked a lot of players like that. It’ll be something to watch, at least.

• Early in the game, the physical play was really noticeable, but I particularly enjoyed this sequence of hits that culminated in all of Benn, Johnston, and Robertson laying decent hits (that delighted the crowd) in the span of like 10 seconds midway through the first period

  

  Jamie Benn had another penalty in this game, but when he’s bringing everyone into the fight in that way, good things can happen. Or at least, entertaining things. We’ll settle for entertaining, so long as Mikko Rantanen is still scoring three points a night. Statistically, that is officially a likelihood given recent history. Okay, well, I may not understand how statistics work. But apparently, neither does Mikko Rantanen.