Game 35 AfterThoughts: Top Six Scores High Five
When Tyler Seguin went out of the lineup a month ago, the hope was that Logan Stankoven could come in and keep the Matt Duchene-Mason Marchment duo rolling. That didn’t end up happening, and while Marchment was able to stay hot for a bit longer, both he and Duchene had cooled considerably by the time Christmas rolled around, while Stankoven fell back down the lineup as his goalless streak nears 20 games.
And with Marchment now out for what looks like a while—Pete DeBoer called him “week to week” after practice on Saturday—Duchene’s line had to be completely rebuilt. That’s what the Stars did on Sunday in Chicago, rolling with the lines we saw at practice yesterday. The Stars reconfigured their forward lines in an effort to “load up” the top lines rather than trying to stay balanced without the personnel to do so. When Matt Duchene loses both of his planned wingers for the season, I suppose you kinda half to make compromises, and frankly, the Stars just need to find scoring of any kind right now, so it makes sense to turbocharge the high end of the lineup before worrying about balancing the, uh, balance.
It worked in this one, certainly. Five of the top-six forwards scored goals, and Dallas turned a lackluster first period into a laugher despite leaving a little on the table in terms of power play opportunities. But scoring any power play goals right now is a boon, and Robertson’s missle of a game-winner was just what the doctor ordered. The power play still looked rough as the game went on, though. It was really the Duchene line’s scoring that won this this game at even strength, as Duchene assisted on Evgenii Dadonov’s goal as well as Johnston’s.
Right now, Dallas just needs to feel like they’re capable of dominating a game rather than scraping by. And Chicago is a team that Dallas should absolutely wallop, especially when they get 17 minutes of power play time. (It tends to go better when you don’t give up a shorthanded goal, too.) I don’t think this game is terribly complex: the best players for Dallas pushed harder than Chicago’s, and that’s all they needed. Now the Stars need a similar performance against Buffalo so they can build some momentum and confidence, which might be in short supply for a few players right now. Not the top six, though.
Justin Hryckowian made his NHL debut, and he’s a cool story, as I’m sure you’ve heard. He also played with Pete DeBoer’s son five or six years ago, which DeBoer mentioned in morning skate, so that probably hasn’t hurt his chances. But Hryckowian has been great down in Texas, and it’s only fitting that he finally got into an NHL game on his third try. He played well in Chicago, though a game riddled with penalties including 17 minutes of power play time is hardly the ideal way for a bottom-six player to get lots of ice time. But with Marchment out for a bit, I suspect he’ll have more chances.
Jake Oettinger is far from balanced in how he’s been used this season, but he had a good game in Chicago. I don’t know if they just wanted to avoid Casey DeSmith repeating his House of Horrors in Chicago again, but if he doesn’t play against Buffalo on New Year’s Eve, Oettinger is at serious risk of overusage. Again, I don’t know the health of all the goalies or have the wisdom of Jeff Reese, but it seems like you’d want to avoid leaning on Oettinger this heavily this early, unless they’re really that desperate for results. And that’s the thing about most hockey coaches: in crunch time, they tend to lean on their best players quite heavily. It’s just disconcerting to see “crunch time” arriving in December.
***
Joe Pavelski stopped by the United Center to visit with the Stars this morning, you may have heard once or fifty times.
The Pavelski departure at the end of last year was a tough one, as it really felt like the Stars had missed a chance to do something special for a special player in his final season. And each time he’s shown up this year around the team, it’s a mixture of fond remembrance and blunt acceptance that those days are gone. Every team is different every year, and this year’s Stars can’t hope to recreate what Pavelski brought. They have to find a new way to make magic with a younger roster, and it’s pretty clear as 2025 approaches that they’ve yet to really solve that equation.
***
Connor Bedard had a nice move early on to announce his presence, but he wasn’t quite able to make Jake Oettinger work for the save. This was also the point of the game where I realized that John Buccigross was going to be shouting every time Bedard touched the puck.
Jamie Benn got the Stars their first power play thanks to Jamie Benn screaming “TOO MANY! TOO MANY!” according to Ray Ferraro, as the stricken Frank Nazar tried to skate back to the bench to even out the numbers. Benn being better at counting than the folks who are tasked with doing so is a sign of something, but it’s beyond me what that something might be.
Jason Robertson got a great feed from Logan Stankoven to get the Stars’ best look of the game halfway through the first period, but Soderblom’s blocker shot out to send the puck to the corner.
The Blackhawks scored the first goal of the game after Jamie Benn took a tripping penalty against Tyler Bertuzzi. Six seconds into that penalty, a partially deflected shot going wide hit Sam Steel’s stick as he was defending Tyler Bertuzzi on the back door. This was also the point of the game where I realized John Buccigross was going to be screaming any time Bedard might have scored.
Lian Bichsel took a slashing penalty right after that goal, and you could hear Ray Ferraro starting to summon his Patrik Stefan voice. The dread was palpable for the Stars, but they got through that one, and Wyatt Johnston (who continued looking like the most confident forward on the team) drew a penalty on Alex Vlasic to give the Stars a shot at equalizing.
They wouldn’t equalize on another mechanical power play, but Jamie Benn would stuff in a rebound after Chicago tried to rush a line change after the kill. Johnston Stankoven found Evgenii Dadonov for a chance extremely similar to the Johnston pass against Minnesota, but Soderblom’s pad knocked down the great deke and backhand shot, leaving a loose puck for Benn, who bullied the puck up and over the pad to give the Stars a much-needed goal to tie, and I am not making this up, the worst team in the NHL.
Patrick “Big Rig” Maroon (I know this is his nickname because he was called this on the broadast multiple times, and also because 2019 is still fresh) set up Kurashev for a gorgeous chance, but Kurashev decided not to shoot right away, instead freezing Oettinger with a move to the backhand before sending the puck right into the Stars goalie, letting Dallas off the hook after 20 minutes that could and should have been better.
After a tense back-and-forth first period, Dallas took their own Too Much Mans penalty when they got caught with six skaters very far from the bench. The Stars barely escaped that one after Lukas Reichel missed the better part of an open net on a scramble. And on the counterattack, Roope Hintz got his stick slashed in half, putting Dallas on their third power play. It passed much the same as the others.
Then Tyler Bertuzzi went banana sandwich when he jumped into Colin Blackwell along the boards and swung his elbow into Blackwell’s face, sending the Stars forward staggering to the ice. Blackwell had to be helped off, and the officials called a major penalty, which they upheld after review, as any elbow that injures the head or face automatically incurs. Thankfully, Blackwell would be able to stay in the game. Update: Pete DeBoer said after the game that Blackwell’s “nose might be broken, but nothing that would keep him out.”
As for the call itself, the phrase “at the discretion of the referee” is a key one in the description of an elbowing major. Because Bertuzzi’s elbow goes right into Blackwell’s face and takes him down, the officials would need a really compelling reason not to call the major. And even if you think Bertuzzi genuinely wasn’t trying to
So it was another five-minute power play for Dallas after one of their players had been hurt, and it was critical for them to make Chicago pay after failing to do so against New York after the Matt Rempe hit last week. And Jason Robertson did just that, confidently keeping the puck and shooting from the slot past a screened Soderblom, with Roope Hintz doing the space-occupying. It was a relief of a goal for both scorer and team alike.
Halfway through the major, DeBoer called a timeout to regroup, which made a ton of sense. Teams often get a little out of sorts when trying to run power play units for five minutes straight, and this was a chance to basically hit pause and treat it like another two-minute set for the remainder of the major. Dallas didn’t score another, but you can’t say they weren’t trying.
Dallas would score another goal after a fun little sequence where Lian Bichsel won a puck in the defensive zone by doing his best matador impression on Patrick Maroon, who threw himself into the glass like a store-brand Jacob Trouba. Bichsel then sent the puck up the ice, and Robertson and Duchene combined to bring it down low, where Duchene found Dadonov on the weak side, and put the puck right on his tape. And the Stars’ oldest player does not miss those, this year, burying his 10th goal of the season with ease.
They almost scored a fourth goal when Lindell got a puck on his tape as he was coming in all alone from the blue line, but he couldn’t quite beat Soderblom five-hole with a patient snap shot, and his effort to grab the rebound and bank it in was swallowed up in a horde of red jerseys. Lindell had a couple of plays in this game where he actively joined the rush, and that always seems like a sign that he’s at his best.
Nick Foligno missed an empty net because his stick was removed from his hands, much to his displeasure. You can imagine how furious you would feel if your team had just gotten a major penalty, only for a pretty clear slash in a critical spot not to get called. But Esa Lindell’s one-minute minor of a cross check on Bedard would get called, so hey, the universe solved things on its own, you might say. (Foligno did not say this, and would not.) But Dallas killed it, and the Stars had a two-goal lead with 20 minutes left to play. And when have they ever blown a lead like that?
Wyatt Johnston made sure to do what Dallas hadn’t done against Minnesota, as he turned the lead into a three-goal advantage right away, driving to the net before Bedard slashed his stick to pieces, only for Matt Duchene to shovel the puck back towards him, and the puck bounced off Johnston’s skate and into the net. It was that kind of a night for Dallas, where the bounces did what they needed to do, and Dallas was able to control the game as it went along.
Another such bounce came after Johnston pushed his way through Seth Jones and company to force a low shot on goal, which Soderblom kicked right to Duchene, who buried the rebound past a flailing Soderblom. That meant that every member of that line had a goal on the night, with Duchene also having two primary assists.
Patrick Maroon ensured the Stars would get further power play practice as he took two penalties against Mavrik Bourque at the end of the game to give Dallas a depressing dose of power plays to end things. The second one was a roughing minor of a cheap shot to the back of Bourque’s head, which is another way of saying Maroon tried to goon his way out of the initial holding call by starting something retaliatory. Thankfully, Bourque was okay, though the Stars’ power play looked decidedly less than lethal. But in a 5-1 game, garbage time is garbage time no matter how many skaters both teams have, and the clock ticked down to zero.
Dallas winning a game against a bad team isn’t a huge deal, except for that they haven’t done that often enough this year, so it kind of is. All told, Dallas did enough to win, but not to completely alleviate the fanbase’s anxiety. That can only happen if they go on a good run, and that has to start with one game. Maybe this one will be that game. The future is a mystery to us all.