Game 39 AfterThoughts: Odd or Even
Everyone was fighting through a holiday hangover tonight
Mikko Rantanen was the Stars’ best player tonight. He scored a goal and added two assists—all at even-strength—factoring into all three of the Stars’ goals. It wasn’t enough for a victory, but it should have been. In a game filled with missed chances and squandered opportunities, the Stars came away with one point.
Maybe you agree with Glen Gulutzan, who said that the first two periods of this game were worse than Dallas’s fairly solid effort in Detroit before the break—also a loss in added time. And he’s not exactly wrong, as the Stars were loose with the puck early, giving up looks and rushes that they’ve largely worked out of their system. Chicago probably could have had four goals after two periods instead of the pair they got, while some of Dallas’s most consistent players had pucks slide off sticks or (more often) hit posts.
Both teams, at times, looked like they were in some kind of competition, daring the other one to make them pay for a mistake. And mistakes were not scarce, as the Stars got three or four breakaways outright, more than equaling the odd-man rushes Chicago got themselves.
It’s hard to be too sour after a game where the Stars got a point despite allowing three goals and missing a bushel of chances. It could have been worse, just as Detroit might have been. But it also could have been a lot better, too, and Jason Robertson knows this better than anyone, as he hit two posts clean, including one on a breakaway after he executed a nice deke and got the look he wanted, only to ring the iron.
Really, that chance was a good bookend with Mikko Rantanen’s shootout attempt, which is to say that time when the hottest player in the game saw the puck roll harmlessly off his blade at the most crucial of moments. Uncharacteristic, to say the least.
Like Rantanen, Jake Oettinger was really good, but not quite perfect, making a couple of huge stops that turned out to be game-savers, only to fall in the shootout to a player named Miles Lundin, about whom you know absolutely nothing else. How do I know this? Because I just made up that name, as the actual shootout winner’s name is Nick Landis, and I somehow don’t think very many of you eggnog-infused readers even noticed. For shame!
Less shame is due to Nils Lundkvist, who scored a goal from distance and played a solid game. Gulutzan said afterwards that he’s really liked how Lundkvist is battling along the walls more, and that the Swedish defenseman is usually at his best when he’s on his toes. Confidence is key, even if you win the fitness test every year.
Justin Hryckowian also has a lot to be proud of, scoring a hard-won goal at the end of a long shift. Hryckowian said after the game that he opted to stay out in order to help secure the zone before benefiting from a Wyatt Johnston shot off of (you guessed it) the post to extend his five-game point streak.
“We had a good O-zone shift, and just stayed out to kind of hold their D out there and not let them change,” Hryckowian said. “Obviously a great play through the neutral zone. Right place, right time.”
It was a nice filled with fortune both good and bad, but certainly a lot of it on both sides. Gulutzan said he’s glad to have a few days to practice as the team continues to shake the holiday rust out of their system, and there’s no reason not to expect the Stars to do just that.
As we’ve said so often, this team has a very high floor. And that remains true even when the floor is littered with a few rakes, as it was tonight. Elite skill can fight through a whole lot of obstacles, and Mikko Rantanen led this team through a host of them tonight. Turns out, having superstar players helps. Just some more of that hockey wisdom we like to dole out here every day.
After the Stars began the game with a plethora of good looks in the Chicago zone, you just knew the first counter-rush was going to be a dangerous one. Sure enough, it was:
Heiskanen’s pinch didn’t work out here, but Sam Steel probably could have played the pass better as well, as he loses track of Bertuzzi, allowing the puck to go right through the slot to create the slam dunk goal. But with Jason Dickinson threatening a one-timer as the third man on the rush in the middle of the ice, it was not the easiest of chances to defend.
Matt Duchene drew a tripping penalty with a nice move in the neutral zone to put Dallas on a power play, but the slight bit of holiday disconnection continued for the Stars, and the top unit was replaced with a full second power play unit just a minute into the chance—something fairly uncharacteristic for Gulutzan, who has usually opted to keep at least Robertson and Rantanen out for most of the two minutes even if other players change.
But the Stars would get back to level thanks to Nils Lunkdvist, who fired a simple shot from the point past a Sam Steel screen, and into the far side of the net past Arvid Söderblom:
Jason Robertson nearly got Dallas the lead right after the goal, too, with a great look from the left circle that he sent off the far post and out. Then André Burakovsky nearly finished a slick bit of stick work to get to the net, only for the puck to fall off his backhand.
Then Robertson hit the post again at the end of the first period after a great feed from Roope Hintz sent him in all alone. It was a helter-skelter sort of return to hockey for both teams, with far from refined play dominating the opening 20 minutes.
Artyom Levshunov got a Grade-A+ chance two minutes in, when a shot bounced high above the net and out of sight (and mind) of everyone but Colton Dach, who collected it behind the net and fed it in front to Levshunov, who got stopped by Oettinger.
A second Matt Duchene move drew the Stars’ second power play, but once again, good chances weren’t quite finding the usual polish, and Connor Murphy escaped the penalty box without damage. The Blackhawks’ 4th-ranked penalty kill had, so far, held the fort.
Then Jason Dickinson decided that it was high-time someone did something with all the time and space being afforded to puck-carriers in this contest, and he stepped into the high slot between Lindell and Heiskanen (after getting through the neutral zone a bit too easily) and ripped a shot high blocker that Oettinger couldn’t catch up to.
(Full disclosure: I find it difficult not to be happy when good things happen to Jason Dickinson, but with some difficulty, I will resume my veneer of objectivity.)
Anyway, the Stars once again refused to let the deficit linger, as Justin Hryckowian benefited from joining a rush at the end of his shift, after Duchene and Benn had both changed for Rantanen and Johnston. And Johnston hit the post, allowing Hryckowian to do this:
That’s a pretty good way to end a shift.
Chicago finally got their own power play after Kyle Capobianco’s battle with Dach at the net front escalated to a sufficient threshold to warrant a two-minute timeout, but it didn’t amount to much.
In fact, it amounted to a third Dallas power play after a Sam Steel shorthanded rush forced a Söderblom poke check attempt that dragged Steel down. The Stars would have 1:20 of power play time to begin the third period.
Once again, Dallas would generate looks but nothing more on the 5-on-4 set, keeping the 2-2 score intact as the third period got going. Oettinger would pitch in to do that as well, coming up with a save on yet another odd-man rush for Chicago—this time, after Capobianco got caught in the neutral zone.
The Duchene line drew its third penalty of the night (and fourth by Dallas) shortly after the save, when Benn curled back into the zone after a Chicago turnover and got tripped for a no-doubter.
But again—again—Rantanen and company (but mostly Rantanen) created chances whose larvae got stuck in their cocoons, with multiple Grade-A shots just not getting through Söderblom. Inevitably, Chicago would get their own power play on a Jamie Benn high-sticking call.
And even more inevitably, the best chance would come for Dallas late in the power play, when a Jamie Benn breakaway didn’t quite turn into a goal despite a decent move. Benn would lay a couple of decent hits (including a big one on Teravainen) right afterward, presumably out of pent-up rage, and then the top line would return and give Dallas a 3-2 lead, when Mikko Rantanen’s midsection caught a puck and he finished the chance himself:
But yet again, the Hawks countered quickly, this time with a play eerily similar to the Stars’ third goal, as Tyer Bertuzzi found to his benefit:
The Stars would get what felt like their fifth breakaway of the night when Mikko Rantanen came in with five minutes to go and what looked like the game on his stick. This time, he opted for a snap shot, but Söderblom didn’t let it slip through his arm and body, and what had become a wacky and wonderful game crept closer to overtime.
Wyatt Johnston knows exactly what to do with both of those adjectives, as he showed with 20 seconds to go, when he decided to try on [The Chicago Blackhawks] and ripped a shot off the crossbar after a marvelous individual rush.
Thus, overtime arrived.
Or at least, that’s what they call it. In this case, it felt like every Dallas power play concentrated into a five-minute 3-on-3. The Stars got chance after chance with the vast majority of possession, but Rantanen’s inability to elevate a puck over the pad after a perfect rebound chance summed up the set: Frustrating.
The shootout would be no less frustrating, as it progressed like this:
Robertson: Miss, high glove 0-0
Teravainen: Blocker save 0-0
Rantanen: Puck rolls off stick in the slot. No shot attempt 0-0
Donato: Backhand shelf, nice delay 1-0
Duchene: Five hole, 1-1
Burakovsky: Pad save. 1-1
Johnston: Backhand, blocker save. 1-1
Lardis: High blocker, goal. 2-1
A point is a point, and three even-strength goals are three even-strength goals, just as odd-man rushes are anathema to any coach.
These are facts. Now, let’s move onto something less valuable: Thoughts.
ESotG
Lineups
Dallas lined up this way:
Steel-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Hintz-Bourque
Hryckowian-Duchene-Benn
Bäck-Faksa-Bastian
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Capobianco-Petrovic
Oettinger in goal
Chicago went like this:
Bertuzzi-Dickinson-Slaggert
Teräväinen-Donato-Burakovsky
Moore-Greene-Dach
Lardis-Toninato-Lafferty
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Murphy
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Söderblom
AfterThoughts
The Stars shared videos on Hannah Bilka and Ally Simpson today that are pretty great watches. The two DFW hockey products both practiced with their PWHL teams in Farmers Branch today, and they are both every bit as excited as you would imagine they’d be to be playing a professional hockey game in a rink they grew up going to as a young fan.
We’ll be covering that game tomorrow, but don’t overlook the fact that the captain of Team USA (and future Hall of Famer) Hilary Knight is also teammates with Bilka, so she’ll be playing on Sunday, too. Knight has already said that this year’s Winter Games in Milan-Cortina will be her last Olympics run with Team USA, but she’s going strong as a professional, and isn’t planning to retire any time soon.
The PWHL Takeover Tour arrives in Dallas tomorrow (Sunday) at 5pm, when Seattle and New York play at American Airlines Center. You can get tickets here.
Nate Bastian was scratched for nine games straight before getting back into the lineup tonight. He was dealing with an illness early in that stretch (presumably the same bug keeping Ilya Lyubushkin out of the lineup tonight), but there’s no way around the fact that sitting for that long is tough on a player.
I talked to Bastian this morning, and he said he gets it: When the team is winning, so how are you going to take anyone out of the lineup? He knows his role, but of course, he also wants to play, like any NHL player. It was, I am sure, good for him to get back in tonight, though the nature of the game made it tough for him to have as big of an impact as he did in Anaheim.
Gulutzan said before the game that he expected the first game out of the Christmas break to be a bit less than a defensive clinic. Unfortunately, he was right: the Stars gave up two odd-man rushes in the first five minutes of the game.
Oliver Moore had a stick lift in the first period that sent Petrovic’s hockey-playing implement flying. (It also reminded me of a Jordie Benn moment. IYKYK.)
Nils Lundkvist had to get stitches to his face after taking a puck up high late in the third period. All indications are that it won’t be anything more than a (literal) flesh wound, though.
Thanks to overtime, Miro Heiskanen crossed the 28 minutes threshold in time on ice, but the Stars have three days before their next game in which to rest (and perhaps more importantly, practice).
They host Buffalo on New Year’s Eve—the same Sabres who extended their winning streak to eight games tonight. Should be an interesting night.
Jason Robertson probably couldn’t have done much in this game to sway his chances of making Team USA either direction, but man. The timing of it all made those posts a tad more cruel than usual in this one.
Matt Duchene looked really, really good tonight. Jamie Benn reads off him well, and Justin Hryckowian adds a Sam Steel-like quality to that line that allows the veterans to be in dangerous areas. As far as it goes, that’s working all right.
Only five players on the Stars had a negative plus/minus tonight: Heiskanen, Hintz, Lindell, Robertson, and Bourque, all of whom were -2. When those five skaters are getting tagged for a double negative, you know it was a pretty weird night.
Thomas Harley, however, continued his run of solid play from the Detroit contest. He nearly won it in overtime with a smart shot using an opponent as a screen, too. Having him back for 3-on-3 is a very good thing for this team’s overtime chances.
Söderblom went 10-for-10 with save attempts on four Stars power plays. And they were exclusively from below the tops of the circles. You can’t say the Stars didn’t make his job tough tonight, but credit to the Chicago goalie for pulling two points out of a weird game.
The Stars were also credited with five posts in this game (at press time, at least). I assume somebody wins a stuffed animal for that. Maybe it’s you!
As sloppy as the game was 53 looked really good. He and 96 have some great chemistry going.