Game 41 AfterThoughts: Some Cracks Beginning to Show

Halfway there

ESotG

This team can score in big moments. Mikko Rantanen’s arrival cemented this fact last spring, when the Stars shrugged off a terrible end to the regular season and came up with two massive overtime wins and a Game 7 of legend to beat the Colorado Avalanche.

No matter how rough a start Dallas might have had for most of last spring and this autumn, they’ve consistently found ways to get goals. Sometimes it’s been the power play, which carried them for much of the first half of the season. Other times, it’s been one big period, en route to overcoming one of almost innumerable 2-0 deficits.

The issue lately, however, has been that the Stars don’t need big goals. They’ve faced Chicago twice and the Sabres once. Little goals would have been fine. Really, Dallas would settle for the hockey equivalent of “not tripping over your own feet on the way into the Dairy Queen.”

Instead, they’ve found ways to lose. Against Buffalo, that way was “play worse than the opponent,” which is a tried-and-true recipe. But in the two losses to the otherwise-moribund Blackhawks, Dallas has allowed an opponent to build momentum and feed off hope, rather than crushing them beneath their heel, as the Chicago teams of a decade ago so often did to Dallas.

It was almost predictable that the final Hawks goal on Jake Oettinger—a howler that should never go in—would end up being the game-winner. At the time, it was just one of many forgettable moments in a holiday back-to-back that felt like a big ask in a season packed with games. But in retrospect, that lapse was the cherry on top of a really rotten sundae.

The Minnesota Wild are just two points behind the Stars now. The Utah Mammoth are (checks standings) well, okay, maybe things aren’t quite that dire just yet. But when you’ve spoiled fans all year by grabbing three out of every four points available, it’s natural for a four-game slide (which is really a two-game slide) to engender some panic.

Sure, how is this team losing to that team? The true answer is elusive, because all normal NHL teams (side-eye at Colorado) are going to have stinkers for any number of reasons in the course of a season.

For Dallas tonight, the recipe was simple: Their penalty kill got outplayed, and Oettinger gave up a horrible goal. Rantanen made a great play to get them a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes, but a rough penalty after a rougher shift gave Chicago a chance to grab the lead early in the second, and they took it.

Gulutzan said after the game that the Stars have lost their rhythm from before the Christmas break. It’s not an energy issue, but just a rhythm issue, and I can’t say he’s wrong. When the Stars were cruising, mistakes weren’t carrying over from one period to another, or sometimes even from one shift to another. Dallas was building momentum from withstanding pushes, and they always found ways to land big punches.

In the last few nights, they’ve been on their back foot for a bit too much of these games, and that led to frustration and tension, which Miro Heiskanen displayed when he took what I think has to be the first Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty of his career, shattering the glass next to the bench in anger.

If the perpetually even-keeled Miro Heiskanen is rattled, you know things aren’t fun right now. The good news is that the first half of the season can be put firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Dallas has built up an enormous bank of points, and the nature of the Central Division is such that their likely playoff opponent is as much as 95% determined already, depending on which projection you look at. Home-ice advantage isn’t nothing, but it’s also a far cry from the more dire straits that other teams are facing.

Last season, the Stars slid in the final stretch with very little to play for. This time around, they’re in a similar spot, but with the entier second half of the season still to play. It’s up to them to prove that cushion is more of a safety net than a liability. Because if this stretch doesn’t get sorted out soon, the nature of the questions will change into something very uncomfortable.

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The Hintz line didn’t waste time in this one, generating two Grade-A looks on their first shift of the game, with Hintz setting up Mavrik Bourque for an open look from the slot right off the hop that Spencer Knight saved.

Jake Oettinger made a big stop early on Bertuzzi after an Artyom Levshunov entry fouled up the Stars’ coverage enough to give Bertuzzi a look that required Oettinger’s glove to bail the team out. He did that, and then a rebound shot by Burakovsky kindly glanced off the outside of an open corner of the net to end the chance.

Mavrik Bourque nearly scored his second goal in two games after Jason Robertson won a battle to turn a puck over in the corner, but Bourque’s ensuing deflection of a point shot rang off the post and wide. It was good to see Robertson using his large frame to great effect in this one early, even if the puck didn’t bounce right for them.

Wyatt Johnston got a look of his own after some nice give-and-go work down low, but Knight sealed the far side as Johnston stepped in front to try it, and things stayed 0-0.

After Lindell took a hooking penalty (following a Heiskanen collision with Oettinger), the Stars nearly scored a shorthanded goal when Steel stepped up and intercepted a pass, going in with Blackwell, and ringing the Stars’ second post behind Knight after Moore deflected the pass to Blackwell off the iron.

That let-off for Chicago would be cashed in, as Artyom Levshunov was patient enough to finish a chance after Oettinger had a lot to deal with, and the Hawks’ defenseman beat a screened Oettinger with relative ease to make it 1-0:

Yes, it was a power play goal for an opponent, but with Esa Lindell in the box, it was really more like a 5-on-3 goal, if you think about it. Just some of that fresh 2026 Math for all the folks out there.

That bit of misfortune did what you would hope it would do to a trailing team, and spurred a push. The Hintz line got another look off the rush, and then Mikko Rantanen did his own bit of rushing and finishing with this smooth backhand to tie things back up:

That’s what you ask of your superstar players, and Rantanen delivered. But don’t overlook the assist from Sam Steel in the neutral zone to send Rantanen in. That’s a great example of a solid, responsible play turning into offense. I am told coaches love this sort of thing ever so much.

Duchene was moved up alongside Rantanen and Johnston in the final minute of the period, perhaps providing a preview of things to come. But what came instead was a weak (Razor’s word, not mine) cross-checking call on Nils Lundkvist behind the net, which meant Chicago would start the second period on their second power play.

The Blackhawks didn’t need long to convert this one, either, as they sent four players in aggressively, and the Stars didn’t sort out coverage anywhere close to adequately before Teuvo Teravainen scored the second goal for Chicago to make it 2-1:

Steel might be playing a bit too aggressively here—and it was a nice pass through him by Burakovsky—but I’d imagine Colin Blackwell would also, in retrospect, prefer to have been closer to the eventual goal-scorer here, with at least one of the defensemen ideally recovering more quickly. All in all, it was a rare lapse from the Stars’ top PK foursome.

Chicago nearly extended their lead on a Tyler Bertuzzi rebound right afterward, but once again, Oettinger robbed Todd’s nephew. That led to a wakeup call for Dallas, and a 2-on-1 with Steel and Rantanen ought to have at least tested Knight, but alas, Steel’s pass caught Rantanen between stick and skates, and things fizzled.

That led to a back-and-forth set with chances at both ends, as Oettinger and Knight each had to make saves. Hintz and Robertson combined for a couple more good looks, but the chemistry wasn’t yet bearing fruit despite the dangerous chances.

Then Chicago scored their first even-strength goal out of a nothing dump-in, when a breakout pass bounced off Wyatt Johnston and back in, and Esa Lindell got beaten by Ilya Mikheyev, who fired it far side on Oettinger.

This goal just can’t happen, and apparently Miro Heiskanen agreed, as he took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the goal, putting himself in the box and Chicago onto another power play by doing, uh, this:

It was the low point of 2026.

This time, at least, the Stars would pick up their guy in the box, making it through the two minutes with a very necessary kill. Some more pressure would get generated, but Knight and the Chicago defense were able to prevent the worst of the rebound chances from being found, and the frustration for Dallas grew, with Gulutzan moving Duchene back up to the top line with what felt like intent, but to no avail.

The Johnston line would later get hemmed in their own zone (after some good looks at the other end that—stop me if you’ve heard this one—didn’t get finished), and after a full two minutes of ice time that gassed 53 & 96, Justin Hryckowian tried to rush a clearance, and the puck tumbled over the glass to give Chicago its fourth power play of the game, with Dallas yet to earn one themselves.

Blackwell got a gift of a chance from a Petrovic point effort, but the puck got poked off his stick at the last second. And that was pretty much the Stars’ last look at the game, as Mikheyev came back down and scored one of the ugliest goals I’ve ever seen Jake Oettinger allow to make it 4-1:

The game pretty much became what you’d expect from that point. Rantanen drew the Stars’ first power play with 10 minutes to go, and it was at least a sniff at a game that hadn’t felt within reach for a while.

But the sniff was a foul one, as Dallas mustered nothing of consequence over the next two minutes. It was, as they say, One Of Those Nights, and you could see Chicago feeding off the Stars’ frustration at every turn.

Gulutzan gamely pulled Oettinger with four minutes to go, and it immediately bore fruit. Duchene and Rantanen made a pair of pretty passes, and Robertson dunked the second one to make it 4-2.

After a good push from Steel and company to draw another O-zone faceoff, Oettinger was pulled again, and the top guys came back for some extended 6-on-5 work that forced an icing after nearly two minutes of Stars pressure, which included a Wyatt Johnston shot that you expected to go in, given how this season has gone. But alas, it did not, and neither did a Hintz one-timer from Johnston’s power play office in front.

What did go in was a Matt Duchene shot with 16 seconds to go, as he converted basically the same look that Hintz had put into Knight just beforehand to make it 4-3:

No further miracles were incoming, however, and the Stars finally dropped the second game of a back-to-back set this season.

As we’ve seen, this group can find goals late when they push. But a three-goal deficit in the third period was too much for them to cancel out, this time around.

Lineups

Dallas Did this:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Lyubushkin-Petrovic

Oettinger

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Chicago brought this:

Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Moore-Lardis
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Foligno-Dach-Slaggert

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy

Knight in goal

After-AfterThoughts

• This graphic from the Victory+ broadcast really drove the point home: This team has gotten off to a fantastic start:

  

• Goaltending in the NHL seems tough, sometimes. Like this time, specifically, when the puck would go into the top right corner of the net:

  

• Sometimes, a number one goalie announces his presence early in a game. That’s what Oettinger did tonight with this save in the first period on Bertuzzi:

• The connection between Hintz and Robertson that we talked about earlier today is so apparent on plays like this, where Robertson is absolutely ready for a long-distance one-timer. Sure, it gets blocked, but this is absolute walkie-talkie communication:

• I don’t know the last time I saw Heiskanen this frustrated before the end of a game, where he’s breaking the glass with his stick in the second period. This team has very high expectations for themselves, and they haven’t been meeting them since the Christmas break. Sometimes a team can channel that feeling into a quick recovery, but it can also go the other way, and you can dig yourself into a deeper hole. I imagine that is one of the scariest places for any coach to be. But then again, this is what stoicism is for.

• Tyler Bertuzzi probably should have had a hat trick in this game, but he either missed or was robbed on multiple glorious chances. He was the only Hawk that was true for, tonight.

• Roope Hintz has been playing some of his best hockey lately, and it’s really fun to watch. He’s been flying, he and Robertson (and Bourque lately) are in sync, and overall, it feels like the Stars are just one more top-six winger from having two dominant scoring lines for the playoffs. But with 15 more games in January, things could look very different next month. Still, full marks to Hintz for bringing his A-game this season. He’s been a delight to watch.

• Ilya Mikheyev hit a post from the neutral zone when gunning for a hat trick with the Stars’ net empty. So I guess that counts as one bit of bad luck for Chicago, technically.

• Dallas will next play on Sunday at home against Montreal, who will surely be looking for some revenge from the walloping Dallas gave them in Québec a few weeks back. With the Stars on a four-game winless streak, they should have more than enough motivation for a repeat performance, though.