Game 42 AfterThoughts: Canadian Tired Centre
Three wins in the first four games of a five-game road trip already makes the journey a success for Dallas, but this game felt pretty winnable, and it was a shame the Stars got trampled for a lot of the second period.
And when I say “trampled,” I mean what Pete DeBoer said after the game, that the Stars didn’t match the Senators’ intensity at that point, and that ended up costing them. In fact, Dallas barely showed up for the first half of the second period, and it’s a bit of a miracle (read: DeSmith was oustanding) they didn’t have a bigger deficit after 30 minutes than the 2-1 scoreline showed.
In fact, as you can see from this chart, the Stars really didn’t generate much of anything after the 15-minute mark of the first period until the power play they got halfway through the second. And the mere fact that Dallas was trailing for the second half of the game, but still ended up being outshot after 60 minutes is a pretty big indicator that the Stars never really forced the Senators to pack things in and hang on beyond a bit of a bounce-back stretch late in the second period.
No-showing for that much of any game is likely to cost you against any opponent, let alone this particular foe.
Stars are 0-8 in Ottawa since this youtu.be/LXmBfqI6u6g?…
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro.bsky.social) 2025-01-13T01:16:53.729Z
Coming into this game, Dallas hadn’t won in Ottawa since 2016. And while both teams also played yesterday, Dallas is four games into a road trip, while Ottawa was returning home after a one-game jaunt to Pittsburgh, where they stomped the Penguins 5-0. (Though it must be said that Ottawa have been on the road for most of the last month, with the World Juniors taking up their building.)
On the heels of that shutout, Ottawa chose to send Leevi Meriläinen back out for his second game in as many nights, which was certainly A Choice. Dallas opted to go with the fresher Casey DeSmith, who has been playing quite well as of late, coming in with his save percentage up to a very solid .916 on the season. And while Meriläinen was was solid, I wouldn’t say he outdueled DeSmith who had to be outstanding just to keep Dallas in the game. This was really more a case of Dallas being a bit slower for much of the game, and failing to capitalize on too many of the chances they did get (and they got some). One of them got canceled out, true enough, but I don’t think you can point to one disallowed goal as the reason you lose to Ottawa on any night, if you’re a team with Cup ambitions.
Matěj Blümel drew in for Arttu Hyry in this one, which made sense both in terms of injecting some fresh legs into the lineup and because Hyry pretty clearly played himself out of DeBoer’s plans last game, possibly by stringing together too many long shifts, possibly by not being effective in general. Because Hyry was a center while Blümel is a winger, Oskar Bäck moved to center with Blümel on the left wing opposite Colin Blackwell. Blümel wasn’t particularly noticeable, but he did get regular shifts, playing 8:44 on the night. His line didn’t really generate anything, however, and it’s hard to see him figuring in the Stars’ plans if he can’t find another gear in the NHL soon.
As for Bäck, he took twelve faceoffs Saturday night (winning nine of them, by the way) while Hyry only took two. All that to say, this wasn’t going to be a big adjustment for Bäck, who had played center almost exclusively until being moved to wing a few games into the NHL season this autumn. But again, the line didn’t do much, while Ottawa’s fourth line scored one. That ended up being the difference.
Jason Robertson was really good in this game. It might even have been his best one all year. He was moving really well, as seen in the fantastic forecheck to set up Hintz for what looked like the equalizer in the second period. He played nearly 20 minutes, led the team in shots on goal, and scored one goal while setting up what should have been two others. If you are looking for some consolation after this game, the recent dominance of Robertson is a good place to start. He and Roope Hintz look like their old selves lately, and Evgenii Dadonov has turned out to be a perfect complement on their right wing, allowing Wyatt Johnston to be a force on another line.
Dadonov, by the way, is now tied with Hintz for the team-lead in power play goals, with four. That’s a good thing for Dadonov. A good thing…for Dadonov.
Miro Heiskanen played 5:15 on the power play, while Thomas Harley played just 1:20. Heiskanen was given the full two minutes of multiple power plays tonight, and at this point, I’m beginning to wonder if I have to pull the same stats I did about Ryan Suter’s time on the power play a couple of years ago. In fact, sure, have a look: Harley has been better than Heiskanen on the power play in every way. Expected goals? Harley’s been way better. Actual goals? Harley’s at 7.91 per 60 minutes to Heiskanen’s 5 per 60. High-danger shots, unblocked shots, scoring chances…everything says Harley has made more happen when he’s been out there than Heiskanen has.
Neither player has either a goal or a primary assist on the power play, but Harley has two points to Heiskanen’s five, which is roughly proportionate to their ice time on the job.
What’s more remarkable is that Harley has put up much better underlying numbers despite over 60% of his power play shifts starting on the fly, when the zone hasn’t even been gained. Miro Heiskanen has taken the vast majority of offensive-zone faceoff starts, and with the Stars’ top unit, to boot. But Harley has still been better at generating dangerous chances. In fact, Harley would’ve had the third assist on Dadonov’s power play goal tonight, were there such a thing. Heiskanen would’ve had a power play assist as well, of course, were offside review not a thing.
This isn’t an indictment of Heiskanen as a player, to be clear. He’s a great player, and he can dominate games in ways quiet and loud alike. But I’m starting to wonder if the Stars worry that taking Heiskanen off the top power play would hurt his Norris Trophy chances, either because of raw numbers or the perception that he’s not really that offensively skilled. Whatever the reason, I think the second half of this season is a great time to make tough choices and not spare feelings. Because long before game 83, the Stars need to know what their best power play group is. I’m not sure they’ve made that decision yet.
One funny note: Colin Blackwell got a primary power play assist on Dadonov’s late goal, which gives him more primary assists on the power play than either defenseman. Sports can be funny sometimes.
Speaking of which, the NHL hasn’t found a way to institute real-time offside technology, but I would be fully on-board with it, so long as it looked like this: Imagine a red/green light above the blue line that could light up on every zone entry (Maybe even illuminate the entire ice in the zone with a red or green glow). Bad entries could be immediately lit up in red to stop play, while good entries would get the “green light,” which would just make the ensuing play feel even cooler, knowing that you were All Systems Go. This is my idea for the future, which I expect the NHL to implement in 2079, when I am King of Sports. The times, they are a changing, is what I heard in a movie about Bob Dylan’s life 50 years ago.
***
The start of the game kind of signaled what it was going to be, in a way. Claude Giroux unleashed a one-timer from the high slot that mercifully went right into the crest of DeSmith’s uniform, though it mayn’t have felt like mercy to the man who had to take that shot in the stomach.
Jason Robertson scored the last goal in Montreal, and he got the first one in Ottawa on a beautiful little passing play by Evgenii Dadonov and Roope Hintz, the latter of whom fed a blind drop pass to Robertson that the winger fired through a five-hole that Meriläinen never closed:
The more I watch replays of that sequence, the more it looks like a top line playing with confidence against inferior players. That’s the idea, really. Take a look at how it developed, and it’s even more impressive. Ottawa got both their forecheckers caught deep, and the Stars basically had a 3-on-3 rush, with Hintz busting north, about to beat Zack Ostapchuk to the blue line to create a 3-on-2.
Hintz feeds it to Dadonov, who takes the blue line with speed before returning it to Hintz underneath his own checker’s stick as soon as Tyler Kleven steps up on him. Hintz knows he’s basically got a 2-on-1 here, and even though he hasn’t seen Robertson since he was in the neutral zone and had Robertson waiting at the blue line to enter the zone, Hintz knows where he will be.
Sure enough, the strong backhand goes right to Robertson’s tape, and Nikolas Matinpalo was in no-man’s land. Razor speculated that he screen his own goaltender, which he may well have done:
And that’s how the Stars’ top line generated a beautiful scoring chance out of an apparently equal rush.
***
After allowing their only goal-against on a power play last night, Dallas gave up the game’s first chance in this one, if you can call what Miro Heiskanen did a penalty, which the officials did:
It wasn’t a good call, as the broadcast pointed out. Heiskanen was basically standing still and had the stick of Drake Batherson tied up, never letting it get free, while Batherson struggled to win the battle. Heiskanen reminds me of Sergei Zubov in that way of being absurdly strong on his stick despite not being the biggest guy out there. Shame he was penalized for this one, but the universe evened it back up 95 seconds later when Ridly Greig slashed Oskar Bäck, who has earned a lot of trust in the first half of his rookie season.
As for the Stars’ ensuing 1:35 power play, it took place for the prescribed amount of time, with the appropriate number of passes. Heiskanen once again stayed out for both forward groups on the job, but Mavrik Bourque’s one-timer was the most dangerous test that Meriläinen faced.
Perhaps that cosmic balancing act was considered insufficient, as a clear penalty by Casey DeSmith for breaking the “no touching!” rule was ignored by the officials.
I have said this so many times over the past decade that I barely even bother anymore, but it’s a stupid rule that shouldn’t exist. It never should have existed, but the NHL in 2005, after nuking a season to get more cost control for the owners, also wrongheadedly thought that goaltenders stopping dump-ins in the corners was somehow the magic antidote to offense, so they instituted a rule that made the ice look more cluttered, punishing only a few of the very best and bravest puckhandling goaltenders for doing something that made the game more interesting and dramatic. This rule has absolutely no reason for existing anymore, and it’s good to know that NHL officials have decided to take up this righteous cause.
***
Casey DeSmith had a great save in the 19th minute of the first period after a missed exchange from Thomas Harley to Matt Dumba got fed in front for a deadly Josh Norris one-timer that DeSmith sent away more from positioning than elite flinching skills:
It would have been a heartbreaker of a goal to allow late in the opening period, but DeSmith continued his stout play and got the 1-0 horse back in the barn after 20 minutes.
The Senators came out for the second period like a house afire, however, jumping out to a 7-0 lead in shots on goal on their way to a 15-1 advantage in just the first 12 minutes, with two such shots going in the goal as well. They probably would have liked to have gotten more than a one-goal lead out of that push, but two goals are two goals, I suppose.
The first one was a knee-high Drake Batherson feed off the rush that Josh Norris was able to whack in at the near post after winning the race there. It was a pretty absurd goal, but the skill in today’s NHL is ever-rising, and he put it where he had to.
The second goal came just half a minute later. As Josh pointed out on the broadcast, it was an eerily replica of what had happened in Dallas last week in the teams’ previous matchup, with a 1-0 lead turning into a 2-1 deficit in the blink of an eye. It started with a neutral zone turnover by Esa Lindell off an attempted stretch pass, and it was clear that every Senators player had been told to join every rush, even if they happened to be at the snack bar.
Matt Dumba blocked the first pass with a nice defensive play, but Jake Sanderson was able to gather the puck back and circle around the net to set up Tim Stützle, who buried this chance against a flailing DeSmith, who hadn’t had time to recover and get over cleanly:
It could have gotten worse, too, with DeSmith making a series of excellent saves on 2-on-1 and similarly open looks for Ottawa. Dallas would get a chance of its own after some Jason Robertson forecheck wizardry, creating a gorgeous chance out of nothing with some brilliant puck-jacking skills before sending the puck back into the slot for a Hintz chance that looked for all the world like a momentum-recapturing goal, only for it to be repelled by Ottawa’s netminder:
Matt Dumba would take another penalty after dealing out a cross check in front of his net, failing to even things back up by taking a gloved shot to the fishbowl from Brady Tkachuk that the officials didn’t concern themselves with. That’s a five minors in six games that Dumba has accrued since his most recent return but the penalty kill has been outstanding once again this year, and they were able to hold on until they got themselves on the power play shortly after killing the Dumba minor.
The second power play for Dallas was efficient and incisive, with Heiskanen firing a hard pass to Robertson down at the red line that he spit right back out to Hintz on the doorstep for a no-nonsense goal. You can put the pieces together yourself after the feed down to Robertson got bumped back to Hintz, who had spun to face the net and put it far side.
Except, hold on, never mind. Because the NHL has Offside Review, which means any goal at any time could be taken away because teams have the ability to review a zone entry from minutes before a goal, and that’s what happened here. Apparently Roope Hintz had entered the zone just the tiniest bit off-side far away from the puck, and because this league is incapable of weathering even the slightest embarrassment, now every goal carries with it the suspicion of revocation.
Anyway, that up there is what the problem was: a split-second offside 20 seconds before the goal happens. But coaches can risk a penalty to correct the official’s mistake, just like they can also now risk a penalty to fix a bad goaltender interference call. I hope the league starts allowing coaches to challenge icings if the ensuing faceoff results in a goal. Got to get it right (so long as the stakes are sufficiently high).
Everybody wants to “Get It Right,” and I understand that. But the fact is, the NHL doesn’t care about getting every call right. In fact, they very much are okay with the ends of games being prison rules, and with the vast majority of offsides and icings never being looked at twice. The only reason goals can be taken away because of an offside prior to a goal is because those are the plays with the biggest potential for embarrassment, so they hold plays with goals to a higher standard, which in effect means offense is punished more than defense, as always.
Also, here’s a better look showing the offside, which the linesman didn’t see on account of who cares, man.
While the Stars didn’t convert on the re-started power play, they did get momentum from the review, pushing back with their first sustained pressure of the middle frame, while DeSmith made another outstanding save like he was taking a sip of water. That was probably their time to turn the game back in their favor, if there was ever gonna be one.
Dallas drew another play during that push with some hard forechecking in hopes of erasing the painful memory of the previous recall, but they couldn’t generate anything like the look they did for the previous goal, no-goal, and the Senators got their lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes.
***
The Stars didn’t start the third period any better than the second one, as Shane Pinto got free from Bourque and took the puck to the house, where he was met by Ilya Lyubushkin, which created a scramble that turned into a goal.
Next, the puck squirted to Nick Cousins behind Pinto, and he shot, but Desmith saved it, only for the rebound to come right back to Cousins, who then dealt the puck across the crease.
Matthew Highmore got two whacks at it himself at the far post, finally getting the puck into the net to give Ottawa a 3-1 lead. You may have noticed how many chances Ottawa had to get this play right (got to get it right!), and the answer is that they had Too Many Chances. By the way, that was Highmore’s first NHL goal since the 2021-22 season when he was with Vancouver, in case you wanted to feel worse about it.
Dallas had their work cut out for them from there, and a Lyubushkin penalty shortly afterwards didn’t make life easier. The Stars killed it off, however, and Hintz even had a decent look at the end of it on a 1-on-1 rush which was clearly Lyubushkin’s plan all along, but the wrister went wide.
Josh Norris also shot a piece of a broken stick at a Stars player in disgust on said power play, after the shard of the stick had interrupted a Norris pass attempt. That was a clear penalty as well, but as we know, this game had clear penalties in both directions that weren’t called (like a Robertson hook with the empty net that was let go late, for instance), and that’s just part of the NHL. Unless it’s an offside, of course.
The third period wound down with the Stars clearly struggling to match Ottawa’s energy, and the two-goal lead had to be a pretty demotivating factor. But even when Dallas got a lot of zone pressure with 3:30 remaining, they couldn’t quite generate that killer chance. In retrospect, I wonder if DeBoer wishes he’d pulled DeSmith during that extended pressure, rather than waiting until the ensuing faceoff to put out the extra attacker, which he did with 2:53 remaining.
The Stars had a sniff of things when Artem Zub put a puck out of play with just under two minutes left, and they would finally get that elusive power play goal on much the same sort of play that got them the revoked one from the second period, as you can see with this professional illustration of the passing, which I commissioned specifically for you, dear reader:
That Stankoven-to-Blackwell-to-Dadonov pass made it 3-2 with a minute to go, and that’s the way it ended. Dallas’s point streak, winning streak, and Good Vibes Cruise (patent pending) all ended on the outskirts of Ottawa, against a team that had also played the day before. It must stink to have to go out there only to come back with a loss.
The Stars finish their road trip in Toronto on Tuesday before returning home to face the Canadiens again on Thursday. You’re going to be hearing “Oh, Canada” a lot, is what I’m saying. That’s always a good thing, though. It’s a much better anthem than the U.S. song, which should be changed to “America the Beautiful.” Okay, bye.