Game 43 AfterThoughts: Six Straight

Probably it's your fault for not rooting hard enough

SotG

Jake Oettinger had to be sharp early, and he was, if we’re defining “early” in a strict sense.

I always think there’s a lot of merit to the idea that you have to just weather the storm against teams like Carolina, building confidence on the bench that even with their chaotic oppression in terms of shot attempts, you’ll be able to live through the barrage of low-danger shots, eventually getting your own chances. And the Stars were able to do that early, though they also needed a couple of confident stops by Oettinger on higher-danger plays by Carolina, including one miraculous stop by Oettinger on a cross-slot pass that looked labeled for the back door.

Fast forward to the middle of the second period, and two things had become painfully obvious: It was absolutely not Oettinger’s night, and the rest of Oettinger’s team wasn’t weathering Carolina’s anywhere nearly as well as they needed to. The Stars were outplayed pretty badly for most of the first half of the game, and Oettinger took the brunt of it as the goals kept coming.

I’m curious what the Stars will do as far as goaltending tomorrow: Start DeSmith as planned, even though he played the majority of this game? Or will they give Oettinger a shot at redemption? We all know how good Oettinger has historically been at rebounding after a tough game, but since this was the first time the Stars pulled a goalie all season, it’s tough to know how Gulutzan and Jeff Reese will handle it, and Gulutzan said after the game that it’s still not set in stone.

“The plan was to play ‘Case tomorrow,” Gulutzan said afterward. “So we’ll re-evaluate it, but I’m pretty sure we’ll probably stick with that plan. We haven’t made that decision certainly, yet.”

Sticking with DeSmith seems like the right call to me, as much as anyone can ever guess about goaltending choices. DeSmith has so often come into a chaotic game and kept the Stars in it, and I think his athleticism might be a bit more of a calming presence for Dallas against Washington if they take some time to sort out their issues, as they did tonight.

But really, I think it’s foolish to point the finger all at Oettinger in this one. Dallas was clearly getting out-chanced by a big margin early, and the Stars simply couldn’t get the puck back in their own zone, leading to multiple shifts where they were gassed by the end of it. You can’t build momentum that way.

From the start, it was clear that Carolina had more juice, both in the net and out of it. Sure, it’s probably the case that Rod Brind’Amour put like five million dollars on the board before the game, given his comments about Mikko Rantanen from last season. And hey, if Brind’Amour was standing in your locker room, telling you to get out there and play hard? Well, I imagine you would do just that, for fear of what might happen if you didn’t. (Did Brind’Amour also threaten the posts, which repeatedly foiled great chances from the Stars’ shooters?)

The biggest disappointment about this result, for the Stars’ head coach, was that they had all prepared to put forth a much better effort, and then…didn’t.

“We put a lot of emphasis on this game,” Gulutzan said afterward, “And we just didn’t execute. We got to go back and take a look, because what gets you out of these situations we’re in, with our slump, our slide here, is defense and discipline, right?”

That was the similar theme from players, too. Miro Heiskanen said they gave too many chances to Carolina and weren’t hard enough in the defensive zone.

“We just have to work harder in the D zone and get the opponents away from the puck, and make them defend more,” Heiskanen added.

The Stars have given up at least four goals in all of these six losses, and in fact had given up exactly four goals in the prior five before tonight. Gulutzan noted that exact number after the game, reiterating that the Stars have sometimes tried to lean on their offense rather than their defense during their recent skid.

If you’re as good of a team as the Stars purport to be (and their record would suggest they are indeed that good), then you really ought to be able to drag a game into the defensive mire to at least keep it close. Instead, the Stars have been making mistakes that burn them, and then compounding their troubles with risky plays at bad times. That’s a bad recipe for repair.

“You’re not going to outscore yourself and get frustrated and get yourself out of these things,” Gulutzan said. “If you look at our last six games, I think it’s four, four, four, four, four, six, we’ve given up. We talked earlier in the season, the league’s a race to three. It’s really defense and discipline that gets you out, and we’re not there yet. But we’re going to have to figure it out soon.”

That discipline was a big part of what the Hurricanes did well. Or at least it’s how the Stars appeared to think the Hurricanes were playing, as Dallas once again took too many penalties early and got out-possessed like the dickens, constantly looking like what they were: a team chasing the play in their own zone, until they finally got a consolation push in the final 10 minutes of the middle frame, when the game was already well out of hand.

Mikko Rantanen continued to show that he can be a force in any game, at any time, whatever the score, and his goal in the third (which was a beauty of a thing) to clap back at the crowd booing him all night had to be at least a tiny catharsis for him. Wyatt Johnston’s walk-around in the final power play of the night was likewise a demonstration of force, but it all rang hollow, given the time and score. (Especially the score.)

No, a small catharsis is the only kind of catharsis to be found around the Stars right now, unless you count Colorado’s current losing streak, as they fell 4-2 to Tampa Bay tonight. Which, you might as well, given how things in Dallas have trended recently. January is a tough one for a lot of people, you know.

When asked about Oettinger specifically after the game, and whether he was in a slump, Gulutzan said it’s about the whole team playing the right way.

“We’re all in a little bit of a slump. We’ve all got to regroup here a little bit and recognize what it takes to get out of these things. It’s not trying to outscore your mistakes. It’s about, again, defense and discipline.”

Indeed, this team can’t sit around and keep playing like this, hoping their goaltender will go Full Bussi and let them off the hook. (Though they’d certainly take it right now, in order to snap this skid.) If the Stars are going to be a force in the playoffs, then they need to show they can sort themselves out, even when they might be down a body or two or three, and even when things aren’t going perfectly. Sometimes, you just have to pick up the trash by hand until it’s all cleaned up.

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The boos for Mikko Rantanen were as loud as expected, and you just know he would’ve loved nothing more than to score on his first shot on goal of the game, off a nice dish from Jason Robertson. But Brandon Bussi got it because this isn’t a Disney movie, and there aren’t nearly as many villains or heroes in sports as we’re told.

After a Petrovic turnover wasn’t converted by Nik Ehlers on a breakaway, the Hurricanes would sustain the pressure so-generated, and they would finally capitalize. K’Andre Miller scored on a nice Svechnikov pass after both Harley and Petrovic couldn’t quite shut down the puck-carrier(s), and the cross beat Rantanen to the back door for the first goal of the game.

Oettinger had actually stopped a very similar chance earlier in the game, but the fact that heroics kept being necessitated was the bigger problem. It didn’t help that Brandon Bussi then decided to turn “Goals” off on the settings menu for a bit, as Grade-A chances generated by Adam Erne/Sam Steel and Wyatt Johnston/Miro Heiskanen were just barely kept out.

Apparently the Stars hacked into the settings menu after that, though.

William Carrier put the Stars on the power play with a panicked clearance that Razor properly theorized must have been a result of an ardent Ilya Lyubushkin forecheck. But if you think that sentence was weird, wait until you see the goal the Stars, uh, “scored” on the power play:

I mean, if I’m Brandon Bussi, I’d feel pretty hard done by, there. Sure seemed like he came out to front the Robertson shot, got it, and had the puck more or less in his goalie paraphernalia (maybe his sleeve?) until he finally got up and flung the puck into the net himself, having no clue where the puck was. Somehow, the goal stood, and the game was tied.

Perhaps out of some guilt for having to watch the previous goal transpire, the officials called a Stars penalty on Adam Erne, and Carolina quickly capitalized in what felt a bit like hockey karma in action. Not much to this other than a quick one-timer up high with a screen on Oettinger.

Alexander Nikishin came down to lay a huge hit on an unsuspecting Adam Erne, and man, it looked like a painful one.

Erne wouldn’t finish his shift, then he did return early in the second period, then he didn’t for the third. Erne has already endured some hardship this season after working hard to get back from hip surgery last year, so you would hate to see him miss more time right now. But if he can’t go, the Stars would likely play Nate Bastian tomorrow.

Shortly after the hit on Erne, Roope Hintz got nabbed for hooking in front of the Stars’ net, putting Dallas back on the penalty kill with four minutes remaining. This time, Miro Heiskanen was the one who turned off “Goals” on the menu though, with a crucial block as well as some outstanding stick work to eventually clear the puck at the end of the chance.

That’s when The Narrative reared its head.

Logan Stankoven got around Mikko Rantanen with a nice move, and he then scored against his old team. The goal was another odd one, however, as the puck appeared to bounce off Oettinger’s blocker (it wasn’t a hard shot to stop, and he caught up to it), then bounce off Lyubushkin in front, immediately looping back into the net:

However you want to score it in terms of process, the Actual Score was 3-1, and that’s how the first period ended.

The second period wouldn’t be 3-1 for long, as K’Andre Miller potted his second goal of the game off more O-zone possession from Carolina that pulled Dallas away from the slot, and that’s where the one-timer came from:

Oettinger might have been guessing glove side here, because he looks like he’s leaning just a tad, and can’t recover blocker side to stop the puck. Not a great goal to allow, though I suppose that’s all goals, really. 4-1.

Nils Lundkvist put Carolina on another power play after a scary moment where Seth Jarvis nearly repeated his injury from a couple of weeks ago on a missed stick check from Lundkvist that brougth Jarvis crashing into the net, but thankfully no harm was done. In fact, it was clearly Jarvis’s night in his first game back after the aforementioned injury, as the boards gave him a perfect bounce (and the worst of bounces for Oettinger) to make it 5-1 on a gift that felt either cruel or kind depending on your rooting interests:

I mean, sure, why not? That ended Oettinger’s night, bringing Casey DeSmith back into action after being absent for the last couple of days for personal reasons related to his family.

Jason Robertson took a slashing penalty on Staal to give Casey DeSmith plenty of warm-up action on the penalty kill, so I suppose that was a kindness, at least. And DeSmith wouldn’t allow anything for the rest of the frame, so Mission: Success was a success, such as it was.

To start the third period, the recipe was clear: Double-shift Rantanen, get an early goal and make Carolina nervous. And Mikko Rantanen did exactly that, starting a play with a nice poke check and stick lift on a line with Jason Robertson, then bulling his way (moose-ing his way?) to the net to make it 5-2 with a fantastic goal the home crowd was not terribly thrilled with.

Rantanen intercepted another pass in the offensive zone on his next shift, nearly feeding a wide-open Steel on the doorstep, but the puck just eluded Steel, and a return feed to Rantanen wasn’t quite corralled for a chance.

Then Taylor Hall nearly made it 6-2 off a Stankoven setup at the other end, only to hit the post instead. Sebastian Aho then got an Ehlers setup on a 2-on-1, but DeSmith got over for his one-timer.

It did become 6-2 for real after a Stars rush fizzled, and William Carrier was able to capitalize on a rebound at the other end:

Speaking of 6-2, penalties also reflected that ratio, as Mikko Rantanen was given what felt like an iffy slashing penalty on Jarvis to send Carolina to their sixth opportunity of the night, much to the delight of the raucous Carolina crowd.

Brandon Bussi gave them something else to delight in when he robbed Roope Hintz on a great setup from Robertson, because why wouldn’t he, in this game? Cruel was the word of the day, for fans and players alike.

That 6-2 penalty ratio was prettied up a bit in garbage time, with a holding the stick call on the Canes coming with 3 minutes remaining. That at least gave us this incredible play by Wyatt Johnston, and at most, it ended in a Wyatt Johnston power play goal after the Stars hit yet another crossbar (Rantanen, this time):

The Stars will try to win a game for the first time in seven tries tomorrow in Washington.

Lineups

Dallas brought what we saw in practice the other day:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Petrovic
Lyubushkin-Lundkvist

Oettinger in goal

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Carolina rolled these lines:

Ehlers-Aho-Svechnikov
Hall-Stankoven-Blake
Martinook-Staal-Jarvis
Carrier-Philp-Robinson

Gostisbehere-Chatfield
Miller-Walker
Nikishin-Nystrom

Bussi

After-AfterThoughts

• I’d mentioned this earlier on social media, but Jim Nill confirmed that Wyatt Johnston is “in the mix” as a potential alternate for Team Canada at the Olympics.

  • "He's definitely a player on the radar screen," Nill told me. "We have a list of players we keep an eye on that were very close to making it. He's one of those guys."

  • Not a huge surprise, as Johnston was also on a short list of alternates for the Four Nations Face-Off, but it’s still nice to know that Johnston is still regarded so highly.

• As the Stars noted on social media, three Finnish players wore an “A” as alternate captains tonight, with Jamie Benn out of the lineup: Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen, and Roope Hintz. Pretty cool.

• Whom do you think Logan Stankoven had dinner with last night, from Dallas? Josh Bogorad mentioned that a dinner was had on the braodcast, so place your bets, I suppose.

• Loved the work from Adam Erne and Sam Steel on this early chance. Battle won, puck elevated…just didn’t work out this time.

• Here’s how the Stars’ first goal was credited: An own goal.

  

  As usual, Sean has written about this weird little thing before, so check it out if you’ve a mind to.

• This game could have been at least a little different if one of the three posts the Stars hit in the first two periods had gone their way. Alex Petrovic, Adam Erne, and Mikko Rantanen all beat Bussi, only to get denied by the iron. This move by Rantanen was particularly nice, except for the ending part:

• Through two periods, even-strength shot attempts weren’t actually that disparate, if you can believe it:

  

  Even-strength shot attempts through the first two periods.

  But scoring chances were much more lopsided, both to the casual eye, the automatically tracked, and the manually tallied. Jake Oettinger was asked to do far more than Brandon Bussi, and he just couldn’t do it tonight.

• Bussi, meanwhile, was fantastic. His rebound control wasn’t always great, but he made some incredible saves on high-grade chances, and that was more than enough to snuff out the candle of a comeback flame multiple times. That kid has been something else for Carolina this season.