Game 44 AfterThoughts: Dobešt Around

On Retro Night at American Airlines Center, it was fitting that a goalie for the team from Quebec frustrated the Dallas offense like a certain goalie from Quebec did back in 2003:

With the Stars’ having announced their Quarter-Century team today, I’ve been thinking back about all of those more painful moments from the last 25 years. The moments that have yet to be redeemed by a championship for fans young enough to where they never got to see the 1999 Stanley Cup victory when it happened.

And J.S. Giguère’s robbery in that five-overtime demoralizer to kick off a very painful series (not to mention the entire Ducks’ playoff run, during which he won the Conn Smythe Trophy despite the Ducks’ losing the Final) was pretty much how this game felt tonight. Dallas generated a lot, and they got good looks. Jake Oettinger was also very good, giving them every chance to get into overtime, much like he did five days ago in Montreal. But it wasn’t to be in this one, and that’s just another tiny dose of disappointment that the Stars will have to redeem, if they can.

Permit me an aside: that Dallas team in 2003 was good, you know. Really good. That was the same year we discussed in the last piece on here, when Marty Turco got robbed of a Vezina Trophy by the collective wisdom of the NHL GMs, and when Giguère was strapping surfboards to his legs and everyone just decided to be cool with it because hey, we’ll fix all the rules during the coming lockout, probably. But man, the Stars had like ten different players in double-digit goals, and a great mix of contributing veterans and up-and-coming younger players. They put up 111 points, and fell just two points short of another President’s Trophy because Ottawa was really good that year, with names like Hossa (45 goals), Alfredsson, Havlát, Chara, and a teenager named Spezza even chipping in as they also went to the Conference Finals. But I really think that Dallas team could have taken the Devils easily in a Cup Rematch, had the Ducks not gone on the miracle run they did. Just another thing to be redeemed, still. (The Modano statue helps, though.)

As for Our Modern Times, Jakub Dobeš is on some kind of heater to start his career in the NHL. He’s won all of his first four games, and he’s given up four goals across all of them. That works out to a 1.00 GAA (math), and he has stopped 103 of 107 shots en route to his current .963 save percentage. Those teams he’s beaten, by the way? Florida, Colorado, Washington, and now Dallas. And all of them have come on the road.

Even so, the Canadiens have been hot without him. He’s only played sporadically (though his play has been the exact opposite of sporadic), and the Habs have posted an 8-1-1 record in their last ten games to scare up a playoff spot nobody saw coming. Both squads were coming into this game on good runs, and something was always going to give. It’s just a shame this one couldn’t have gone the distance like last time, as I think you’d take Oettinger (and Robertson) in that shootout matchup.

The other frustrating part is that Dobeš was giving up rebounds repeatedly. That’s how the Stars got their first goal, in fact, when Robertson was crashing the back post at the perfect time. But over and over again, Dallas just couldn’t get to them in time, and that’s the difference in games like this. One borderline deflection off a faceoff play was the difference, and boy, doesn’t that just remind you of the Florida/Finland games in all the worst ways?

Matěj Blümel is going to be thinking about this one for a bit before he falls asleep tonight, you’d think. He tied Robertson for the team lead with four shots on goal, and a couple of them were very prime opportunities. But the difference between scoring and not scoring in the NHL is so very fine that you can’t take even a millisecond before firing it. You can’t miss your spot by much, most of the time, because goalies—and especially this one—are just too good.

That’s not to pin the loss on the newcomer, by any stretch. Wyatt Johnston had looks you need your (now) top center to bury, and the power play failed to do what it has to do in tight games like this and break a goalie’s spirit just a bit more. As we’ve said many times this year, Dallas has yet to really show they have that gear Colorado and Carolina do, where they can flip a game on its head when their top guys go nuts for a few minutes. It’s more complicated than that when you dig into the details, but that’s because the best players didn’t simply tie the game back up.

This game felt more up-and-down than Pete DeBoer said it was afterwards. Overall, the team seemed to be writing this game off as one of those (dumb) games rather than doing too much self-flagellation, and yeah, I have no idea what lessons you could even take from a game like this even if you tried. The ice looked rough a lot of the time, which is to say players were flubbing passes and missing pucks more often than usual, so if it wasn’t the ice, maybe there was a gas leak or something. Genuinely, if you paid to watch this game in person, you probably walk away a little bit disgusted. Not because you don’t know how they lost the game, but because it seemed like such a perfunctory sort of way for the hockey gods to conclude a contest that really felt like it deserved to hand out points to both teams and flip a coin in overtime. Maybe the hockey gods had a hair appointment, though, and they flipped the coin halfway through the third period instead.

As for the experience of Retro Night, I always tend to enjoy these sorts of things. The scoreboard started by introducing the players with Dallas-themed videos and music, and I know this because I was absolutely excoriated, shamed, and ridiculed for not recognizing the introductions as being from said show. Well, excuse me for not knowing who shot J.R., still. Some of us had better things to do in the 1980s, like be born. Anyway, the retro logos and throwback scoreboard effects were cool. I like deep cuts with stuff like this, though, given how much nostalgia bait is out there, and how much it’s used to manipulate and market stuff. So, a night like this, when it’s just done for pure and simple fun? I’m a sucker for it, so long as you bring the surprise and delight.

***

As for the lineup, the most notable thing was the (of course) absence of Roope Hintz, which necessitated Wyatt Johnston’s promotion. And the top line with Johnston and Dadonov looked very good, scoring the Stars’ only goal and generating a lot of other chances. But looking good and doing good are different things. In fact, only Superman does good. We do well. The Stars, however, did not do well enough, and Duchene line struggled to look as dangerous without Johnston. In fact, the Bourque-Steel-Blümel line was probably the second-most dangerous line for a good bit of this one. Once the peril translates to disaster (for the opposing goalie), then they’ll really have something.

The defense pairs were mixed all night, and I wonder how much of that was just trying to mitigate Montreal’s clear plan to attack certain right-handed defensemen (i.e. all of the right-handed defensemen) on zone entries. Certainly Ilya Lyubushkin got victimized on the first Montreal goal when Caufield blew past him at the blue line after a turnover, so maybe DeBoer (and Alain Nasredinne) were being cagey by trying to switch up which RHD was out there at any given time.

Oettinger played in this one, and he nearly repeated his excellence from five days ago in Quebec. In fact, he might have been even better in this one, with a bit of good fortune (those posts, baby) helping him at times. But genuinely, he gave his team every chance to win this game, and I don’t think anyone is interested in laying the blame at the feet of a goaltender who gives up just two goals in the first game after a 4-1-0 road trip. Even if one shot did go through his five-hole, only to travel out the other side of the net without going in. Good fortune doesn’t always mean a happy ending; it just means fewer bumps along the way.

***

The first period of this game was very free-flowing, but not in the coaches’ preferred way. Christian Dvorak hit the post just a few seconds into the game, but it was one of those glancing posts where Jake Oettinger probably would say that’s all he gave him. Isn’t that every post, though, if you’re a goaltender?

Matěj Blümel responded on a lovely saucer pass from Sam Steel, deflecting the pass right over Jakub Dobeš’s pad, but the goaltender’s glove happened to be in the same spot, and Blümel looked skyward. Why do we gaze at the heavens when disappointment hits us? Something going on there. Mortality and all that rot, I suppose.

Jake Oettinger had to make big saves on Kirby Dach and Cole Caufield. Or at least, the great shot Caufield had against him did not go in, despite Caufield’s perfectly slipping it through the five hole, only for it to out the far side and miss the net.

The Stars would get on the board first after Wyatt Johnston led a rush in and nearly scored himself, only for the Stars to collect the puck again, and for Evgenii Dadonov to fire a fadeaway shot that bounced off Dobeš and lay perfectly for Jason Robertson, who had no trouble putting the scoring chance home to make it 1-0, Dallas.

Montreal got it right back like it was an All-Star Game, when Juraj Slafkovský put home a dunk of his own after the Canadiens took advantage of a turnover by Logan Stankoven on a high flip in the neutral zone that bounced badly for him, and Nick Suzuki fed Cole Caufield with a full head of steam.

Caufield blew by Lyubushkin to spin the chance into a 2-on-1 against Miro Heiskanen, and Suzuki outwaited Heiskanen’s sliding block, tucking the pass (that Oettinger perhaps ought to have cut off) past Heiskanen’s skates and into the best part of the ice, and Slafkovský put it home just ahead of the recovering Lyubushkin to even things up.

I suppose it made sense that, given how the last Stars/Canadiens game went 65 minutes with just a 1-1 score, the teams went ahead and got the score back there before proceeding with the rest of this one, too.

The first power play of the game came off an interference penalty to Michael Pezzetta, and you could see the confidence seeping out of Robertson’s pores. Well, you couldn’t see it, because it’s a metaphor, but what I mean is he drove the net and rang the near post squarely over Dobeš’s shoulder. So the power play didn’t score, technically (or actually) ((or metaphorically)), but when Robertson is feeling it, the Stars are a better team.

Really, it’s almost a miracle the first period ended just 1-1. Pucks were skipping over sticks at an alarming rate, Montreal outchanced Dallas at a 2 to 1 rate, and Joel Armia rang the post on a 2-on-1 created after Thomas Harley swung and missed at the offensive blue line. Miro Heiskanen took the puck all the way to the net and attempted a wrap-around at the other end, which isn’t something defensemen usually do at 5-on-5, but it was just that kind of game. Maybe its being Retro Night turned the neutral zone into the 80’s, too.

The two call-ups tested Montreal early, as Matěj Blümel ripped one off Dobeš’s arm from the slot early in the second period, and Justin Hryckowian tried to catch the goaltender cheating at the near post shortly afterwards. It was encouraging for the young players to be showing up a bit more positively than either of them had done previously, and their ice time reflected that.

Alex Newhook took the second penalty of the game, giving Dallas a chance to restore their one-goal lead. But despite some good puck movement, Dallas never threatened, despite spending a solid 90 seconds of the first unit attacking, which ended in Jamie Benn responding to Robertson getting jumped after a whistle:

No penalties were assessed, but the Stars did give up a shorthanded breakaway to Jake Evans on the power play, which Oettinger calmly sent aside. The Stars countered with a breakaway of their own soon after when Logan Stankoven was sent in on his own, but he, too, was stymied by Dobeš, even sending the rebound back into the crease with a bit of a blind backhand between his legs, but to no effect.

The Stars then took a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty of their own, only for Wyatt Johnston to get a couple of golden shorthanded chances of his own before the best PK in the league took care of business, and my goodness, the pace of the second period quickly rose to match the first’s, much to the coaches’ chagrin.

Both Johnston’s breakaway and a further doorstep shot all by himself failed to find the twine, and my goodness, just go back and watch the other glorious chances by Harley, Duchene, and Blümel, because this was two 5-4 games on each other’s shoulders wearing a trenchcoat while claiming to be a 1-1 game.

Matt Dumba took a hooking penalty with 1:40 left in the second period—he’s been taking penalties lately—but Jake Oettinger came up huge, repeatedly, and Esa Lindell came up huge, importantly, when Kirby Dach tried a wrap around with Oettinger stuck at the other post. Lindell sealed the post and spat the puck away, causing some Big Boy Words to be used by Dach right afterwards out of frustration. Have you heard that Esa Lindell was named to the Quarter-Century team today, by chance?

And so the Stars made it to the second intermission looking for all the world like the game was destined for extra time, like last time. Not because it was a tight game, but because clearly there was some unwritten rule in place about Dallas and Montreal going into the third period with a 1-1 score no matter how many chances each team had. I guess I just wrote it, though. Sorry.

Honestly, this game was absolutely bazonkers, to quote Brad Neely. It’s one thing to have a team get goalie’d, but to have both teams just sort of “not scoring, somehow” on a plethora of chances really did a bizarre feeling to the entire game. The third period started similarly, with Montreal somehow putting a glorious rebound chance wide and not getting anything out of a clean 4-on-2 rush, while Evgenii Dadonov had a slot chance in tight slide off his stick. There was a lot of that tonight from Dallas, which leads one to believe that the ice might not have been the best.

That feeling was compounded when Nils Lundkvist sent a puck out of play three minutes into the third when the puck appeared to jump on him at the worst moment. But the thing about defense is, sometimes our partner picks you up, and that’s what Esa Lindell did right afterwards, when Sam Steel made a great play at the blue line to give Lindell a lane, and the penalty was summarily erased when Hutson had to take Lindell down to prevent a breakaway, the aftermath of which you can see here:

And sure, why wouldn’t a little 4-on-4 get mixed into this kind of a game? And why wouldn’t it start with Thomas Harley having to whack a pass out of the air to prevent a 2-on-1 chance against, only for Patrik Laine to jump off the bench way too early to lay a hit, taking a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty for Montreal to put Dallas on the power play? Take a breath, folks. At least, that’s what the power play did, as the game moved along without a goal, because of course it would, this is a Dallas-Montreal game, 1-1 is how it’s supposed to be, forever.

Matěj Blümel had a couple of chances to fix that, in this one, including a 2-on-1 gift after Arber Xhekaj tripped over the blue line (ice may not have been the best tonight, I may have mentioned) and Colin Blackwell dished the puck over to a wide-open Blümel, who couldn’t beat the blocker of Dobeš’s from the front porch:

That chance would sting even more a bit later, when Alex Newhook was allowed to tip a point shot from Lane Hutson that deflected down and through Oettinger, who hadn’t gotten clear sight of the puck. The officials were called to double-check the height of the deflection, but after a brief review, the goal stood, as you can see on this very blurry screencap of the replay, where the puck is right at Newhook’s shoulder, but not above the crossbar:

It’s a play where Wyatt Johnston probably needs to do a better job tying up his man’s stick, but it’s also a bang-bang play right off a faceoff, and getting inside position is often enough. This time, it wasn’t, though I think I can see Lindell doing his best attempt to make yet another save, only to come up empty this time. What a play that would have been,

So the 1-1 spell was broken, and the Stars had work to do. They generated chances, lots of them, as pucks kept sliding off Montreal sticks, and the best areas of the ice were far more open than they had been in other recent games. But the time kept ticking away, and with 2:35 to go and an offensive-zone faceoff, DeBoer made the decision to put the extra attacker out there. Dallas went with Duchene, Benn, Johnston, Robertson, Heiskanen, and Stankoven.

Dobeš was immediately tested, and he continued to look a little shaky in controlling rebounds (as he had all night) and tired after every flurry. But another 50 seconds ticked away, and Dallas called a timeout after a Montreal empty-net attempt missed to draw the icing whistle. Montreal would then call their own timeout with 1:10 remaining and another faceoff, and Dallas swapped out Stankoven for Dadonov. But despite a delicious cross through the crease, Montreal’s Joel Armia would eventually collect a puck along the boards and glide down the ice to pot the Habs’ third goal of the game.

It was a maddening result, but a not-unfair one, all the same. That doesn’t mean it felt good, though.

Anyway, the Stars head to Colorado for a quick game in the mountains before coming back home on Sunday to face Detroit, who are also a team on a roll. We’ll see if Dallas can brush off a bit of a goofy game, or if the snow starts to gather steam in Colorado, like something that rolls down mountains, you know? Can’t think of the image I’m looking for.