Game 5 AfterThoughts: Blues' Stars Give Stars Blues

The better team won this one

After the Vancouver defeat, Glen Gulutzan talked about how the Stars need to learn how to defend leads better by playing more simply and patiently, looking for opportunities to increase their lead when the trailing team takes risks, rather than taking big chances while defending the lead.

The Blues gave an almost textbook demonstration of how to do just that on Saturday night in St. Louis, as the Stars dropped their second game in a row after a 3-0-0 start to the season. And this one felt like the Stars were never really in it, even before the Blues took the lead in the second period.

Remember, the Blues were rinsed 8-3 by the Blackhawks on Wednesday. This game, then, felt every bit like an encounter with a team fresh off an embarrassing performance. St. Louis was faster and stronger nearly nearly all night, and the 2-0 score after only 40 minutes felt pretty lenient after the Stars spent the final half of the middle frame sheltering in place during a Blues barrage.

Then, the Stars got the entire second intermission to regroup, and they promptly came out in the third period like no time had passed at all, desperately sending down three icings in a row as Harley and Heiskanen got caught on the ice for over two minutes each.

It was still only 2-0 until late, but Stars/Blues games in recent years always seem to be tight ones, whether the two meet in the preseason or during the regular campaign. In that context, it wasn’t surprising to see a 0-0 scoreline after 20 minutes.

But when you watched the first period, that scoreline was a bit more surprising. The Stars got the first power play of the game after Seguin drew a roughing penalty on Tyler Tucker, but for once, the Stars’ power play didn’t pick them up this year. If anything, they dropped the ball (so to speak), as the best chances on that first power play came for the Blues, who got *two* shorthanded rushes after turnovers from Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

If you’re Dallas, you just cannot let that happen. (Also, if you’re any team.) St. Louis is a defensively robust team under Jim Montgomery when they’re on their game, and giving them free looks on your own man-advantage is just begging for disaster. But really, I think it was less about any particular mistakes on the power play than it was indicative of how badly the Blues outplayed the Stars in general for most of this game.

The Stars surrendered multiple good looks in the first period alone, including this one, where Harley and Lyubushkin got completely surprised.

I wondered if there was some miscommunication between Harley and Lyubushkin there, with Lyubushkin having not played a game for a week. Who knows?

Giving up more chances than usual has been an unfortunate characteristic of the young season’s Stars in general, as they adjust to some more complicated exchanges and hand-offs in the defensive zone. Part of it is also the natural chaos of the early season, as every team gets back into the flow of the regular season, but it will be up to Gulutzan’s group to prove before too much longer that this newfound hospitality in their own zone is a bug, not a feature for the 2025-26 team. The numbers are starting to look worrisome, though we’ll wait until at least 10-15 games before taking any overall metrics all that seriously.

---

For all the talk of defensive issues in this one, Dallas got two Grade-A chances to score in this one, and they couldn’t finish either one. And in each case, the Blues would come right back and score themselves.

We’ll start with the second one first, after the Wyatt Johnston chance off a turnover in the Blues’ zone, where Binnington would stare down Johnston and make the save.

The Blues would come back down 3-on-2 shortly after and push Petrovic and Bichsel out of the way to get to a puck they would poke home behind Oettinger in a scramble to make it 2-0. A bit of interference on Petrovic there, probably, but not enough to draw the call, and Jimmy Snuggerud reached for the tap-in to get his third goal of the early season.

And even earlier in the period, Jason Robertson got his own breakaway right off the bat. But uncharacteristically for Robertson in these situations, he missed.

Sure enough, Jordan Kyrou found the too-often-there space in the Dallas zone shortly after, and he did not miss.

Two counterpunch goals after missed chances, two stinging regrets. That’s how this league goes, sometimes.

On the above goal right there, Duchene is the obvious person you look at here (watch how Kyrou sells the one-timer before dragging it around Duchene, who probably thinks he’s about to block a shot). But I also look down at the defensemen, where Petrovic is entirely tied up with his man on the doorstep. As Bichsel comes back to the net-front, neither blueliner is near enough to come out to challenge the shot, and Jordan Kyrou has room to walk down and make a nice move and a nicer shot (he can do that) for his first goal of the season.

In a perfect world, should Petrovic hand off his man in front to Bichsel as he gets back and expand over to the right side, which was otherwise vacant? Or should Bichsel just have immediately gone over to the right side, seeing Petrovic tied up? Good plays by one team tend to result in bad ones by the other, though.

The Stars finally did get on the board when Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston did Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston things. Look at this individual effort from Rantanen—my goodness gracious.

But alas, it wouldn’t be enough. For the second game in a row, the Stars gave up a long-range empty-netter to salt the game away. And if even Roope Hintz’s skating can’t save you, you probably weren’t meant to win the game in the first place.

A painful loss was made even more painful in the end when Thomas Harley tried to block an empty-net attempt and caught a puck square in the hand. He was in pretty clear discomfort on the bench afterward, so the Stars will hope they don’t end up having a bit more long-lasting pain than the loss was already bringing.

Esoteric Soundtrack of the Game (ESotG)

Lineups

The Stars began with these lines:

Steel-Hintz-Rantanen
Blackwell-Duchene-Seguin
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Erne-Faksa-Bastian

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal

Justin Hryckowian was a healthy scratch, while Nils Lundkvist is out with a lower-body injury suffered in the Vancouver game on Thursday.

---

The Blues countered with this lineup:

Holloway-Thomas-Neighbours
Buchnevich-Suter-Snuggerud
Joseph-Schenn-Kyrou
Texier-Bjugstad-Walker

Fowler-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Tucker-Kessel

Binnington

AfterThoughts

• As has been the case in every other game so far this season, Heiskanen, Lindell, and Seguin all wore an “A” as alternate captains. This is a shift from the last few years, when DeBoer’s teams would have different groups of alternate captains on the road from those at home games.

• Mikko Rantanen took a hooking call in the first period, then a cross-checking penalty in the second. The Stars killed both penalties, but the latter came on Rantanen’s first shift on a loaded-up line with Hintz and Johnston, showing Gulutzan’s continued tendency to stack the top six as needed.
  
  Also:

• Rantanen was also on the ice when the Stars drew their own power play in the second. Rantanen had skated a full shift, but he proceeded to stay out for the entire power play after that, resulting in a continuous span of 3:43 with Rantanen on the ice. Rantanen ended the night with the Stars’ only goal and over 24 minutes played, second only to Miro Heiskanen in time on ice. Moose gonna moose, I suppose.

• Wyatt Johnston was the Stars’ other great forward in this one tonight, and it was a shame he couldn’t get anything behind Binnington himself. This chance on a nice feed from Bourque (who has had a couple of great setups this year already) looked labeled for the net to halve the Blues’ lead, but then again, it’s Binnington, so hopes and dreams are made to be crushed, as Johnston found out tonight.

  • Bourque tried to feed another puck to Johnston in the third, but it was one Bourque probably would have been better off shooting it himself, out in front of the net. Hard to fault anyone for trying to set up the red-hot Johnston, but you’d like to see Bourque rip Grade-A chances himself, when he gets them.

• With both Lyubushkin and Petrovic in the lineup, I was curious who would get more work on the penalty kill. But in the Blues’ first power play late in the first, Lindell-Lyubushkin came over the boards, just like we saw all of last season. Next came Harley-Bichsel, with Lindell-Heiskanen wrapping up the last bit of the penalty. It is mildly intriguing to me that Bichsel got a PK shift alongside another lefty despite having Petrovic also in the lineup. Something to watch.

• Adam Erne and Nate Bastian got a 2-on-1 after the early power play, and Bastian nearly scored. Erne did well to read the pressure and slip the puck over to Bastian, whose first shot was saved and whose rebound shot went high and wide. Nice work from the grinders.

• Erne was moved up next to Duchene and Seguin for a couple of shifts in the third period, as he was playing well in this one, taking Blackwell’s place. Lines really don’t mean much once the game gets into crunch time, it turns out.

  

  Shift chart from the third period - from HockeyViz.com

• At times, the Faksa line was the Stars’ best one, but that isn’t a great sign when you’re playing the Blues. Did this game remind you a bit too much of that 2019 playoff series, or was it just me?

• Finally, a fun little detail for you: Ilya Lyubushkin drew back into the lineup for the first time in a week, and he was using a slightly different stick-tape setup than usual in this one.
  
  Here’s what it looked like in St. Louis, with the tape going nearly to the heel of the stick:

  

  For comparison, here’s his usual setup, with more of a half-blade tape job covering mainly the toe of the stick:

  

  In fact, that different tape job tonight (it’s really just a slightly longer wrap) is because it was done by two of Lyubushkin’s sons a few days ago after a Stars practice (with dad’s oversight). The extra bit of traction didn’t result in any breakaway goals tonight, but it never hurts to mix it up, I suppose.