Game 51 AfterThoughts: Bowness, Greaves, Stars

A 1-0 victory despite getting severely outchanced? I've seen that before.

SotG

---

Boy, did this game bring back memories. And not all bad ones, in spite of the end result.

The Stars were the better team on Thursday night, despite some sloppy stretches from both teams. Dallas generated far more high-quality chances, and they rang two posts behind Jet Greaves off fantastic looks. They also had a few odd-man chances including a breakaway, only for every puck to find the human in front of the net rather than the thing itself.

But how fitting that Rick Bowness would do this to Dallas, right? Because anyone who remembers his final playoff run in Dallas can remember a game very much like this one. Like Game 2 against Calgary, for instance, when the opening goal was scored off a shot from nearly the same spot that Zach Werenski scored from tonight:

The only difference of note was Michael Raffl’s empty-net goal in that game, whereas Columbus had their own ENG waved off for being offside. Otherwise, these games were eerily similar, with 2022 Jake Oettinger playing the role of 2026 Jet Greaves.

Still and all, I can’t bring myself to view this game too negatively. This Columbus game is exactly the sort of contest you watch and say, “Man, that team sure needs a superstar to score that goal for them in a game like this.” And in fact, the Stars have just such a player, only they didn’t, because he’s still got whatever nasty winter virus continues to haunt dressing rooms around the NHL. So instead, the Stars were forced to get by without him, and they still managed a pretty strong effort in a game that had some real ebbs and flows, as Rick Bowness games tend to do.

Overall, the Columbus structure was just sound enough to bend without breaking, and that’s something they haven’t been able to do under Dean Evason often enough. In fact, this was their first shutout of the season, which I’m sure makes you feel just as good to read as it did for me to write.

Dallas can’t keep dropping points the way they have been for a month now, particularly against teams that you wouldn’t consider “good” ones. But even good teams do lose games like these, as Colorado proved last night by losing 2-1 in a shootout at home to Anaheim. Sometimes, you hit posts and your pucks don’t get through, while the other team snaps a shot that finds its target, and that’s enough. It’s not pleasant, but the Boston victory at least means this game can be seen with slightly more of a realistic perspective than the rising panic might have otherwise done. At least, that’s my hope.

Casey DeSmith was very good, making some stops on scrambly plays and not getting out of position despite some weird sequences. As he’s done all season long, he gave the Stars everything they could ask from their goaltender, only for the skaters to fall short. But it wasn’t for lack of trying, and mercifully, it also wasn’t from lack of ability. Dallas outchanced Columbus by every metric you could ask for. Natural Stat Trick had scoring chances 33-12 for Dallas, with high-danger shot attempts at 13-3.

If the Stars were trying some kind of weird experiment to demonstrate how Team USA might lose a game to Latvia or Switzerland while playing without, say, their own top offensive weapon on the team, this was a perfect demonstration of just such a thing. Chances fell to them repeatedly, but even players like the alluded-to Robertson couldn’t capitalize, which made misses by depth forwards (and defensemen) that much more painful. Maybe they never would have scored in another 60 minutes, the way Greaves was playing and the way they were finishing, but man. That final Justin Hryckowian chance will probably delay his sleep just a bit tonight.

“We just didn’t execute on some of our chances,” Gulutzan said. “You could see it was a tight-checking game, but we had a lot of looks, a lot of good looks, even late, and breakaways, and some two-on-ones. I thought their goaltender was really, really good. I thought ours was, too.”

The good was in the process, so a game like this feels especially cruel. After so many nights where the Stars got an early goal and then struggled to score more due to losing too many battles, this was a game where they did everything right except finish their chances, and the result ended up the same way.

Gulutzan pointed out that it’s easy to tell players to shoot high, but when the shots are being tightly contested, it’s tougher to elevate, and that led to a lot of shots going lower against Greaves where he was able to save them.

Maybe what this game really ended up being was a testament to the Stars’ need for another scoring winger or two. Because Wyatt Johnston looked dangerous at times as a winger, as did Robertson. Mavrik Bourque also got some gilt-edged looks, but none of them could finish. Tonight felt like exactly the sort of night where they needed a Mikael Granlund or Evgenii Dadonov to score that one random goal, but instead, those chances fell to Sam Steel, Oskar Bäck, and Nathan Bastian, and they didn’t go in.

Again, nobody scored, so that’s not to single out any of the depth players. But if you say that playoff games are tight-checking, as this one was (aside from ten minutes or so of the second period), then this was a pretty good example of what can happen when you don’t quite have the scoring depth you used to: You can get goalied.

Or maybe this game was really nothing more than a simple confirmation that, yes, the Stars actually do need Mikko Rantanen, despite winning two prior blowouts in his absence. So, here’s hoping he drank his orange juice tonight, because his team certainly needs him.

Victory+

---

The Rick Bowness effect was noticeable early in Columbus, with the Stars’ being forced (and wisely choosing) to dump in a lot of pucks from the neutral zone against a strong defensive structure from the Blue Jackets.

The closest thing to a scoring chance in the first 8 minutes of the game was probably this look, which was all created off a smart pinch by Alex Petrovic to keep the play alive:

Oskar Bäck wasn’t quite able to put the hot pass home on the back door, unfortunately. And just a minute later, when Zach Werenski threaded a shot through traffic that DeSmith didn’t see:

Letting Werenski slip free in that spot is a pretty dangerous game to play, and the Stars paid for it with a 1-0 deficit.

The Hintz line created a chance of their own off a nice rush by Hintz and a handoff to Robertson, who immediately sent it over to Bourque for a good, quick shot that Jet Greaves had to grab. That line, as ever, looks this close to being a bona fide top one, if only Bourque could score just a tad more.

Justin Hryckowian took a pretty soft tripping call while reaching for a Lyubushkin stretch pass, but DeSmith made a nice stop on what turned out to be a successful penalty kill, and then Dallas got a power play of their own after a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty by Columbus.

Jason Robertson hit a post off a nice entry play, but nothing else would result for Dallas. In fact the next couple of scoring chances for the Stars came at even-strength late in the first, as Duchene got a 2-on-1 with Steel off a bad Mason Marchment turnover (for those playing Bingo at home), and then the Benn-Hryckowian-Bäck line “caved in” the Jackets’ top line (to use Razor’s term) with a couple of great looks, including a rebound chance with daylight that Lyubushkin couldn’t quite put home.

Duchene and Johnston got another rush chance late in the first off a turnover in the Stars’ zone, and Johnston kept the 2-on-1 and tested Greaves. But once again, the Stars were denied, and the 1-0 Columbus lead carried through to the intermission despite a good bunch of high-quality looks from the visitors.

Overall, it was a 1-0 lead acquired and defended much the same way a lot of Rick Bowness Stars teams did, which is to say tenuously.

Mason Marchment got a beautiful setup as the third man in for Columbus, but he fanned on a shot that DeSmith easily grabbed. Robertson then drew a pretty specious tripping call of his own on Damon Severson, putting Dallas back on the power play.

The chances continued flowing up a skater, with Johnston and Hintz both testing Greaves with space around the net. Duchene would finally get a puck through Greaves’s five-hole, but he did so at too sharp of an angle for the puck to trickle into the net, and it was cleared out after nearly a full two-minute shift by the top unit.

Both teams’ structure devolved after the power play, with both goalies having much more to deal with, and skaters having plenty of space to work with. Up and down the chances went, but we reached the midpoint of the game without any further scoring, despite Kirill Marchenko getting a 1v1 look on DeSmith that he somehow shanked wide of the net.

The best chances for Dallas all game came from the Hintz line, but once again, a great setup on a ‘Lumbus turnover resulted in a nice one-two between Bourque and Robertson, only for Bourque’s shot to nail Greaves low for the opposite of a goal. Again, it would be so great for Dallas if he could finish just a couple more of those. Or, you know, if anyone on Dallas could finish any chance in the first 40 minutes, which nobody did, as continued turnovers and scoring chances continued to fizzle, with the Jackets taking the same 1-0 lead to the second intermission.

Shot attempts after 40 minutes - HockeyViz.com

You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching an alternate-dimension version of the 2021-22 Stars in this one, as Natural Stat Trick had scoring chances 26-10 for Dallas after two periods, with high-danger shot attempts 9-3. Owen Newkirk’s manual tracking had it similarly lopsided for Dallas.

Really, they deserved better than they got, except hockey apparently dictates that you only deserve goals when you actually put the puck in the net. Rules, rules, rules.

Mavrik Bourque got yet another Grade-A chance off a great long-range pass from Roope Hintz behind the Stars’ own net, but the breakaway from Bourque resulted in a shot Greaves looked very comfortable on, as had been the theme for most of the night to that point.

Victory+

Nathan Bastian had two great chances midway through the third after great shifts from two Stars lines in a row: the Duchene line and the Faksa line. That’s the exact sort of pressure Gulutzan talks about creating by “stacking” good shifts, and the fourth line very nearly capitalized on a couple of great looks.

Boone Jenner very nearly scored right after that, when Lyubushkin stepped up on the wall and left a 2-on-1 for Petrovic to defend down low. But Jenner lost the handle on the puck, so the Stars stayed within a goal as time ticked away.

Gulutzan finally did mash the “Super Line” button with eight minutes to go, putting Johnston out on the right wing of Robertson and Hintz for the first time all game. But the first good look after that point fell to Sam Steel a minute later, after a long-distance one-timer from Heiskanen bounced to the far side, only for the puck to keep bouncing. As a result, Steel fanned a chance that looked like it had an open net awaiting, and he then lost a puck along the boards in his own zone at the other end, nearly taking a tripping penalty as a result. All in all, not the best shift of the night.

Harley and Heiskanen were also put together late, but we got into goalie-pulling territory without any damage being done to Jet Greaves’s shutout attempt. That nearly changed with just over a minute to go, after the top 6-on-5 unit had mostly changed out of necessity from over a minute of hard work, only for Robertson to find Justin Hryckowian with a brilliant pass that Hyrckowian put off the crossbar.

Sometimes, it’s just not a team’s night. In fact, it was Charlie Coyle and Rick Bowness’s night, as they ended up with a 1-0 victory.

Lineups

Dallas rolled the same lineup as they did last game, sans Rantanen:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Lyubushkin-Petrovic

DeSmith

---

Columbus did this:

Marchment-Fantilli-Marchenko
Jenner-Monahan-Johnson
Sillinger-Coyle-Olivier
Voronkov-Lundeström-Heinen

Werenski-Severson
Provorov-Gudbranson
Christiansen-Zamula

Greaves

After-AfterThoughts

• Seeing Rick Bowness back behind the opposing bench is a strange thing. Nice guy, and Scott Arniel couldn’t say enough about how Bowness set him up for success in Winnipeg last season. (Maybe they could’ve used Bowness back there again this year?)

• Vladislav Kolyachonok was claimed by Dallas on waivers back from Boston on Wednesday, and because no other team put in a claim, Dallas was able to assign him immediately to AHL Texas. You can read this good piece from Chris Chambers over at 100 Degree Hockey about how that helps Texas’s depth in the near-term. Getting Luke Krys (who has already joined the blueline goal-scoring parade) back in the lineup certainly helps, too.

  • Kolyachonok is a restricted free agent after this season, whereas Kyle Capobianco and Alex Petrovic are both UFAs. If one of the latter players doesn’t come back for any reason, Kolyachonok provides great organizational depth. You could even see him making the NHL team out of training camp next year, depending on how things shake out over the summer.

• Brendan Smith is still out with an injury after getting some good NHL runway with Columbus, and Sean Shapiro reported on the DLLS show today that Smith even popped over to the Stars’ dressing room to visit with some of his old teammates. It’s been neat to see him keep his NHL career going after what was undeniably a tough season last year.

• Charlie Coyle played his 1,000th game tonight, so the whole team wore his number in warmups. I’ve only chatted with Coyle a handful of times, but he strikes me as a very easy player to root for. Like that stuff in the forest, he’s a fun guy.

• We can confirm that good friends Mason Marchment and Jake Oettinger are still on speaking terms.

• Power play entries can get overcomplicated, but this play by Johnston was a great example of keeping it simple and exploiting what’s there. Robertson rang the post as a result, and this surely helps in keeping the PK honest on future entry attempts, too. Or at least, it would have, if they had gotten more than two power plays.

• Wyatt Johnston did some unkind things to Damon Severson’s ankles with a nice move in the second period during the Pond Hockey Portion of the game. No goal resulted, but the style points were abundant.

• Tough night for Mavrik Bourque (and everyone else) in the finishing department, though Bourque played pretty well outside of that. But in a low-scoring game, not finishing the best chances makes for fitful sleep afterwards, and this compilation of his best looks tells the tale pretty well, I think:

• This wasn’t a very good night for Ilya Lyubushkin, who has sometimes gotten a little overzealous when playing on the left side of the blue line and losing a bit of his positioning. I wonder if we might see Kyle Capobianco back in the lineup tomorrow in Dallas when they face St. Louis, but that’s just me thinking out loud (or in print, I guess). You have the extra body, and it’s a back-to-back with travel. Might as well, right?

• Similarly, might we see Adam Erne for the first time since January 15th? Nathan Bastian played very well in this one, I thought, but if Erne is going to get back in the lineup, you’d think a back-to-back would be his best hope, should Rantanen remain out.

• Lastly, a small programming note: I’d mentioned an upcoming story about Radek Faksa and Czechia teammate (and former Texas Stars teammate) Matěj Stránský, but I’m actually going to save that for February, when the Olympics are going on. Timely news is the best news, and all that.