Game 51 AfterThoughts: Minus One, Stars Get Two

You can't replace Miro Heiskanen, but you can get two points in his absence

Have you ever challenged a child to a race, knowing you could easily win? You usually start out slowly, let them get a lead, then catch them right before the end to instill the little bit of fear in them after their initial confidence in pulling out to a lead.

Or, you know, maybe that’s just my avuncular aversion to letting kids win. In any case, while the Stars were far from great tonight, they were plenty good enough to reel Vancouver back in—and in fact, to never let them lead at all.

Pete DeBoer had the perfect summary of this game afterwards in a short and straightforward press conference. After detailing the Stars’ lack of offensive-zone time earlier in the game along with some less-than-ideal standing around, DeBoer acknowledged what sort of game this really was:

“You gotta win all kinds of different ways in this league, and tonight, I thought our special teams gave us life, and I thought Jake was really solid.”

And that’s it, really. Thatcher Demko has tortured the Stars many times over the years, so it was pretty cathartic for Stars fans to see him lit up on the first power play of the game for Dallas after the fourth line had cashed in before that.

For me, you had to give Esa Lindell a ton of credit in this game. He led the penalty kill with 7:59 of shorthanded time, and he still wound up +3 in this game while playing over 26 minutes. He was blocking passes and making good plays, and the Stars needed that early, when Vancouver was desperately trying to prove that they Defintiely Didn’t Need J.T. Miller At All, Actually.

Thomas Harley and Ilya Lyubushkin scaled up their minutes without looking overwhelmed. Lian Bichsel logged over 19 minutes while looking the part. This won’t be the Stars’ blue line configuration in the playoffs, if they have any choice in the matter, but when it comes to taking things one game at a time, their top four blue liners looked at the job description and took care of business.

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But the biggest news in this game came before it started, when J.T. Miller was scratched right beforehand because he was traded to the New York Rangers.

For a good long while now, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller have been engaged in what can only be described as a good ol’ sports feud. Miller as recently as last month outright denied the rift, even going so far as to accuse the media of creating the drama wholecloth. But that was pretty clearly untrue, with even Vacouver’s President of Hockey Operations, Jim Rutherford, speaking out quite publicly to confirm the ongoing tiff.

Miller’s absence was, on paper, a boon for Dallas, as Vancouver lost one of their top forwards right before game time. but while Dallas had to band together without a fallen comrade in Miro Heiskanen, the Canucks were on a mission to rebound from a breakup. And you know what they say: amor vincit omina.

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With Miro Heiskanen out for a while, Dallas rolled out these lines, with recent call-up Kyle Capobianco drawing in for his first game with Dallas:

Robertson-Hintz-Johnston
Benn-Duchene-Bourque
Dadonov-Steel-Stankoven
Smith-Bäck-Blackwell

Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Lindell
Capobianco-Dumba

Oettinger

Capobianco played 11 minutes, including an unremarkable 30 seconds on a late power play. But he also took two penalties and was a minus-2 along with his partner Matt Dumba, who took a penalty as well.

The Stars’ third defense pairing was always going to be under scrutiny tonight, and unfortunately, it didn’t exactly bear up under the spotlight. Part of that was surely just the nerves of Capobianco’s first NHL game this year, but if that pairing gets another shot, they will need to acquit themselves much better than they did tonight. That is probably a nice way of putting it. Three penalties is just too many for any defense pairing, and especially the third one.

The top line was obviously the big hero on the scoresheet, but don’t overlook the importance of that first goal from the fourth line to put Vancouver on their heels after dominating puck possession early. That line, which DeBoer praised as being the only consistently physical line all game, was great all night. Creating space can happen with forechecking, but it’s even more effective when that space is created on the scoreboard, and the fourth line’s prowess and energy gave the top line time to find its legs.

“Find its legs” might be an understatement when talking about three-point nights for Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, at first blush. The second and third goals for Dallas were the exact sort of tallies the team wasn’t getting for long stretches earlier this season. So even if some of their other points came in the empty-net cavalcade for both teams at the end of everything, their first goals gave the Stars the lead they never relinquished. Timing is everything.

Timely scoring, and a power play goal on your first kick at the can is a winning recipe. And it’s nice to know the Stars are, as we thought, able to do some real gourmet cooking after falling down in the kitchen a couple more times than anyone expected in the first half of the season.

Jake Oettinger was also very good for the first 57 minutes tonight, and that’s all we really need to worry about, agreed? Agreed.

Matt Duchene made a great pass on the power play to set up Robertson’s eventual goal from Johnston, too, and he nearly scored a goal of his own on a slick play by Dallas at evens. But the top four defensemen were the ones who had the most to do tonight, and they did just that, which is to say the mostest.

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The Canucks came out firing, with the ice tilted pretty heavily against Dallas for the first five minutes as the shots on goal went up to 7-0 in the Canadian team’s favor. I’m not saying that Vancouver was the jilted ex who loudly arrives at a party declaring how much happier they are now that they’re alone. To be clear, I am not saying that.

The Stars’ new fourth line finally got the puck down the ice six minutes into the game, and boy, was that ever a breath of fresh air after a pretty nervy opening to the game. And while that shift seemed to get some other lines going, it would indeed be the fourth line that got the opening goal.

Brendan Smith was tenacious on the forecheck, and his work to win the puck in the corner led to a great Colin Blackwell hit to jar it loose once again. Blackwell then fed the puck out from behind the net to Oskar Bäck, who quickly fired a shot that may have ramped up off the skate of Aatu Raty (who drew in for Miller) and befuddled a shrugging Thatcher Demko on its way into the roof of the net.

When Mason Marchment comes back, you’d think Brendan Smith would draw out of the forward lineup, and that’s probably right. But Smith has been downright effective since moving up to the forward group, and that’s been a cool little story in what has been a tough season for the veteran. Smith took a penalty in the third period, but he also drew one on Tyler Myers earlier, so everything evened out in the wash. (The wash is not for evening things out, it is for cleaning, not math.)

That same fourth line later kept the puck in the offensive zone for a full minute later in the period, and the Stars really seemed to pick it up from there, with Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz both getting great scoring chances as well. The period ended with the Stars’ having closed the shots-on-goal-gap (SOGG) to 9-7.

Dallas did have one penalty to kill when Matt Dumba got tagged for a holding penalty, but the Stars made it through without too much trouble, with Lindell, Lyubushkin, Harley, and Bichsel (in that order) holding the fort during the kill. Giving Bichsel a taste of the 4-on-5 life was perhaps a sign that the rookie was going to be given a bigger assignment for the near (Heiskanen-less) future, as those minutes have to be spread around somehow.

Dumba nearly flattened Connor Garland when he wound up for a hip check that ended up working, but only just barely. But in the second period, Garland would get his revenge, as he turned a Matt Dumba near-goal into an odd-man rush that ended in a goal of his own.

First, Matt Dumba got a gorgeous rebound after Bourque’s backhand bounced out to him in the low slot:

Then the shot was stopped and rebounded beyond Dumba, who suddenly found himself far too low in the zone, and the Canucks had a 2-on-1 that was nearly a 3-on-1, though Dumba would catch Teddy Blueger (#53 in the below shot):

But Nils Hoglander would end up feeding Connor Garland on the far side, and he did a great job to take a moment and ensure he had the puck before sliding it into a nearly-open net:

And thus, the game was tied.

After Dumba took a penalty in the first period, Kyle Capobianco took two minors of his own in the span of four minutes during the second period, and the second minor was especially rough, as the former AHL defenseman of the year bobbled a pretty straightforward pass back to the point under pressure, and he had to haul down Danton Heinen in order to prevent a clean breakaway as a result. Safe to say, it wasn’t a banner first 40 minutes for the Stars’ defensive depth, with Capobianco having played just 7:21 up to that point.

Dallas’s penalty kill continued its stellar work, however, and the Stars survived both calls. And with under five minutes remaining and just one (1) shot on goal to their name in the entire second period to that point, the Stars’ top line drew a penalty of its own, and the power play would capitalize.

After a rocky first 40 seconds with multiple defensive clears, Matt Duchene took a puck down low and threaded it through the crease to Wyatt Johnston, who then drew Heinen toward him, leaving Robertson all alone in the slot, with Tyler Myers still catching up to The Events of the Day:

Johnston sent it to the right place, and Robertson easily stashed the puck over Demko, who had pushed across into the post to stop Johnston, only to be left without a post to push off with his skate tucked into the right post (Reverse VH alert! whoooooop!) and all Demko could do was sprawl out with the glove and pray. Unfortunately, Vancouver is apparently filled with athiests:

The second period finished with Vancouver having outshot Dallas 11-3, but with the Stars’ one-goal lead still in place.

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That one-goal lead wouldn’t last more than a few minutes in the third period, but that’s because it grew. Jason Robertson found Roope Hintz busting up the far side of the ice, and he fed him for what promised to be a breakaway, on account it was Roope Hintz.

Hintz held off Noah Juulsen by cutting inside at the perfect time, then slipped a backhand five-hole before the defenseman could get his stick around and adequately disrupt the play:

Things got chippy in the third period, as Benn leveled Pius Suter at the blue line after both teams had started driving more energy into the game by way of their shoulders. It wasn’t unexpected, given how frustrated the Canucks surely felt after having the better of the play but the worse of the score for long stretches in the second, and Dakota Joshua knocked Sam Steel flat with a pretty decent get-even hit of his own.

Lian Bichsel decided to join the Bottom-Three-Defensemen Penalty Club with a high-stick on Elias Pettersson, but Alain Nasreddine’s Special Teams sponsored a fourth successful kill. You really couldn’t say enough about how effective the Stars’ penalty kill was in a game it was badly needed, but then again, Vancouver’s lack of J.T. Miller on the power play probably didn’t help the Canucks’ cause, either.

With 3:30 remaining in the game, Brendan Smith took a penalty, but he clearly had everything planned out ahead of time, because the Stars won the face-off immediately, and Roope Hintz sent it the length of the ice and into the empty net to make it 4-1 and crush any hope Vancouver had remaining.

Well, maybe that’s not an accurate way of putting it, because the Canucks would score two more goals in this game, yes really. If you’ve ever heard the term “garbage time,” then you knew exactly what the next couple of minutes were.

• First, Jake DeBrusk would score a pointless power play goal before Smith’s minor expired when he made a stuff play at the net and caught Oettinger’s five-hole napping, making it 4-2 with two minutes remaining.

• Then Jason Robertson got the puck at the blue line and sailed it into the top corner of an empty net with one minute remaining to punish Vancouver for their insolence.

• And finally, with three seconds left, Vancouver would score once more. Do you care how they did it? Well, Carson Soucy one-timed a puck into an empty net with a ton of traffic in front to make it 5-3. That is how. It did not matter, except to the players, who took their minuses and goal-against with a slight bit of annoyance, but nothing more.

All told, it was a bit of an iffy game that the Stars essentially won at 3-1 thanks to special teams and their fourth line, but the scoreline wound up looking like a track meet. Empty-net goals should never be counted in any meaningful stat, unless you’re Wayne Gretzky or Alex Ovechkin.

The Stars had five games until the 4 Nations break. Now they have four. If they can get through this stretch while continuing to find points more often than not, that’ll be plenty good enough for everybody. Even if it means some minuses along the way.