Game 52 AfterThoughts: New Friends, Old Wounds

Columbus had a pyrrhic loss in this one, if there is such a thing. Maybe that's just all losses, actually.

Day games are weird. Defense doesn’t tend to be as stingy, and goalies often can’t rely on any sort of rhythm. Long stretches at the other end of the ice can turn into chaos on their doorstep in the blink of an eye.

This game’s flow was bound to be even more uneven with three new faces entering or re-entering the lineup. And even with Dallas on a four-game winning streak, you could see how a motivated young Columbus team could have caught the Stars napping.

That’s sort of how this one went, at first. Columbus got three consecutive one-goal leads, but they never managed to extend it. Two of those goals were off somewhat fortunate deflections, though there was certainly enough pressure to generate them regardless. The Blue Jackets hit three posts as well, and with one of the Stars’ goals coming via a borderline high-stick call, this game was far from a dominant victory, but then again, the Stars don’t win via dominance, but depth.

In this game, that was especially crucial, as the Blue Jackets lost two players, and nearly lost Werenski as well, though he would return to gut out the third period.

In fact, Werenski got some mild revenge for the Jackets’ misfortune, as one of his shots ended up taking down Mavrik Bourque in the third period. After six different Stars (including Bourque) got hit up high in St. Louis last weekend, you started to wonder if Jason Dickinson might have buried an amulet under the ice or something before he left town.

Thankfully, Pete DeBoer was pretty hopeful that Bourque’s knock wouldn’t end up being more than a cut, saying the visor helped to minimize the damage. But of course Columbus had no such luck, and they lost a dynamic forward and and their top-pairing defenseman.

Meanwhile, the Stars got contributions at crucial times. Evgenii Dadonov really and truly doesn’t seem to care what line he plays on, chipping in two more goals to keep pace with Wyatt Johnston, if you can believe it. That Johnston goal also came on the Stars’ final power play, and boy, does it feel nice to see the power play getting back online over the last month. In fact, the Stars’ power play has 13 goals in their last 16 games or so, and that might be a big reason why the Stars have won five in a row, including two-and-a-half straight without Miro Heiskanen.

As for the new folks, what can you say? Mason Marchment scored the Stars’ first goal after getting his nose “shattered” (his words) and having to wait for the swelling to go down enough so he could breathe through his nose again, which is important for professional athletes, as you can imagine.

Logan Stankoven scored his first goal in eight games, back when he potted two in Toronto. His goal came off a great play by Harley and a great feed from the newcomer Mikael Granlund, so if that doesn’t bode well, what does? Getting Stankoven going again would be a big a bonus as any in the final 30 games of the year, and he looked good throughout the game today.

Cody Ceci, meanwhile, played nearly 22 minutes, and was just fine. He mentioned after the game that because of the early start, there weren’t even the standard team meetings, meaning it really was more of a “show and go” contest. But when you play with Esa Lindell, showing up is almost all you need to do, and he did that with aplomb.

We’ll talk later this week about how Ceci and Granlund are fitting into this lineup, but tonight was encouraging in a game with a lot of frenetic behavior at both ends. DeBoer said after the game that they’re two veteran players, and they played reliably. That was the hope, on Jim Nill’s part, and when you’re a team with the pieces Dallas already has, you simply need to make sure the pieces you add just make you that extra bit stronger, rather than forcing other pieces out of position.

It’s one game, and an odd one at that. But early returns are that the Stars won their last home game for nearly a month. With their California road trip beckoning, they’ll have more than enough time to bond with the new guys, and get back to their old habits. And hopefully, make those habits that extra bit more effective.

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The Stars began the game with these lines and pairings:

Robertson-Hintz-Johnston
Marchment-Duchene-Bourque
Benn-Granlund-Dadonov
Bäck-Steel-Stankoven

Harley-Lubushkin
Lindell-Ceci
Bichsel-Dumba

DeSmith in goal

Before the game, Pete DeBoer acknowledged that it was tough to take Colin Blackwell and Brendan Smith out of the lineup, given how good they’ve been on the fourth line. But the nature of being a good team that’s made two consecutive trips to the Western Conference Finals is that sometimes, there just won’t be room for every good player on a given night. And ultimately, that’s a good thing for the team, even if it’s hard for the players.

DeBoer said they would start Granlund (who can also play wing) at center, given that he’s been playing in the middle for San Jose this year. And you can see how it made sense to ease Mikael Granlund in with two veteran wingers, given the little time he’s gotten to adjust to the system.

And if you want to talk about making life easy, putting Cody Ceci with Esa Lindell is about as secure a spot as there is. It also allowed the pairings to be balanced in handedness, which is a nice thing to do, especially on an early start, when things can get weird. Ceci mentioned after the game how calm Lindell is, and wouldn’t we all like to have someone working alongside us with that same sort of intimidatingly placid demeanor?

Mason Marchment, of course, drew back in next to his old friend Matt Duchene after missing a month of game action, and it was like he’d never left.

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Marchment got off to a great start after a beautiful Duchene feed at the blue line to send him in alone, drawing a hooking call while also getting a decent backhand effort on Elvis Merzlikins.

The power play saw Mikael Granlund and Marchment both draw in on the second unit, alongside Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov. Harley stayed out for most of both units, with Lindell coming on in the final 20 seconds or so. But it was Cole Sillinger who had the best chance, getting a 2-on-1 that turned into a certain goal when the pass came across, only for him to somehow heel the puck and drag it wide with him on the rush.

Sillinger would not miss his next open net, though. James van Riemsdyk fed a pass through the crease to Kent Johnson, and the puck ended up going off Matt Dumba’s skate and right to Sillinger, who finally did finagle the puck on net.

More accurately, Sillinger put it on DeSmith, but the puck slid into his pads, finally kicking off the back his skate and trickling over the line to put the Jackets up 1-0.

That meant Matt Dumba had been on the ice for the last four goals against, including the three against Vancouver. And for good measure, Dumba took a high-sticking penalty just a few minutes later, though given how steady the Stars’ penalty kill is this year, maybe it was just an effort to settle the game down. In any case, it worked, and Dallas killed it off.

Marchment then did what he has been doing, fishbowl or otherwise atop his head, and he went to the net. And after Mavrik Bourque fed a puck back to the point, Lian Bichsel shifted just enough to find a lane, and he wafted it in to the waiting Marchment, who perfectly tipped the puck past Merzlikins, who had gone down into the butterfly to no avail.

Kirill Marchenko (would lose some teeth in this game after taking a puck to the face while on the bench) rang the post on the very next shift though, reminding Dallas that Columbus is very much On One These Days. This isn’t Vancouver, in other words.

Jason Robertson made a strong move to the netfront late in the first, and even after he got his leg pulled down by Dantte Fabbro, he still nearly put a falling-down backhand into the net. Dallas had to settle for another power play.

This time, the second unit started things off, with Bourque supplanting Dadonov in the group. But with just a minute to work with at period’s end, it was nothin’ doin’, and the power play residue rolled over to the next frame, though with no further goals to follow.

Columbus also got bad news after the first period, as Dante Fabbro left the game with an upper-body injury, not to return.

After some extended pressure by the Stars’ top line, Columbus countered up the ice, and misfortune struck again: Dmitri Voronkov shot a puck that deflected into Esa Lindell, and the puck once again trickled over the line, just before Lindell could retrieve it to make it 2-1.

It was frustrating, but the Stars clearly decided to channel their digust into their offense on Sunday, because they punched right back again.

After Thomas Harley turned the puck over with a great bit of, I guess, forechecking? By a defenseman? at 5-on-5? Yeah, it was delighftul. Harley harassed Johnson with persistence, and the Columbus forward ran himself out of room until Harley finally just got inside position and knocked him down on what Columbus probably wanted to see called hooking, but was really just a great play by a defenseman on a forward who wasn’t ready for that sort of pressure, from that sort of player.

Anyway, after Harley turned the puck over, Mikael Granlund took the loose puck and sauced a pass over to Logan Stankoven, who put a season’s worth of frustration into a one-timer and buried it for the tying goal.

Casey DeSmith had to be good in this one, especially on a low-slot one-timer halfway through the game, where he slid over and stayed technically sound enough to refute Johnson’s dangerous shot. DeSmith was telling me earlier this week how he’s always gotten the less-desirable games in his career, like the second half of back-to-backs, early starts, and so forth. And at certain point, you just embrace the chaos, and get yourself into the game. Unfortunately, that chaos persisted, and it was the third pairing on the ice once again to take the minus.

It actually started with a good stand-up hit by Dumba on Zach Werenski, but Bichsel wasn’t decisive enough on the subsequent loose puck, and Columbus took over from there, circling the net and pulling Dallas out of every position imaginable until Ivan Provorov finally sent a shot past DeSmith’s blocker from a too-open spot in the high slot past a too-screen DeSmith to regain the lead. It was Dumba’s fifth goal against in the last six goals the Stars had surrendered.

That goal came at a cost for Columbus, however, as Werenski apparently got tangled up with Bichsel earlier on the shift, and left the ice for the rest of the period. He would return to start the third period, however.

Dallas would counter with pressure again though, as Logan Stankoven continued to display renewed confidence. He drew a hooking penalty on a chance from the slot, and the Stars went on to maintain pressure for a solid minute of delayed-penalty action, though without result. Still, it set up a very important third power play of the game for Dallas, with an opportunity to tie things back up thrice. And they would.

That pass by Thomas Harley was the exact sort of thing he can do on the power play: use his skating ability and vision to get to a better spot in the ice, then fire a puck to the right place.

In this case, the right place was, as it always is, Wyatt Johnston’s stick. Johnston perfectly tipped the puck past Merzlikins’s left shoulder like he was winning a prize at a carnival, and it was even-steven once again.

Dallas continued to push, and Mavrik Bourque got a one-on-one that he put just wide of a befuddled Merzlikins’ blocker hand, and that meant DeSmith was due for a Grade A chance out of nowhere, as Adam Fantilli nearly scored right afterward on a great shot, then fumbled a puck behind the net that looked for all the world like a wrap-around goal in the making. But the goalies got a breather with the game knotted up, and we went to the third period 3-3, with Dallas outshooting the Blue Jackets 27-16 through two periods.

Things got messy again in the third period, as DeSmith found himself under siege even before a Jason Robertson cross check (that was far from necessary in the offensive zone) put Dallas on the penalty kill again. But as usual, Dallas locked it down, with Oskar Bäck even getting a great shot off shorthanded, and the weird, 5 o’clock start energy continued to spread.

That included a surprising call on a high-stick review, as Evgenii Dadonov expertly pulled a Harley shot that was going high and wide back into Merzlikins’ body and under his arm to put Dallas up 4-3.

For the life of me, this looked like the stick hit the puck above the crossbar. But the camera angle this is from may not be perfectly even with the crossbar, and the league took a lot of time reviewing the call, and in the end, the call on the ice was confirmed, so that tells you they had more than the Zapruderian footage I’m relying on. At least, that’s what I’m assuming. Dean Evason was less sure of that, though:

“We just got a really terrible break,” said Evason. “Hanging on with a lot of injuries and a lot of stuff going on to get a tie and get ourselves into overtime. It was not a bad break; it was a bad call. It’s a high stick. I just don’t understand it. At least from our angle it was 100 percent a high stick. I don’t know and I guess we’ll have to wait and hear back on what angles that they both have maybe that we don’t, but it’s unfortunate that we grind and battle and compete, and we lose the hockey game on something like that. It is real disappointing.”

“We just got a really terrible break. Hanging on with a lot of injuries and a lot of stuff going on to get a tie and get ourselves into overtime. It was not a bad break; it was a bad call. It’s a high stick. I just don’t understand it. At least from our angle it was 100 percent a high stick. I don’t know and I guess we’ll have to wait and hear back on what angles that they both have maybe that we don’t, but it’s unfortunate that we grind and battle and compete, and we lose the hockey game on something like that. It is real disappointing.”

With Marchment back, the Stars had two players wearing full face shields, and Duchene wearing an extended visor. But Mavrik Bourque took his second puck up high in as many weeks after a Werenski shot went off his stick just above the heel and right up under his visor and into his face.

Dadonov then did what Fantilli couldn’t earlier, and wrapped the puck around, banking it off Damon Severson’s skate and into the net, with Merlikins still sprawled on the ice at the other post.

It gave Dallas an insurance goal, and that made the Esa Lindell penalty later in the game less stressful. But Dallas made it through, and the 5-3 score would be codified at the final buzzer.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just watched Kari Lehtonen stop Fabian Brunnström twice in the Alumni Game. Some priorities are obvious in this business, and watching a bunch of former Stars duke it out is absolutely one of them.