Game 53 AfterThoughts: Familiar (and Surprisingly Necessary) Heroics

Thomas Harley sent the Fates a strongly worded memo in the third period, and they took it to heart

SotG

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The quote from Glen Gulutzan that stuck out to me the most after the game was this one, which I will set off with the “block quote” function:

“We do some good structural things, but we need to get better at some hard things.”

-Glen Gulutzan. January 27, 2026

The Stars are a team with elite players at the top of the lineup. They have the smarts and the talent to play good hockey. They are not a young, irresponsible team that doesn’t know how to defend.

But when it has become more costly to play that good hockey, they’ve failed to answer the bell at times over the last month. And that’s how a three-goal lead in the third period turned into a near-disaster.

Well, that, and a few bad breaks. But don’t those always seem to go together?

Tonight, when Thomas Harley gave referee Stephen Hiff this withering look after the Blues’ tying goal, you knew exactly what both of them were thinking.

But thinking is all you can really do at that point, because what is there to say? The Stars had a 3-0 lead to start the third period against a Blues team that had lost one forward after the first period, and a second forward (Jordan Kyrou) after the second frame. The Blues came into this game out of contention near the bottom of the league, and trade rumors about their players are swirling, as tends to happen with bad teams in the latter part of their seasons.

“This just goes to show you what happens when you drop a degree,” Gulutzan said afterward. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where they are in the standings.”

Vultures circle as a season slips away, and players try their best to keep playing like nothing’s wrong. But for once, however, the Blues did just that, playing the third period like it meant something. And with Dallas coming out flat to defend their lead, one spark was all St. Louis needed—and they got it.

St. Louis piled up shots to start the third, and they finally got the opening goal they needed, despite Dallas appearing to have the offside lifeline. No, I still don’t have an entirely satisfactory understanding of why the goal was onside, though the official explanation was that the puck didn’t hit Faulk’s stick blade until Joseph got out of the zone.

But the Blues earned some bounces by being the better team, and Gulutzan isn’t wrong to say the Stars’ inability to match that effort was the culprit. He might even be dead right.

“You can look at all the fancy stats or everything,” Gulutzan said, “But when you’re leading the faceoff circle by 66%, and then you don’t win a draw in the third, and then you can’t get it out of your end in the third, and you lose battles in the third…it means your team’s dropped a degree. The lesson here is that we almost lost the game because of it.”

St. Louis went 16-for-25 on the dot in the third, but when a coach says a team didn’t win a draw, it’s usually because he’s focusing on the most important ones. And the Stars really did seem to lose all the important draws (and puck battles in general), right up until another St. Louis icing in the final minute (and seven seconds), when Wyatt Johnston finally did win a big faceoff, and Thomas Harley ensured the game would not sting any more than it needed to.

The symmetry in this game was really something, too. Just like last Friday, the Stars got two power play goals early, only to find themselves hanging on for dear life after the Blues roared back in the third. But also just like Friday, a hero or two appeared at the last minute to let Dallas off the hook.

“I think we just trust what we can do,” Roope Hintz said of the power play. “Trust that we can make those plays, and don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t go in sometimes.”

This time, managing frustration was critical for the aforementioned Harley, who poetically put a puck off the formerly not-offside Joseph and past Jordan Binnington to pull a really sour game back to the sweet side, even with some big asterisks on top of it.

“Wins any way you can get ‘em are good,” Harley said afterwards, though also acknowledging the Stars “would like to change some things” about how they went about this one. Harley also said that the Stars’ need to keep their foot on the gas was a good lesson, but “one I wish we’d stop learning at some point.”

But because the Stars have now won two games in a row, we don’t really have to get too caught up on how ugly this one was, just as Harley doesn’t have to feel too annoyed about a secondary assist by a referee’s skate on the Blues’ third goal, thanks to the final score.

"The universe owed me one after that third goal against,” Harley said. “So it gave it back, thank goodness."

Matt Duchene is another player who is going to feel grateful after this game, as he added two goals of his own. And lest you forget, the Stars got a fortunate bounce of their own (albeit to a lesser degree) on Duchene’s second goal, when a puck rattled off two Blues and in from his backhand feed to the net.

That was more of a hard work, “pucks on net, good things happen” goal, to be sure. But the Stars’ first and third goals were beautiful ones, chances and finishes created and executed by great players.

The first was a beautiful pass by Mikko Rantanen, a mirror image of a goal he set Duchene up for months ago. And the Stars’ third goal was also a pretty one, as Robertson and Hintz used the structure of their power play to carve open St. Louis to go up 3-0 for what ought to have been the dagger.

But the structure wasn’t what won this game, as Gulutzan said. In the end, the winning goal came from Wyatt Johnston ripping a faceoff away from the veteran Nick Bjugstad, and from Stars players going to the middle of the ice. Hard work, with no guarantee of reward or highlights.

But if you execute that play a hundred times, maybe four or five of those pucks will end up going in the net. It’s not a high-percentage chance, but it’s one predicated on the notion that everyone is going to pushing, pursuing, screening, and retrieving.

So it was fitting that, after bad bounces highlighted the Blues’ better effort for three straight goals, the Stars finally reclaimed their lead, and their victory, with one of the simplest things you can do.

Sometimes, hard work is its own reward. Tonight, it was the Stars’ saving grace, eventually.

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The Hintz line continued to look dangerous right out of the gate, generating chances from above and below the goal line. We say it so often, but it’s worth repeating: The chemistry between Hintz and Robertson is more palpable than ever this year. I’d imagine that’s a big part of why they’ve played together so much of the year. Gee, I wonder if they’ll end up combining for a goal in this game?

Matt Duchene centered the third line with Steel and Benn after a couple of games playing with Wyatt Johnston on his right wing. Unfortunately, Duchene took a cross-checking call when Fabbri turned along the end boards, and Duchene sent him flying on a hit that looked worse than it ended up being, leading to a Blues power play.

The power play ended up being equally more dangerous in theory than in practice, as the penalty kill made quick, efficient work of the two minutes. But the more dangerous set came in the following minutes, when Jake Oettinger had to be sharp against Jordan Kyrou and company as the Blues hemmed the Stars in for a good bit of time in a pretty decent reversal of the first period on Friday night.

Johnston’s line tested Binnington a couple of times to get Dallas back in the shots column, but the fourth line would end up drawing a power play when Colin Blackwell drove to the net on Tyler Tucker, and the defenseman’s stick was involved in bringing down the Stars forward.

The top power play generated a couple of their trademark looks right off the bat, but Hintz put the best one well over the crossbar from Johnston’s office. After a whistle, Rantanen then looked like he had an open net from a sharp angle after a rebound, but Binnington apparently got a piece of his shot.

The top unit would stay out for the full two minutes and get even more great looks, with Robertson and Heiskanen joining the fray with good shots as well. But Binnington stopped all four power play chances the Stars tested him with, and the first period ended with no goals being goaled, and two goaltenders reminding everyone why their respective countries think pretty highly of them.

The Stars got another power play early in the second period after a pretty big slash by Fabbri splintered the hockey stick of Wyatt Johnston, which is illegal, you know, and the top unit went back to work.

That’s when Matt, ahem, Deuce-chene happened.

The Stars’ center scored two goals in 40 seconds, the first of which came on the second half of the power play, after some of the troops changed. Mikko Rantanen did not change, however, choosing to just patiently wait for everyone to get in position for yet another brilliantly orchestrated primary assist. (He’s good at hockey.)

That’s what superstars can do, as Rantanen and Duchene did a few months ago against Los Angeles. Man, what a pass that is.

On the very next shift, the Stars put the third line out on the ice and Duchene attempted to set up Jamie Benn at the back post—only for Jordan Binnington to poke the puck off Logan Mailloux and into his own net for Duchene’s second goal in under a minute:

Confidence is a good thing for offensively minded players like Duchene, and there’s nothing like scoring goals to build just that.

The Stars’ fourth line nearly created a third goal a couple minutes later off some patient work along the walls, as Heiskanen finally got the puck to the high slot, generating a high deflection that slid just wide of a bewildered Binnington.

The Blues had their own near-miss shortly after that, as Berggren and Schenn tic-tac’d a puck that Jimmy Snuggerud toe’d into the left post, missing what looked like a sure goal after a great series of passes. Sometimes, it’s just not your night, or your season.

Dallas took a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty halfway through the game, but despite a missed clearance that nearly came back to bite them, Oettinger and company killed their second penalty of the night.

As the second period wound down, the Stars applied the pressure again, leading to extended offensive-zone pressure. And after Dalibor Dvorsky escaped one holding call by dropping his stick and his glove at one point, he took another Blues slashing penalty as he tried to win a puck from Wyatt Johnston back up the ice.

It was a fairly light stick-chop from Dvorsky, but as Rantanen has proven in overtime, referees are always gonna call those slashes when they immediately take a defender out of the play and generate a scoring chance.

Speaking of scoring chances, have you heard of Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz? They work pretty well together, as they showed on the Stars’ third goal:

Nothing too complicated here: Robertson draws the nearest man to him, and the other forward opts to take away the Heiskanen one-timer rather than the cross-slot pass. With both defensemen occupied at the netfront, Hintz has time and space to aim his one-timer back against the grain, and Binnington has no chance. 3-0, easy as you like.

The third period started off slowly for Dallas, with the Hintz line spending an entire shift in their own zone before Hintz finally got a high flip out of the zone—so high, in fact, that it hit the scoreboard. No penalty, and the Stars were able to change.

In fact, the third line came out, and Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene got a 2-on-1 at the other end of the ice. Benn sold shot well enough to open up the passing lane and used it, but the puck rolled on Duchene at the last moment, and the puck went well wide.

From there, the Stars’ lackluster third resumed, and Robby Fabbri finally beat Oettinger after Capobianco and Harley got caught reaching for a puck. Fabbri took the space and whipped a shot past the goaltender’s blocker to open the scoring for St. Louis.

Except, the Stars challenged for offside immediately. And initially, I was sure it was off, with Mathieu Joseph appearing not to have cleared the zone waaay at the top of the frame here before Faulk brought the puck back in:

However, after a lengthy review, the play was confirmed to be onside, and the Stars were on the penalty kill with all the momentum going to the Blues. No, I’m still not sure exactly why, though Dave Jackson posited that the puck may not have actually been played by Faulk for a bit after it initially crossed the blue line, which would certainly have helped their cause.

But to the Stars’ credit, their penalty kill stepped up, and they didn’t surrender anything. But that 3-1 lead shrank to 3-2 soon after that all the same, as Brayden Schenn finally got his revenge on Oettinger after multiple robberies last weekend in Dallas, beating him from a dangerous spot after the Stars’ defensive coverage lost track of him on the weak side:

In all honesty, the Stars’ third period probably deserved what it had gotten them to that point. Dallas came out pretty quietly to start the period, almost like they were expecting St. Louis to have given up, and that is not, in fact, what had happened.

Dallas still scared the Blues a couple of times in the last 10 minutes of regulation, including Mavrik Bourque nearly scoring from a rebound that he put between his skates, and which Binnington then nearly put between his own pads.

Luck in the third period went to the harder-working team, as Dallas discovered on a horrible bounce that led to a shot that also ticked off something at just the perfect angle for the Blues to tie it up:

But lest you think that was just the latest bullet point in what’s been a bumpy year for Thomas Harley, he decided that the Blues would not have the last word tonight, and he put Dallas right back in front with a goal just seven seconds ahead of Jason Robertson’s schedule from Friday:

That Harley shot went off Mathieu Joseph, of all people—the same forward who appeared to have been offside on the first Blues goal.

Sometimes, poetry reads a lot like prose, but tonight, it clearly rhymed. Another last-minute goal, another crushing Blues defeat. I do not think too many Dallas fans will be sending them sympathy cards.

Lineups

Dallas brought this:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Capobianco-Petrovic

Oettinger

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St. Louis brought these folks:

Berggren-Schenn-Snuggerud
Neighbours-Buchnevich-Kyrou
Fabbri-Dvorsky-Joseph
Toropchenko-Bjugstad-Walker

Broberg-Parayko
Tucker-Faulk
Fowler-Mailloux

Binnington

After-AfterThoughts

• Jason Robertson is here for his cat and yours.

  

  The broadcast by ESPN+, well, it certainly happened, complete with a John Buccigross impression of Keith Tkachuk calling TJ Oshie a “Goombah.”

  • But just to clear up something: Alex Petrovic’s name according to the NHL pronunciation guide is, believe it or not, “Peh-TRO-vitch.” No, I’ve never heard anyone in Dallas actually call him this, and I’ve always used “PEH-tro-vick,” myself. But I’ll have to ask the player himself about all the various pronunciations he’s heard over the years once Dallas gets back in town next week, because I’m more confused than ever at this point.

• According to Buccigross and TJ Oshie of the aforementioned broadcast, Tyler Seguin is with the Stars on their current three-game road trip. I believe this is the first trip he’s gone on since his ACL surgery a month ago.

• And according to Dave Jackson of ESPN, referee Gord Dwyer’s equipment was lost in transit to the game tonight, so he had to wear a different-numbered uniform, different skates, and the whole deal. (It’s a good thing NHL officiating is so easy, otherwise that would be a huge challenge.)

  • Yes, that was sarcasm. Come on.

• If you heard someone on the broadcast scream in the first period, it was probably this hit by Fabbri on Steel, which wasn’t quite as violent as you may have been led to believe:

• Jake Neighbours blocked a shot in the first period, and he didn’t return for the start of the second after visibly wincing on the bench afterward, missing the rest of the game.

• Jordan Kyrou also left the game later on, and likewise didn’t return, putting the Blues down to 10 forwards when they were pushing for a comeback in the final period. Impressive effort for St. Louis in the third period tonight.

• I still can’t believe Snuggerud didn’t score this chance. Though considering how the Blues’ season has gone this year, maybe it was the most believable thing of all, actually:

• Patrick Kane tied Mike Modano for points among U.S.-born NHLers tonight with a secondary assist against Los Angeles, just before Corey Perry sealed the win for Los Angeles. Personally, I think Modano tied (and passed up) Phil Housley in just a bit more of a dramatic fashion, even if I never expected either of the chances here to go in back in 2009, when my brother and I were watching this game live:

• Emily Kaplan during the second intermission said she’d talked to Andy Scott (Robertson’s new agent) and Jim Nill over the past week, and both maintained that there is no rush to make any big decisions. In other words, what we’ve all been saying all along: The Stars will almost surely do one of two things this summer: re-sign Robertson or, failing that, trade him.

  Kaplan also added two other things:

  • First, she confirmed what other outlets have said about the Stars “poking around” (Kaplan’s words) on Evander Kane. With Glen Gulutzan knowing Kane well from his time in Edmonton, you’d think the Stars would only make such a move if Gulutzan had confidence in what he’s got left to help Dallas right now.

  • Second, Kaplan said the Stars are still planning to sit down and have “an honest conversation” with Tyler Seguin after the Olympic Break to determine whether he’s likely to return or whether they’ll have to declare him out for the season. Kaplan said she wouldn’t count him out just yet, but it would be almost unheard-of for an ACL surgery to happen in December and for the player to be back playing NHL games five months later.

    • But of course, this is Tyler Seguin we’re talking about, so it makes sense not to count anything out before you absolutely have to.

• I’m sure Oettinger got criticized for the Schenn goal, but isn’t that also a pretty nice shot after a pretty deadly pass? I suspect that your view of this goal was probably already set by what you’ve thought of Oettinger’s performance over the last seven or eight months, though.

• With that said, Oettinger also had a couple of really big stops when St. Louis had Dallas reeling in the third. Given the final result, you can even say he “battled” for the win, and isn’t that all you really need a goalie to do in January, is win?