Game 55 AfterThoughts: Business Taken Care Of
The Stars have two home games before the Olympic break
Song of the Game
Underneath the smiles
A melancholy weighs upon them all the while
They can’t forget the cost –
The innocence of youth and brave ones who were lost
After a miserable post-Christmas stretch, the Stars have gargled a good bit of Listerine. When you’re sitting near the top of the league, four straight wins and a 3-for-3 road trip can wash away even the foulest taste.
Dallas started out January on a 2-5-2 run, so finishing a month the schedule always promised to be a tough one with a 7-6-2 record is nothing to sneeze at. Third-period issues in prior games aside, the Stars have found a way to course-correct, both underneath the hood and on the hanging scoreboard.
Starting with that last loss to Utah mid-January, Dallas’s shot metrics and expected goals at 5-on-5 have been 9th in the NHL over their last eight games. Those are promising signs for a team that lacked them for a bit, even if the goals weren’t quick to follow the process against teams like Columbus or Utah (the first time).
And when you couple that process with a resurgent power play (nine PPGs in those eight games) and a productive third line (thanks in part to Duchene’s rebound), you can do a lot of damage in the NHL. Everything isn’t solved forever, but you ought to recognize the surges at least as much as you ponder the valleys. Dallas’s season could have taken on a really different shape had they lost even two or three more games this month, but to their credit, they managed to get the train back on the tracks.
“Yeah, we had to get back into our game and what we did probably better in the first half of year than we’ve done since the new year,” Gulutzan said. “You can see, I’m sure, a visible difference if you’re watching the games, on how we’re playing the last few. So it’s got to continue. We know that’s got to be part of the fabric of our team. I think the players see it. We all see it, so it’s got to carry on.”
In a weird way, the Stars’ recent uptick makes the Olympic break a bit of a double-edged sword. Sure, the schedule has been brutal, so rest should be a good thing. But with the Stars’ play finally starting to resemble the things Glen Gulutzan has been preaching for a good while now, you wonder what sort of work the team will have cut out for them when they try to get back on the horse in late February after most of the team checks out some beaches for a week or so.
But that’s silly to worry about right now, because there are still two games left before the break. It’s also silly because most of the Stars’ top players are heading to Italy to play in some pretty big hockey games, so there’s a non-zero chance that the four Finns and the other three bring some pretty decent hockey hunger back through customs.
Wyatt Johnston, if he doesn’t end up being an injury replacement, will surely benefit from some rest. He looked fantastic on Saturday night in Utah, and he’s continued to be leaned on just as heavily by Gulutzan as he was by Pete DeBoer, with good reason. Actually, he’s playing even more under Gulutzan: Over 20 minutes per night, in fact. He looked confident and dangerous against Utah, and you can see why Rantanen loves playing with him. Players who can make plays love to play with other players who can, you know, make plays.
And in this game, it wasn’t just about making flashy plays. Roope Hintz was outmuscling players to win pucks and jumping into scrums. Even Esa Lindell, in fact, was mixing it up, when the need arose.
“Well, when you’re playing a little bit more of a physical brand of game, you’re idling higher,” Gulutzan said afterwards. “And when you do that, you’re more into it. And when you’re more into it, the engine’s going and you’re a little fired up.”
That intensity probably didn’t hurt when it came to defending yet another multi-goal lead in the third period. But with that 3-1 lead going into the final 20 minutes, Dallas played a very solid third period, outchancing Utah by a 2-to-1 margin (albeit with those couple of mistakes). Here’s what that period looked like:
As with the Vegas game, it was not a third period of turtling, by any stretch. Dallas got the better of play, but Utah still got a couple of chances, because almost any NHL team is going to get a look or two at some point.
The first Kailer Yamamoto goal was the result of some open passing lanes and some apparently permissible contact with the goaltender, while the second Yamamoto goal (plotted above) was all about Duchene getting beaten off the wall, and Yamamoto’s fanned shot still finding pay dirt. That part of it was a bit of“aw, shucks” bad luck, but the setup was not, and Gulutzan was clear that the Stars still made mistakes tonight, and he will surely be discussing them internally.
But this was also not a collapse or a meltdown by any stretch. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Stars deserved to win this game. Their guys made more plays, and they finished just enough of said plays to get the job done in regulation. Against a very good Utah team, that’s an accomplishment.
And yet again, a few of the specific names on the scoresheet were encouraging: Thomas Harley improvised on the power play with Mavrik Bourque, and Matt Duchene cashed in a great Jamie Benn play and setup. If you wanted to feel better about this team’s prospects before any trade deadline moves, improvement from names like those were going to have to be a big part of it. Benn had two assists tonight, and it’s no coincidence that he’s gotten those points playing with what looks like a refreshed Matt Duchene. Rising tides will do that, I hear.
So now, Dallas faces Winnipeg and St. Louis in two games before the break, and they’ll have the last change in both of them. The hitting is going up, if you’re into that sort of thing, and Dallas even went 57% on faceoffs tonight, which Gulutzan has indicated is one proxy for the team’s battle level. More importantly, those things are correlating with greater shares of puck-possession and scoring chances, and results are following accordingly.
In other words, they’re finally Doing The Things, and even if they’re not putting up a touchdown every night, they’re tilting the ice much more consistently and getting the points that slide their way. You never have to apologize for wins, but you really don’t have to apologize when you’re the better team, because it’s no more than you deserve. It’s always nice when a good team’s record and their on-ice performance start to resemble each other.
Dallas got a gift of an early power play after a puck was put over Utah’s glass by the Mammoth’s own free will. But Casey DeSmith had to make the first big save, on a shorthanded chance by Nick Schmaltz after a Mikko Rantanen turnover.
To the Stars’ credit, they clearly recognized that whatever the first unit was cooking, it didn’t smell great. So the second unit came out, and Thomas Harley and Mavrik Bourque decided to completely switch roles, which worked out quite well, as Harley put Dallas up 1-0 playing in the bumper position:
Schmaltz would nearly get it back shortly thereafter, but DeSmith’s post rebuffed the shot from the slot, and the Stars’ lead was allowed to germinate.
Sam Steel nearly made it 2-0 after Benn turned a puck over high in the offensive zone and fed it to Duchene, but Steel’s tip just caught the crossbar, and Utah escaped. But they once again put the puck over the glass after doing so, and Dallas got another crack at the power play.
And this time, the top power play unit would get it done, but they would take a page out of the second unit’s notebook to do so. Mikko Rantanen manned the blue line and one-timed a puck on net, and that’s all Wyatt Johnston needed to tie Mike Modano’s Dallas record for power play goals in a season, with his 18th extra-man goal of the year:
It doesn’t have to be complicated, you know.
Utah’s first goal was complicated, however, as Utah took a page out of Vegas’s book on the Ivan Barbashev goal from Thursday, beating all three Dallas forwards in transition and completing a seam pass that Kailer Yamamoto buried:
However, Dallas challenged the goal for goaltender interference. But for the second time in as many challenges, Dallas was proven wrong, as it was determined that Barret Hayton’s stick and skate contact with DeSmith in the crease wasn’t sufficient to be ruled goaltender interference after a lengthy review. Thus, the call on the ice was upheld, and Dallas had a 2-1 lead with a penalty to kill, which they did.
Dallas had to kill a second one shortly after that, however, when Mikko Rantanen clacked skates with Brandton Tanev in the neutral zone. Tanev limped away from the play initially, but it appeared the damage wasn’t too substantial, as he continued playing afterward. Dallas would kill that penalty as well, however.
The Stars would finally score a 5-on-5 goal later in the period, and of course, it would be Matt Duchene continuing to finish the job, making it 3-1 for Dallas:
Don’t overlook Benn’s hard work to protect the puck and feed it over here, either. He’s not Tyler Seguin, but he and Duchene seem to have found some chemistry lately, and that’s something a coach rides for as long as he can. If the Stars can find a third line for the playoffs without paying for external help, that will be a very good thing.
Anyway, the Stars took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission against Utah as a result of going 2-for-2 on the power play and breaking even at 5-on-5, and that felt like cause for celebration, given how tough any offense was to come by in the Stars’ last trip out to the Beehive State.
Both teams had early scoring chances in the second, but neither goaltender ended up having to come up with anything spectacular at the end of either sequence, and the second period began to look like a quieter affair than the first.
But JJ Peterka would get a puck right on the doorstep after Utah won a puck behind the net, and DeSmith would have to come up with his best save of the game to that point, which he did, flashing the blocker arm just in time to keep the puck out:
Halfway through the game, Dallas had 14 shots on goal to Utah’s 7. For yet another game, Dallas had started out strong, finding themselves with a lead to defend in the back half of a game against a hungry team. And Duchene and others kept pushing, testing Karel Vejlmelka with more good chances as the period went on.
We got 4-on-4 after Jack McBain went Full Jack McBain on Casey DeSmith, drawing the ire of a ferocious Roope Hintz. Both were put in the box, and the ice was opened up a bit. A Nick DeSimone chance would be the only real trial for either goaltender, however, and play resumed at 5-on-5 without incident.
Nate Schmidt caused an incident with a fairly marginal hooking penalty in the final minute of the second period, giving Dallas a chance to go 3-for-3 on the power play. But the first half of the set didn’t result in anything of note, so we had to wait for the third period to see if they would do so.
Vejmelka would deny the Stars their third power play goal when the final frame began, coming up with a big stop on a Hintz tip play from the slot. Harley also missed on a great backhand setup from Mikko Rantanen, finding the side of the net rather than the goalmouth.
Kailer Yamamoto would make no such mistake after Matt Duchene lost coverage on JJ Peterka, putting a fanned shot on net nonetheless, and drawing Utah within one goal with a whole bunch of time left in the third period for yet another multi-goal comeback by a Stars opponent.
Would Dallas find a way to stave it off, for once?
Well, after more chances at both ends including near-misses by Wyatt Johnston and Jack McBain from dangerous spots, Nate Schmidt would help Dallas’s cause by not discarding his broken stick soon enough, getting penalized as a result. And this sequence made me chuckle a bit out of sympathy, so I’ll include it here:
You can practically hear Schmidt’s inner monologue here, complete with naughty words after naughty decisions to hold the broken stick just a tick too long.
But once again, Dallas would generate chances on the man-advantage without the final touch, and they sank to 2-for-4 on the power play in the game. With 5:00 to play, Dallas had a one-goal lead to defend.
In spite of a couple of dicey icings to give Utah some free O-zone faceoffs, Dallas didn’t allow a tying goal, this time. Third periods haven’t been anywhere near charming for the Stars lately, but their third time defending a lead in the final frame went pretty well to plan, for once. That’s a pretty decent way to spend a late Saturday night.
Lineups
Dallas rolled with the same lineup as they did on Thursday:
Robertson-Hintz-Bourque
Hryckowian-Johnston-Rantanen
Steel-Duchene-Benn
Bäck-Faksa-Erne
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Capobianco-Petrovic
DeSmith
Utah tried this on for size:
Keller-Schmaltz-Crouse
Peterka-Hayton-Yamamoto
Carcone-McBain-Guenther
Tanev-Stenlund-But
Sergachev-Durzi
Schmidt-Marino
Cole-DeSimone
Vejmelka
After-AfterThoughts
Today marked two milestones for Dallas:
Tonight was Jim Nill’s 1,000th game as Dallas Stars GM. The time, it flies.
Today also marked Tyler Seguin’s 34th birthday. What is your favorite Tyler Seguin moment from the last 13 years? I’d have to say one of mine is probably this, just for how completely absurd is still seems:
Just FYI, here’s where Wyatt Johnston is in Franchise History in power play goals, per Victory+:
You can see why the Stars challenged the first Utah goal for goaltender interference here:
It sure looks like Barrett Hayton’s skate and stick are Quite Involved with DeSmith well before the shot comes in. To my eye, Hayton is also in the blue paint of his own accord, rather than getting pushed in.
Those two factors combined usually mean goaltender interference, but in this case, they apparently weren’t enough to overturn the initial call, as the official “explanation” simply said the contact wasn’t sufficient to be ruled interference. I wonder if DeSmith might have needed to “sell” this by pushing harder to accentuate the contact in order to draw the call, but that’s a pretty foolish precedent to set. Anyway, it was a tough one for Dallas to swallow, but they got it back with Duchene’s goal shortly after, which is the best way to respond to such things.
Mikko Rantanen may have his moments of questionable decision-making, but you can never fault the superstar’s effort. This forechecking work to generate two scoring chances early in the second period was pretty impressive stuff, starting with the outright pickpocketing of the puck:
I really do think Roope Hintz has added an edge to his game this year, and a good example of it was this play, after Casey Desmith got a dose of Jack McBain the Stars didn’t care for, which resulted in 4-on-4 after matching minors to Hintz and McBain:
Esa Lindell also jumped into the fray when the Utah Mammoth tried to get after Wyatt Johnston. Hand-to-hand combat, as Gulutzan likes to say.
I always enjoy watching Mikko Rantanen do things most other players can’t or don’t do. Tonight, he had a couple such moments, but this juggling act was a crowd-pleaser, for sure:
Justin Hryckowian still defers a tad too much at times on that top line, but he’s only three games in, so we’ll see how home-ice matchups go before making any big pronouncements. All told, it does seem like he’s been doing good work to keep more plays alive in the offensive zone, and that’s something that wasn’t happening enough for a lot of the year.
Finally, let’s wrap up with a look at the power play shots from tonight for Dallas. Neil Graham is not messing around this year, folks. Pucks get to the guts, and they get on net. And quite often, into it. I would not want to be on an opposing penalty kill when these folks are cooking like they were tonight.
HockeyViz.com
Favorite Seguin moment - and it shouldn't even be close. Seguin skating through the entire Bruins team and then scoring the overtime winner.
finally Doing The Things indeed