Game 56 AfterThoughts: Casey Closed

New Jersey, Old Reliables

With 27 games to play in 54 days, there are going to be a lot of different sorts of wins and losses in there. But if you get too picky about how a team without its top defenseman or one of its best right wingers is winning games, you might not be able to enjoy games like tonight nearly as much as they deserve.

Dallas beat New Jersey 4-2 in their first game in two weeks. They got goals from three different lines, and a power play goal from Thomas Harley, while Jack Hughes scored a pair of quick goals in 1:40 for the Devils’ only offensive production.

That doesn’t mean they weren’t testing Dallas, though. But Casey DeSmith had a truly fantastic game, stopping everything he saw outside of Jack Hughes’s best chances, as you can see from the Devils’ shots (in the left picture below)

For much of the season, Dallas was winning games behind very good goaltending and even-strength play, out-chancing teams and not losing the specials teams battle. Tonight was a prime example of that, except New Jersey solidly out-chanced Dallas. Only it didn’t end up mattering, thanks to DeSmith.

The Stars’ number two goaltender had to be great from the start of this game, and he straightened out most of the Stars’ stiff joints, stopping 31 of 33 shots in a performance worthy of a top goalie on a great team, let alone a backup behind a rusty one. It was good to see DeSmith earn a big win to get the Stars going again after the break. They’ll hope to make his life slightly easier next time, but I don’t know that you can guarantee anything in this final sprint to the finish line.

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Dougie Hamilton had 16 shot attempts to lead New Jersey, but it wasn’t until he started passing that the points came for the Devils. Specifically, passing to Jack Hughes, who clearly had a chip on his shoulder after a less-than-amazing 4 Nations stint with Team USA, scoring both of the Devils’ goals in quick succession.

Hamilton, though, is one of those dynamic right-shot defensemen in this league that you miss dearly when you don’t have them, and his absence last year was a huge problem for the Devils. With him back, they’re much more dangerous, and it sure showed tonight. If he had passed on one or two more of his chances, one suspects the Devils would have gotten more out of this game. But one never does know.

As for the Stars’ defense, the Lindell-Lyubushkin pairing spent a lot of the night in its own end, which, to be fair, is probably where those two players are most comfortable. It sure doesn’t mean it was comfortable for fans to watch, though!

Ilya Lyubushkin was on the ice for 15 scoring chances against at 5-on-5, and zero such chances for, according to Natural Stat Trick. That’s a pretty crazy 0-15 deficit (shot attemps were 8-26 in his 5v5 ice time), but the most important thing was that Lyubushkin didn’t have a goal go in at even-strength while he was out there, though I think Casey DeSmith probably deserves some credit for that.

Also, one of the goals came with Lyubushkin in the penalty box, and the other came right before he went out, as Lindell had just started his shift, but Bichsel hadn’t gotten off yet. He and Lindell did enough to weather the storm tonight, but they weren’t able to do more than that, and I think you’d prefer the latter option, all things considered.

I don’t think Lindell-Lyubushkin is an optimal playoff defense pair, and I think Nasreddine and DeBoer know it. Those two have primarily played together on the penalty kill this year, and rarely for the majority of a game (as you can see from the sea-green bars, below).

Tonight, that pairing managed to park the bus in the right spot though, and the Stars got two points. That’s gonna be the motto for a lot of the remaining 26 games, I suspect. Find a way or make (up) one.

Lian Bichsel and Matt Dumba were on the other end of the spectrum, albeit in fewer minutes. Their pairing was reliable in third-pair duties, and Bichsel had a really excellent game in particular, both getting under New Jersey’s skin and laying checks into it. It was a night where New Jersey was looking for weaknesses to exploit, but Dallas’s overall resilience from the net on out allowed them to capitalize on their chances moreso than Jersey.

The Dadonov goal was a great example of that efficiency (for lack of a better word): the Devils had a few chances to grab rebounds and put them right back, but they never managed to do so, whereas Dadonov got one rebound early and scored. That looked bigger and bigger as the game went on, and when Duchene scored on another New Jersey mistake in their own zone, it was too much to overcome for the home side.

Thomas Harley had a good game coming back from his national debut, and he scored a great power play goal, too. You need great plays from your top guys when you’re not controlling most of the play, and Dallas got a clutch goal from their top scorer (Duchene) and a great shot from their top defenseman (Harley) when they needed them. New Jersey got a great performance from Hughes, but Timo Meier et al. were frustrated by DeSmith all night.

A couple of miscellaneous notes before we dissect the action:

• Oskar Bäck got a pretty nasty cut in his face on a high stick from Nico Hischier, but he returned to action after (I believe) getting his cheek zipped back up, so he seems to be all right.

• As he had been doing before the break, the youngest forward on the team, Wyatt Johnston, continued to sport an “A” as an alternate captain for road games in lieu of Miro Heiskanen.

  • Don’t get caught taking Johnston for granted. He’s 21 years old, and he’s the guy DeBoer wants out there to defend a 6-on-4 situation. It’s just wild to me how much trust Johnston has (deservedly) earned, but his effort in the final minute tonight was a great example of why DeBoer goes to him so much. He gets the job done. I think he is going to make more money next year than he did this year.

• Here’s a shot that someone on Twitter directed me to where you can see Esa Lindell very likely laughing at Lian Bichsel’s massive hit on Dawson Mercer. It’s always nice to watch fun shows with your friends.

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The Stars’ lines looked like this to begin the game:

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

Harley - Ceci
Lindell - Lyubushkin
Bichsel - Dumba

DeSmith

The other notable thing about the lineup was that Ceci was paired with Thomas Harley, after Ceci had played primarily with Esa Lindell before the 4 Nations break. Will we see Ceci back with Lindell against the Islanders tomorrow, or will Brendan Smith draw in? I suspect neither.

The other thing that was a bit different was DeSmith playing the first game of a back-to-back rather thant he second. The only other time that had happened this year was in Colorado in mid-January, when the Stars had a pretty rough game in front of him in a 6-3 loss. Other than that, DeSmith has played the second night of 2-in-2s. But DeBoer told media before the game that he wanted to start off with the goalie who had been practicing with the team all week, and given some of the early saves DeSmith had to make, the choice was a good one.

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Nathan Bastian had a great chance early after getting in behind Ceci after receiving a stretch pass, but Casey DeSmith was able to hang onto the breakaway shot, keeping Dallas even. That was a portent of the whole game, turns out.

On the other side, Evgenii Dadonov found a rebound and did what he’s been doing all year to make it 1-0. I never cease to appreciate how balanced NHL skaters are, as the ability to contort one’s body like Dadonov’s below while sending the puck around Allen’s pad looked like nothing at all. I suspect the average equilibrium would have a tougher time with this play. I suspect most human beings would, too.

Things got a bit chippy after that, as Lian Bichsel was only too happy to clear the crease of Curtis Lazar shortly after the goal when the Devils' forward got a bit frisky after a DeSmith freeze, and can you tell that Bichsel hasn’t played a game in two weeks? I’d imagine that DeSmith doesn’t mind having a humongous defenseman like Bichsel there to stand up for him one bit.

That bit of fracas apparently drew the ire of Brenden Dillon, who took an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty in what seemed like attempt to "send a message to Bichsel” right after that, though the message ended up being quite different from what he intended, as the Stars would convert the ensuing power play.

The power play started off with a bang, or at least a ping!, as Harley hit the post from distance on a no-nonsense half-power one-timer. The bang came right after, as Harley didn’t muck around off a face-off win. Nico Hischier was busybodied by Wyatt Johnston and couldn’t recover, and so Harley skated into the acres of space in the slot in order to rip a shot over Jake Allen for his 10th goal of the year.

One other notable thing about the goal was Hintz with a perfect screen while manning the net-front on the power play. Hintz was moved to that spot this season by Steve Spott & company, and this goal is a textbook example of how effective that change has been.

As for Harley, his confidence must be pretty ding-danged high right now, given the last two weeks. I’m not sure it’s ever been particularly low, though.

Ondrej Palat nearly halved the deficit immediately, but DeSmith made a very steady save point-blank, keeping things at 2-0. DeSmith had to be very good early on some less-than-ideal chances to give up, which is pretty much always the assignment for a number two goaltender, isn’t it?

DeSmith had to be sharp again on the penalty kill with eight minutes left, when Thomas Harley poke-checked a puck off Jesper Bratt’s stick, only for the follow-through of his stick to get into Bratt’s skates, and by the modern NHL standard, that’s a penalty. It’s a shame, but it is.

Bichsel continued to terrorize the Devils in the first period, mixing it up multiple times after the whistle, and laying a huge hit on Dawson Mercer during a Stars’ penalty kill for good measure. (A kill Bichsel was on for in place of Harley, as the latter was in the box.)

The rest of that penalty kill was efficient, thanks to a slick poke-check by DeSmith and some other tidy work—and the aforementioned hit by Bichsel on Mercer. Here is a screencap of Bichsel right after he finished that shift with the big hit:

I think Bichsel is an NHL defenseman, folks.

The Stars kept things going in the second period by stringing a few shifts together in the Devils’ zone, hemming New Jersey in without a change for over two straight minutes. The sequence seemed sure to end with something good, but it only culminated in a Ceci slapshot into Allen’s stomach, which is a bit like having your parent’s house all to yourself in high school and hosting a quilt-a-thon.

Oskar Bäck took a high stick from Nico Hischier midway through the game for a four-minute double minor, and it looked like a painful one. Given that he’s already had his braces dinged up once this year—check out the story on why he’s wearing them, if you haven’t seen it—you hoped it didn’t cause too much damage. He would return before the end of the second period, so we’ll tentatively hope that he’s able to keep getting his jaw put back into proper place without too many further bumps in the road.

Something that certainly didn’t cause any damage was the Stars’ power play, which poked and prodded, but too often had to do some defending during the four minutes as well. Dadonov had one good look right at the end after Matt Duchene’s latest playmaking work of beauty, but the angle was too severe to truly test Allen.

Brent Severyn (the birthday boy himself) had a really instructive breakdown of the Devils’ 1-3 penalty kill during the second intermission, and man, I could listen to NHL players break down those sorts of things all day. One of the cool things about Victory+ has been the ability of the broadcast to run those segments with a little bit more freedom, and I’ve really enjoyed the pregame and intermission work by Severyn and Brien Rea this year.

As for the hockey, DeSmith turned the latter part of the middle period into his personal highlight reel, with a couple of saves in tight on Paul Cotter, a positional stop on a dangerous one-timer from Brett Pesce, and a jaw-dropping pad prevention on Timo Meier.

DeSmith would rob Meier again with a poke check shortly afterward, but Jamie Benn had to take a penalty on Meier as he danced around the Stars’ captain, putting Dallas back on the kill.

New Jersey promptly generated a better chance in the first five seconds of the kill when the Stars got caught leaning north off the face-off, only for the puck to go to Dougie Hamilton, who came down from a entirely empty point and fired a shot that just did catch the tip of DeSmith’s glove.

I’d imagine Alain Nasreddine doesn’t usually draw it up like that, but once again, the NHL’s best penalty kill found a way to get through the two minutes unscathed.

Jason Robertson nearly made it 3-0 late in the second after a feed from Johnston from below the goal line, but Allen’s stick sealed the five hole, and the Stars had to settle for taking their same 2-0 lead into the second intermission that they had the first.

Dougie Hamilton started the third with yet another shot, firing a one-timer from the point past a screened DeSmith and off the left post. It was a not-unpected reminder for Dallas that the 2-0 lead they’d been holding onto would need more maintenance than ever if they wanted it to last the final frame.

Dallas continued to stretch the neutral zone in the third, with a forward at the far blue line forcing New Jersey to keep a defenseman back there during breakouts, giving Dallas some more room to work with.

Matt Duchene had all day to deploy his elite stickhandling on one such foray into the Devils’ zone, when Mikael Granlund found Duchene on the weak side all alone, and set him up for this chance:

Duchene moved to the backhand and tried a fadeaway shot over Allen, but the Devils’ goalie made an excellent glove save to rob Duchene to keep New Jersey within two.

DeSmith was the more outstanding of the two goaltenders, though. Nine minutes into the third, a double DeSmith save even turned into a Wyatt Johnston breakaway (or about 90% of one), but Johnston had to take a quicker shot than he probably would have liked with heavy back pressure, and Allen stayed strong. Johnston would do better on his next breakaway, when a goalie wasn’t in the way.

DeSmith made a series of beautiful goal-line saves right after that, somehow holding his ground on the frustrated Meier long enough for Ilya Lyubushkin to get back to help.

Unfortunately, Lyubushkin got called for holding in that scramble, and that meant that Dougie Hamilton finally had a chance to pass instead of shoot, and he set up Jack Hughes for a lethal one-timer that he was never going to miss. And from there, the offense was off and running for both teams.

First, Hughes made it 2-1 on the aforementioned one-timer.

(DeSmith almost caught up to the shot, though.)

Then Jamie Benn set up Matt Duchene (who had just come off the bench) after a totally botched retrieval by the Devils in their zone. I love how you can see Benn looking off the Devils here before setting up Duchene, who fired it past Allen’s blocker right after catching the puck.

But the pressure from New Jersey continued. Jesper Bratt curled out from behind the net and set up Hughes for another one-timer, and the first-overall pick scored his second goal in 100 seconds to pull Jersey back to within one by ripping the puck far side, top corner.

Jason Robertson nearly countered a few minutes later in tight, but he couldn’t quite bunt the puck out of the air cleanly, and it ended up getting caught up in Allen’s paraphernalia to nix the chance. He’ll be annoyed at that one, I’m sure, but it wasn’t exactly an easy chance, to put it lightly.

With five minutes to go, Dallas buckled down to get this one into the barn, which resulted in Dougie Hamilton getting a one-timer feed from 12 feet away after Harley and Ceci both found themselves on the strong side. But wouldn’t you know it, DeSmith made the save, and then he made another, then he sat down on the puck at the side of the net, which is sometimes what it takes.

The Stars didn’t make life easy on themselves late, as Lyubushkin’s stick got Hischier up high with 44 seconds to go, putting Dallas on a 6-on-4 disadvantage with the New Jersey net emptied, and without their go-to RHD on the penalty kill.

But there is one person who does make life easier on his fellow Stars, and that player is Wyatt Johnston, who grabbed one loose puck in his zone and shot, but narrowly missed the empty net. But right after that, he whacked away a casual stick from Dougie Hamilton intend to slow him down, then he stripped the woebegone Timo Meier at the top of the zone and outfought him to win the puck and take off down the ice. It wasn’t the Sidney Crosby sequence against Finland, but it was a pretty darn impressive one, all the same. Johnston won the puck to take it down the ice alone, and Wyatt Johnston does not miss twice. He dunked puck to give Dallas a 4-2 victory, allowing them to get out of New Jersey, which is the real victory.

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We’re off and running with less than two months to go in the regular season, folks. This was a bumpy ride at times, but they don’t ask how, and so on and so forth.

(But if they do, just point at the goaltender. That’s usually a safe bet.)