Game 58 AfterThoughts: Out of Gas Whiplash

Back, back and forth and back and back and forth and forth and back and forth and so forth

“Sometimes it feels like you’re swimming upstream all night, and it doesn’t matter what you do,” said Matt Duchene after the game.

That’s pretty much what it felt like, as the Stars dug themselves a 2-0 hole early, and then proceeded to score four goals, which sounds great until you add the fact that they also surrendered four more to Columbus.

“A lot of self-inflicted issues tonight,” said DeBoer, who also pointed to the Stars’ bad start, and with good reason.

The Stars turned pucks over in bad spots and looked tired more often than you’d have expected, even on the power play. This isn’t the type of hockey that you’d expect to see from Dallas in the playoffs, but then, this isn’t the Dallas lineup you’d expect to see in the playoffs, either.

The Blue Jackets are a pretty decent team, or at least most of one, and this game felt like cosmic revenge for the two teams’ matchup in Dallas a while back, when the Jackets lost multiple players to injury during the game, and the Stars won with five goals scored. Dallas didn’t lose players during this game, but they had to ice a far from optimal lineup, at least on the blue line. And they didn’t score five goals.

But even after Dallas spotted Columbus a two-goal lead, the Stars still made a game of this one, repeatedly. That led to this expression on Dean Evason’s face, which perfectly encapsulates the experience of coaching a flawed team that has a lot going for it in the long run, but has been dealt a bitter hand this year (to put it lightly):

I give Columbus a lot of credit for their scouting on Dallas going into this one, as they seemed well-prepared for the specific plays Dallas likes to use along the walls. From the outset, Columbus was jumping Dallas zone exits, leading to multiple chances against a team scrambling to catch up, and the Stars just couldn’t sort things out and stop the bleeding. One or two bad bounces are always likely in any hockey game, but when you add those onto your own mistakes, things can snowball in a hurry.

The first goal (from a rebound Oettinger would definitely want back) is in that category of Turnover Apples, and the third and fifth goals were likewise a result of bad plays that resulted in failed defensive zone exits. The Stars want to go north with speed (what team doesn’t?) but in this one, they leaned a tad too aggressively toward hitting forwards heading out of the zone, and they ended up making life far too difficult for themselves.

Even when they weren’t a result of a failed zone exit, the odd-man chances for Columbus were incessant. In fact, I think Oettinger bore up quite well after the initial goal, but there’s not much use in saying nice things about a goalie in a game where five pucks got past him, so skip it. (But it’s true.)

Thomas Harley played over 28 minutes tonight, and yes, you’ve heard that before. Here are Harley’s minutes played over his previous five games, starting with Sunday’s tilt against the Islanders: 27:54, 24:22, 23:24, 26:08, 26:38. And when you factor in the intensity of the Four Nations whirlwind, you can’t blame Harley for looking a little gassed at times tonight. Playing half of any game is a tall order, let alone one where play is so sloppy that you can’t develop much of a rhythm.

With the defense pairings as thin as they’ve been since the Stars recalled Kyle Capobianco a few weeks back, you always knew Harley was likely to get a lot of minutes, but man. He got a lot of minutes. In the third period, Harley was averaging 1:11 per shift. Esa Lindell had the second-highest average on defense, and he was almost 20 seconds less than Harley, at 53 seconds a pop. Here’s Harley’s shift chart:

That’s just an insane workload for any player, let alone one who skates and creates as much as Harley does. He was asked to do so very much tonight, and he almost did it. So did the Stars.

And down below, you can see what the team’s ice time distributions looked like in this one. While I don’t think Brendan Smith had a particularly rough game, I can’t say I’m surprised he only got 12 minutes of ice time, given that he’s not been overly trusted by the coaching staff this year, and that he also got tagged with three minuses. Though, to be fair, so did Wyatt Johnston and Mikael Granlund, and I don’t think either of them really deserved all of those either.

Jason Robertson finished the night with seven of the Stars’ 22 shots on goal. One of them went in, and it was a big one. Robertson is now leading the team in goals outright, and if he could have managed one power play goal on that double-minor Dallas got late in the second period, I really believe this game turns out differently. But what loss isn’t that statement true of, really?

Besides, Robertson also had two turnovers that led directly to goals against while accidentally deflecting another puck into his own net, so I’d imagine he’d be the first to tell you that he’d prefer to forget this one tonight. Much like life, this was a mix of good and bad, and you don’t always get to choose which things stick in your memory.

Overall, I’m not sure there are too many players in this one who can say they played anything close to a flawless game, but if you can be one shot away from overtime in a game where you step on five rakes before falling into the empty-net sinkhole, you probably have the guts of a really good team, albeit a depleted one.

After things got messy in the second period, DeBoer shuffled lines a bit more than normal, going with the below:

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

Duchene said after the game that the team had a few players who weren’t really going tonight, including himself. One thing you have to admit about DeBoer: he isn’t afraid to send players a message, regardless of how long they’ve been in the league. But tonight, the message that may have been good to send might be that beloved anthem of crowds everywhere: “shoooooooooooooot.”

That is a plot of both team’s shot locations, with the Stars’ shots on the right. And you can see just how much they refused to shoot from almost anywhere outside the slot. For good or bad, the Stars look for high-quality shots, and usually it works for them. Tonight, they needed just one of those clunky ones that Columbus got, as Merzlikins looked far from impenetrable, particularly when it came to rebounds. But he also had a couple of nifty saves, including a glove-hand spectacular on Sam Steel, so maybe I’m underselling him on a night where he gave up four goals. And maybe the Stars know what they’re doing, and we should all stop yelling “shooooot” except as a euphemism in moments of anger (like when you step on a rake).

In my book, taking four of six points on a road trip is a success, though. I’m sure in Thomas Harley’s book, he passed from exhaustion after writing the preface. That’s why I don’t write the hockey points book, and instead just read The Game, by Ken Dryden. You should, too. Also Home Ice, by Jack Falla.

So after getting enough out of this restart road trip to be getting on with, the Stars have a nice homestand awaiting them Friday. They also have an even nicer two days without a hockey game to play. We’ll see if a more rested group can clean up a few of the mistakes that made things difficult for them tonight against the Kings. And even if they don’t, at least we know they can still make messy games entertaining. It’s the entertainment business, you know.

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The Stars began the game with this lineup, though of course they switched things up in the second period, as we discussed above:

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

Harley-Lyubushkin
Lindell-Ceci
Smith-Dumba

Oettinger

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We found out for certain this morning that Lian Bichsel is in concussion protocol.

We’ll talk more about what that timeline means for Bichsel later this week, but for the time being, that necessitated Brendan Smith’s drawing in tonight. He’ll almost certainly do the same on Friday against the Kings back in Dallas, too.

On defense, the Lindell-Lyubushkin pair was split up after a short run over the weekend, putting Ceci back with Lindell, as he was for a couple of games after arriving in Dallas. Thomas Harley has played most frequently this year with Miro Heiskanen and Lyubushkin, so it wasn’t a shock to see him back with the veteran Russian, though the defense pairs got mixed up as the game went along, what with Harley playing almost every other shift (again).

Oskar Bäck was a healthy scratch for this one, with Pete DeBoer choosing to rotate the extra forward scratch around the lineup lately rather than sit one player for an extended period of time. DeBoer has been pretty clear that it’s less about a player “deserving” to be scratched, and more about the nature of the team’s forward depth, which requires some tough choices.

That means in the last four games, the Stars have alternately scratched Sam Steel, Colin Blackwell, Logan Stankoven, and now Bäck, who has played over 40 games straight without sitting. The large center/winger (though mostly winger this year) only has three goals on the year, but his size has been something DeBoer has praised, particularly in puck battles along the boards. At morning skate, in fact, DeBoer made a point of saying that if they were purely trying to match up a player’s strengths against an opponent, then this is a game (against a heavier team like Columbus) where they would put Bäck in. So for him to be scratched anyway indicates that Dallas has bigger priorities when it comes to lineup decisions.

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The game started of ignominiously for Jake Oettinger, which is a fancy way of saying a long shot clanked off his glove (I think) and right to Kirill Marchenko, who dunked the generous rebound with little difficulty. The puck might have deflected slightly, which would explain his trouble with the initial save, but either way, that’s one Oettinger isn’t going to want to see again.

It also stemmed from a turnover after the Stars attempted a clear along the wall, so you have to give Columbus credit for winning the puck to begin with, too.

That first goal wasn’t an encouraging start from Oettinger, but he was far from the only player who hadn’t finished their coffee to start the game. It nearly got worse a couple times right after, including one rough turnover by Jason Robertson before exiting his zone that forced Jake Oettinger to execute a perfect poke check to subvert a solo effort by Boone Jenner. It was a great play by Oettinger to atone for his earlier miscue, not to mention that of Robertson.

Damon Severson probably had the most to regret, though, as he missed a pretty great chance all alone in front after the Stars got diced up in their own zone.

Somehow, that shot went a foot over the net, though the answer is probably as simple as “it was defenseman Damon Severson".”

But things did get worse one more time, when a Mathieu Olivier tip in the slot bounced right under Oettinger’s arm. It was a classic sort of tip in the high slot with Dumba battling Olivier, but the hulking Jackets forward is more than a match for most of the Stars’ players, and his stick was free to make it 2-0 Columbus.

Sam Steel got a great chance on a 3-on-2 rush seven minutes in, but the Stars’ first chance to halve the lead would get defused by Elvis Merzlikins. Their second chance, however, would not be so denied.

A really smart Wyatt Johnston pass found Jamie Benn at the back door, and Benn corralled the hot pass below the goal line and got it into the crease without much resistance, other than some flailing by Merzlikins that didn’t prevent the puck from trickling in. Interestingly, Benn wasn’t credited with a shot on goal, as Merzlikins ended up knocking the puck into the net himself.

Nevertheless, it was a huge relief for Dallas, as the goal got them back in a game they hadn’t shown up for on time before things got out of hand. It was also quite necessary, as the Stars wouldn’t record their second shot on goal until 15 minutes had elapsed in the period.

Columbus got a quick clear that turned into an award 2-on-1 late in the first period with only Thomas Harley back, and I wanted to take a second and look at how he played it, because I think it’s instructive.

First, you can see Kent Johnson gets the puck by the benches, as the initial zone entry by Dallas was refuted so quickly that not all five Jackets had gotten back to the zone.

Harley has a tough assignment here. He’s got a breakaway to prevent, but a dangerous trailing forward in Boone Jenner coming downhill, too.

Here, Harley has gotten back enough to where he could disrupt Johnson’s shot if needed, but without overcommitting, which allows him to pivot so that Jenner doesn’t have a shot all alone in the slot.

Sure enough, Johnson drops it back to Jenner, but because Harley is able to front any shot from Jenner, it gets sent right back to Johnson, who by this point is low in the circle without a great shooting angle, where Oettinger is easily able to handle the shot.

The key to that play is Harley’s skating and balance, as he’s able to get back quickly enough to where he can turn and face the play before Johnson drops it back to Jenner. If he’s still facing his own net when that pass happens, he could get spinning around and helpless. It pays to be a good skater, kids.

There were so few faceoffs in the first period that the final television timeout didn’t come until 19:30 into the frame. That running time could have been concerning, but with the Benn goal keeping things in check, it left the Stars a very manageable road game, if they could find their way into it.

The second period started unfortunately similarly to the first, as a Thomas Harley backhand clearance along the boards got disrupted enough for the puck to be kept in the zone. A frantic 3-on-2 ensued, but it was a pretty boring sort of goal from Marchenko, again, to restore the two-goal lead for Columbus.

Things continued to deteriorate when Matt Duchene got nailed for an offensive zone hooking call, but the Stars’ venerable penalty kill escaped with only some damage to the goalpost courtesy of Denton Mateychuk.

Dallas generated a push after that. Roope Hintz looked sure to get one back on a beautiful toe-drag setup from Mikael Granlund, but Hintz was denied from the doorstep on a Grade-A chance. Sam Steel followed with a solo effort of his own to split the defense and nearly dangle around Merzlikins, but the goaltender made a slick poke check to prevent the final move from Steel.

Luck wasn’t on the Stars’ side either, as a Kent Johnston flub turned into an agonizingly slow bump back to the point, befuddling Bourque, who was prepared for the pass along the boards.

Ivan Provorov took the puck and promptly flung it toward the net, where it bounced off Jason Robertson’s stick perfectly enough to beat Oettinger, much to Robertson’s annoyance.

But once again, Dallas got one back after Roope Hintz sent a shot off Mikael Granlund’s shin, then collected the rebound and fired a second attempt through Merzlikins to make it 4-2.

You might not believe that Hintz meant to do that, but I’m sure he doesn’t care what you believe.

Esa Lindell then took the Stars’ second penalty of the game against (who else?) Kirill Marchenko, and from there, Jake Oettinger had a lot of work to do. But he did it well, including a dynamite save on a low-slot one-timer from Zach Werenski (who is good).

And if Oettinger had atoned for an earlier miscue, Jason Robertson wanted to join the forgiveness party. Mateychuck got pressured after a buddy pass from Merzlikins, and he ended up putting it right on the stick of Granlund, who then may have lost the puck, but with luck on the Stars’ side this time, the puck slid to Robertson, who promptly put it past Merzlikins on the far side to make it 4-3.

Late in the second period, Roope Hintz took a high stick from Denton Mateychuk (who perhaps didn’t have the best game in his life) to give Dallas four minutes of power play time with a one-goal deficit, which is also known as a golden opportunity. Unfortunately, Dallas generated some good shots, but none of the killer chances they had against the Islanders (whose penalty kill is much worse, in fairness).

Two interesting notes about the four-minute power play were that, after the first minute or so, Matt Dumba came out with the second unit as the quarterback on the blue line. He didn’t look bad, hammering a 90+ mph shot into Boone Jenner, but the chemistry just wasn’t quite enough for the unit as a whole to convert.

Harley then came back to finish all two minute of the second half of the double minor, during which Mikael Granlund and Jason Robertson also stayed out for all two minutes (roughly) of the second half, but without result.

Going into the third period, it felt like Dallas had a chance to steal a game in which they’d been outshot 24-14, and outplayed by a much worse margin, if you can quantify such things with our painfully mortal numerical approximations.

Evgenii Dadonov got a little banged up after taking a hit from Mathieu Olivier, then trying to reciprocate (against Zach Aston-Reese). Dadonov left the ice slowly, but he returned looking surprisingly spry, so what do we know?

Another failed zone exit led directly to the dagger goal for Columbus, as a Robertson backhand along the boards looked eerily similar to Harley’s turnover earlier. The puck didn’t get to Hintz at the blue line, and it was picked off easily by Sean Kuraly, who sent it back to the net with James van Riemsdyk there to tip it home.

Here’s the moment Robertson attempted the backhand. You can see the angle is off immediately, and Kuraly had no trouble turning it around.

The upside for Robertson there is a rush chance for Dallas, but he wasn’t able to get underneath the puck, and it turned into a better chance for Columbus.

Logan Stankoven drew a tripping penalty a few minutes later to give the Stars another look at the game, but that fifth goal really seemed to have sapped the remaining willpower from Dallas, and they weren’t able to solve Merzlikins in the ensuing two minutes.

Sam Steel (number 18 below) got his heart broken when a loose puck popped to his forehand with the top half of the net open, but the glove of Merzlikins was fast enough to prevent him from starting a goal-scoring streak. Goalies just don’t care about your feelings, man.

Wyatt Johnston got two glorious looks, including a 2-on-1 with eight minutes remaining where he attempted his best Granlund-in-overtime impression while looking off the goaltender, only for Merzlikins to survive both that shot and a subsequent rebound chance by Johnston in the slot. Those are the sort of opportunities that Johnston so often converts, and it was honestly surprising to see neither one go in.

Robertson nearly jammed a puck in at the near post after a Hintz shot down low, drawing the ire of Dante Fabbro and company in a scrum behind the net. It was good to see the Stars still pushing despite running on fumes a bit in their third road game in four nights.

With an icing by Columbus with just over four minutes to go, DeBoer pulled Oettinger, and the Stars nearly converted right away, with a Hintz chance in tight not quite squeezing through the armpit of Merzlikins. But after some narrow misses from Columbus at the empty net, the Stars would get such a goal.

Evgenii Dadonov collected a puck after Marchenko narrowly missed converting at the other end, and the Stars’ oldest winger looked like their freshest one, cutting through the middle of the ice and generating a rebound chance that Mavrik Bourque put in over an overwhelmed Merzlikins.

But further efforts wouldn’t generate a result, and Adam Fantilli would seal the game in the final minute. A gassed Mikael Granlund couldn’t beat out Dmitri Voronkov for an icing call, and Voronkov would feed Fantilli all alone in front for the dunk, after which a disgusted Jamie Benn promptly shoved the net off its pegs and skated away.

Final thought here: I can’t find a video of it, but surely one of you out there in computer land remembers the play from a decade ago where the opposing team had its goaltender pulled on a delayed penalty call, and Benn skated into the empty crease and tilted the net back off its moorings to attempt a poke check underneath it, right?

If you can provide a video of this play, you will earn glory for your family. This is my offer.