Game 59 AfterThoughts: Eight Straight, and All Entertaining
Dallas did it again
Song of the Game
Runnin’, Runnin’, Runnin’
Josh Bogorad said it pretty well tonight:
It’s not that Dallas wants to make games close. But if you have to give up two goals early, I guess you might as well reward your faithful fans by giving them glorious drama at the end of it all. Eight-game winning streaks might as well be fun, after all.
“Even though we were down by a goal, I think, coming in here after the first and then again after the second, I think we kind of knew we were gonna win that one,” said Nathan Bastian.
Glen Gulutzan added after the game that the cause of the 2-0 hole Dallas dug in the first period was pretty simple: a blue line turnover for one goal, and a missed interference penalty to give the Predators a ton of space in transition on the other one.
But the players didn’t let those things get them down.
“I feel we just stuck to it,” said Esa Lindell. “Just kept working. And especially in the second, it started to turn for us. I felt we kept pushing, got rewarded in the third, and got the win in OT.”
Outside of those two hiccups, he agreed that there was a lot to like about this game, even before the final goal.
“What I liked was, we just kinda stayed with our game we’ve been playing,” Gulutzan said, before giving some credit to Nashville. “They came out hard, too. That’s a good hockey team.”
And fair play to Nashville, because even as Dallas took command of the game later on, there were plenty of moments that easily could have gone the other way, if not for Jake Oettinger shutting the door after the early two goals. This was no cakewalk.
“I mean, they look like a playoff team,” Gulutzan added. “It almost looked like a playoff game.”
Indeed, this one felt every bit as tense as a one-goal contest in the postseason, but only once the Stars finally got it within one. For too long, Juuse Saros shut down chance after chance, and you could see a clear path to a frustrating loss on a night where Dallas was missing some key players.
Instead, they stayed with their game, and finally got a power play goal, and then another. And then they had to grind against a Nashville team desperately trying to punch back for one more goal that Dallas found first.
“Obviously with the winning streak, the confidence goes higher and higher,” Lindell said. “But I think lately, the simple things have been better. Work rate and physical play. Sounds maybe quite simple, but that’s been effective.”
The work rate really was noticeable, too. Coverage and shot lanes were being better managed by Dallas than in games earlier in the year, and that allowed them to stay close enough to grab the win by the slimmest of margins when opportunity knocked.
Neil Graham’s group once again came through, too. Because for the second time in as many games, the Stars found a way to piece together a 5-on-4 tally despite missing Roope Hintz and Mikko Rantanen. Instead of those two, it was Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn who combined to set up Wyatt Johnston to break the shutout, and that was what finally allowed the Stars to grab the game by the collar, turn it upside down, and shake it until two more goals finally fell out of its metaphorical pockets.
That primary assist by Jamie Benn was especially big, given that it was his turnover Gulutzan alluded to on one of the Nashville goals. The takeaway here is that, if you want to redeem yourself after a mistake, just pass the puck to Johnston on the power play, and he’ll do the rest.
As big as that goal was—and it was huge—Nathan Bastian’s goal was equally so, if not even bigger.
“Yeah, big goal, wasn’t it?” Gulutzan said of the tying tally. “Big goal. And it’s important. It helps build the team, too, because all the guys feel a part of it.
Bastian is the same player who was scratched for so many games in a row that he and the Stars agreed on an AHL conditioning assignment earlier this year. So for him to draw back into the lineup for two games in a row and score a massive goal? Yeah, that’s one that is going to reverberate around the lineup a bit, I’d say.
“We had a lot of chances, but they did a good job muddying the waters, muddying the track, and we couldn’t get some clean looks,” Gulutzan said. “And we went to the front of the net, made a nice little play on a goalie who seals the low ice pretty well, and got it up.”
That tying goal really caused Nashville to start sweating, but it also added a “next goal wins” sort of tension that was palpable in the final minutes of the third, and obviously in overtime. But that’s where the Stars’ fortunes in the extra frame as of late came into play.
“It’s about bounces,” Jason Robertson said. “It’s a little puck luck. One guy gets picked. I mean, one guy falls down. They hit the post. It’s just hockey, right? Overtime’s just a coin flip. You want to play possession, and try to attack when you can. So, it’s been happy. It’s been good going for us, this little stretch.”
Right alongside the results is the fact that the Stars feel their game is in a good place right now. That lends confidence and diligence that can show up, even when you have to spend a long time trying to come back against a great goaltender like Saros, and even when you might feel hard done by on a missed penalty call.
The truth of the matter is that Dallas has one fewer scoring line than they’d like, right now. But when you’re getting goals from the top of the lineup as well as its depth, you can convert strong play into offense enough to win close games. And keeping the game close by holding Nashville at two goals all night was a huge statement by Jake Oettinger, playing his first hockey game in nearly a month.
And while Saros had the flashier saves between the two netminders, Oettinger’s positioning and tracking was something Gulutzan praised.
“You can’t really count all the saves,” Gulutzan said, “But there was a few where I watched, where they got looks on us, and he got big. And they had nothing to shoot at, and they missed. And that’s what big goalies can do: they can make you miss. It’s not always the saves. They make you look big, and they couldn’t get anything by him.”
Oettinger’s rebound control at times looked like that of a goaltender shaking off more than three weeks’ worth of rust, but he also had some tricky saves to deal with, including a couple of chances from Stamkos that easily could have kept the game out of reach.
Instead, Oettinger did what so many of his teammates did, and decided that two mistakes were more than enough to be getting on with. All things considered, it was a strong night from him.
Now the Stars travel to Canada for two games, before returning to face Colorado the evening after the Friday afternoon trade deadline. The hope will be that at least one of their absent players is back in the lineup by then, but we may well see more significant changes to the roster than that before the bell rings at 2:00pm on March 6.
The Robertson-Johnston-Bourque line kicked off the game with a bang, rebounding from a bit of time in their own zone to draw a penalty, thanks in large part to Johnston and Robertson’s nifty stickhandling to force a hooking call.
Dallas couldn’t convert despite some decent pressure, however. And the next great look came off a 2-on-1 that Adam Erne nearly converted before Saros flashed a right pad out to stop him, and Jake Oettinger had to look alive on the ensuing counterrush, though the chance might have been worse, if not for a diligent Colin Blackwell backcheck.
Justin Hryckowian and Zachary L'Heureux dropped the gloves for a fight, though it seemed to be apropos of nothing in particular (not that either player needs much prompting to rev things up). The rookie Hryckowian held his own against the 5-foot-11 L’Heureux, and both players served five minutes as recompense for their decisions.
After a couple of sleepy minutes, Bourque sent Johnston a gorgeous cross-ice feed that somehow got by multiple Nashville skaters and onto Johnston’s tape. But Juuse Saros equaled the setup with a save you might have seen him make a couple of times over in Italy.
The Stars would end the play with a Thomas Harley roughing penalty to put themselves on the kill, and Oettinger would have to come up with another big save right off the faceoff. But it wouldn’t be enough, as Nashville converted in the final ten seconds of the power play after a possible interference penalty went uncalled in the neutral zone, leaving Michael Bunting plenty of room to work with after a cross got through the royal road.
Dallas was in a bit of shock after that, it seemed, with Saros’s continued robbery only serving to exacerbate their frustration.
Nashville would capitalize upon the Stars’ lack of exactitude just over a minute after their first goal, when a Jamie Benn turnover went back the other way and in, thanks to Steven Stamkos to make it 2-0, Nashville.
Thus, what had started as a solid first period ended up taking a sharp left turn after the roughing penalty on Harley, giving Dallas ample work to do after 20 minutes.
Dallas started off the period well, and Sam Steel drew an interference penalty on Filip Forsberg that the Swedish Olympian was not terribly happy about. But Saros continued his strong work, getting over to stop Jason Robertson on a nice passing play from Duchene and Benn, and Dallas wouldn’t get another good look.
Matt Duchene got a chance to add his protests to Forsberg a minute later, when he was whistled for a tripping penalty to put the Perds back up a man. And with the score 2-0, it kinda felt like a critical kill for Dallas. They would come up with it after some yeoman’s work in front of their net, however.
Colin Blackwell might have felt left out after not getting a fight during that sequence with his two linemates against Seattle on Wednesday, because when he finished a check on Michael Bunting along the boards, he emerged looking ready to go. But the Nashville forward chose not to give Blackwell the satisfaction, and the two barked their way back to their respective benches.
Dallas continued to push in the final half of the second period, but Saros’s saves earlier in the game might have gotten into their heads a bit, as they did a lot of probing but not much shooting in pursuit of a Grade-A+ opportunity that just refused to come.
The fourth line chipped in to draw a power play in transition, when Oskar Bäck stepped in front of Ryan Reilly and drew a call with Nathan Bastian carrying the puck down the other side. With 3:51 to go in the middle frame, Dallas looked like a team that just needed a spark, though a power play missing half its usual forwards was not quite the same weapon the Stars could normally wield at 5-on-4.
But one weapon they do still have is Wyatt Johnston, and he scored his 32nd goal of the season when the Stars finally won a key faceoff (by Duchene) after losing more than a couple earlier in the game. From there, a puck was sent down that Duchene let go to Benn, and the Stars’ captain found Johnston on the back door to finally break Saros’s shutout, halving the deficit to 2-1 with his 20th power play goal of the season:
The whole game changed after that goal, and Dallas’s pressure ramped up for the remainder of the period. A 2-1 game can feel light years away from a 2-0 game, and this one did. With a period to go, we had ourselves a hockey game on our hands.
Mavrik Bourque and Wyatt Johnston combined for a good shot and a better rebound chance on the first shift of the third period, but Saros once again stood strong, repeating themes from earlier in the game. Harley then followed suit, taking another penalty (hooking, this time) to give Nashville a chance to restore their two-goal lead a minute into the final frame.
Jake Oettinger would make a couple of tough saves to complement his skaters’ work, and the Stars would get through it.
That proved even bigger a couple minutes later, when Nathan Bastian caught a piece of a Thomas Harley point shot, disrupting Saros’s attempt to grab it. Bastian then collected and stuffed home the rebound before Saros could get over to tie it up.
That made for a tense final ten minutes, and there were scrums to go along with the scoreline. Oettinger and Saros both had work to do, and the game was up for grabs.
Every hit or block by Dallas drew a cheer from the crowd, and Bichsel gave them a couple of the former, while Erne, Bäck, and Jason Robertson came up with important blocks in the final minutes. But in the end, both teams took a point from regulation, and the benches were shortened up for 3-on-3 overtime.
Duchene stepped in and won another big draw, but the Stars would end up weathering the most dangerous chance in the first part of overtime. Because Duchene tried to sneak in a change at the end of a long shift, and the Predators found room to counter. Brady Skjei came down on a 2-on-1, but he only rang the post, and Dallas would end up getting a chance back the other way.
And what a chance it was. Wyatt Johnston circled the entire net, eventually unleashing a shot that went wide after Stamkos tripped overSkjei and lost his stick. That proved to be the Perds’ undoing, as Heiskanen found the loose puck and fed Robertson, who had outfought Erik Haula on the crease to make his stick available to win the game. And he did so.
Robertson’s shot was probably the most difficult way to score a goal there I can imagine, going back towards Saros and up into the top of the net, but hey, when you’re Jason Robertson, maybe you have to keep yourself entertained after 33 goals. Who are we to judge, really?
Lineups
Dallas rolled this:
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Steel-Duchene-Benn
Erne-Hryckowian-Blackwell
Bäck-Hyry-Bastian
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Lyubushkin
Oettinger
Nashville tried this on for size:
Stamkos-O'Reilly-Evangelista
Forsberg-Haula-Marchessault
Bunting-McCarron-Smith
L'Heureux-Jost-Wood
Skjei-Josi
Wilsby-Perbix
Hague-Blankenburg
Saros
After-AfterThoughts
As a few folks have noticed, Brien Rea and Brent Severyn are now back hosting Stars Aligned from inside American Airlines Center during home games. To follow up on the conversation with Jason Walsh from a couple months back, I reached out to the COO of APMC about the recent change, and Walsh provided the below comments:
Walsh: “We had always said that we will evaluate all aspects of our broadcast as we move through the season. We missed the ambiance of the arena but needed to build infrastructure so that we did not interfere with the game broadcast truck. That took some time and ingenuity from our engineers. We have been successful and happy with the decision to move back inside the arena.”
From the sound of things when Gulutzan spoke this morning, Roope Hintz is on the road to recovery. He skated this morning in Frisco, and they’re just trying to keep him away from the team until his illness has run its course. But the expectation is that he’ll skate again Sunday, then fly with the team to Vancouver.
I believe Hintz isn’t the only one who has either been sick recently. Combine that with the usual knocks players have picked up by this point in the season, and you have a Stars forward group that could well be gutting it out to an even greater degree than is publicly known.
Radek Faksa, on the other hand, may not be as close to returning as Hintz, though he’s still being termed “day-to-day.” And while that means Arttu Hyry may get more time to show his NHL chops, it also means Dallas’s forward depth will continue to be thin to quite thin as the trade deadline approaches.
Oskar Bäck is not the sort of player who amasses a ton of highlights, but I really appreciated this play of his to defuse a dangerous netfront situation on the penalty kill:
Matt Duchene had a lot of jump tonight, and you wonder if getting bought out by Nashville is something that gets money put on certain boards. Just speculating, but you could see it, right?
Nashville has joined the St. Louis club of Teams That Blow Leads to Dallas. In all three of their losses to the Stars this year, the Predators held a lead at some point. Though I think St. Louis’s particular brand of losses still gives them the edge in this ignominious club.
Arttu Hyry played 9:37, but he also played another minute-plus on the penalty kill tonight. I really enjoyed chatting with him (and a teammate of his) earlier this week, so check out that story if you haven’t already:
Finally, how about this response from Dallas tonight?
We were not kidding when we said that one goal changed the complexion of the entire game.
When I miss games - I don't have a concern about getting highlights and some interesting info from Tiffin. We're spoiled by having this quality reporting. Love Heika, Colishaw and Sean (and years ago folks in FTW), but Tiffin provides insight into Texas at Cedar Park (my hometown) as well as detailed game NHL synopsis and in-depth stories about the players. If you're not a paying member - you should be. Keep up the fantastic work. Truly a Treasure!
I'm glad you pointed out Bäck's great play. He had at least two more plays in the 3rd on which, right before he stepped in, I did one of those involuntary gasps, like, "uh oh." But he tipped the puck away or otherwise broke it up. His defense was outstanding.