Game 63 AfterThoughts: Pourquois pas?

This time, the Stars rebounded after giving up a 6-on-5 goal

Song of the Game

And you always ask the how and why
And I always answer "pourquois pas"
We are young and we are free
And all the world rests at our feet

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On paper, the Stars should beat these Blackhawks every time. That same metaphorical paper was reflected in both underlying metrics and overarching narratives around this game, too.

The Blackhawks sold what pieces they had left to sell over the last week or two, while the Stars were icing a roster with two important reinforcements, in Tyler Myers and Michael Bunting. After ripping off a ten-game win streak, the Stars had a day off to recuperate from a gut-wrenching shootout loss to the team they’re trying to chase. Chicago could well have been cannon fodder for them.

Instead, they found themselves once again giving up an extra-attacker goal in crunch time, as a Connor Bedard shot did what so many of his shots always do, and went in the net. But just for good measure, his shot bounced of Myers’s shinpad, and suddenly cruelty was going for a new name, but with the same result, as a tiring Stars team headed to overtime.

But after getting big goals from a depth forward and two young ones, it was the team’s best player in the lineup who stepped up, and Miro Heiskanen dispatched the Hawks in overtime before they ever got a chance to play the puck .

“There’s a lot of emotion in there, a lot of energy spent there [Friday],” Gulutzan said afterwards. “I just felt, our team, just looking at ‘em, there’s a few guys that I look at. And we looked a little bit tired. So that probably alters some of my plans for [practicing] tomorrow.I thought we played hard, with good energy, but I just didn’t think we had quite that pop that we had.”

Indeed, this game was a bit of a comedown from the heady atmosphere on Friday night, when a packed, loud building watched the two best teams in the league throw haymakers for 65 minutes.

Instead, this game started out a little scruffy, and the Blackhawks capitalized on a couple of chances to take an early 2-0 lead. And Gulutzan said he wasn’t altogether shocked to see the Stars not quite have that same explosive nature that they did two days ago. Thus, the Stars may end up altering their practice plans for Monday.

“We actually, as a coaching staff, were a little worried about that coming into this afternoon game. So we’re maybe gonna re-evaluate what we’re doing tomorrow,” Gulutzan said.

As for the new guys, there was a bit of a feeling out process. That was especially true for Myers, who hadn’t played a game since early February, coming into this one.

“You know, I hadn’t played in a while,” Myers said. “Felt a little rusty. Just want to get better and better as each game comes. But it was fun being out there. The guys make a lot of plays, and just getting used to some tendencies, some routes. Just come in, and get better every day.”

“The thing I notice with the group here,” Myers said, “Is the amount of plays they make, but there’s a simplicity to it. Guys aren’t trying to force the game or trying to open things up. It’s very simple, but they’re making a lot of plays out there.”

Myers’s rust showed up once or twice, including a sequence where a stretch pass was intercepted, and Myers collided with his defense partner (Lundkvist) as he got a bit overzealous in recovering. But Casey DeSmith bailed him out then, and the Stars’ goaltender was good enough to get the win behind Myers, so that play doesn’t need to sting any more than necessary.

For Bunting’s part, he wasn’t as rusty—in fact, he was in Dallas just a week ago, when he was with a different group of players.

“I just played here, what, last Saturday with Nashville,” Bunting said, “and we lost in overtime. So being on the winning side in overtime feels a bit better.”

Bunting even recorded his first point as a Star, assisting on Bourque’s game-tying goal in the third period. He was part of a line with Adam Erne and Justin Hryckowian, and he also took Sam Steel’s spot on the second power play. If early returns are any indication, that should end up being a good thing for Dallas in the long run.

Really, this was a game where the Stars just wanted to avoid another Chicago land mind. And despite two early goals and one late one, they managed to scrape a victory out of a game they deserved to win, outshooting Chicago 31-19 in traditional SOG terms and out-chancing them to the tune of 60% of the underlying numbers, too.

More than a few players for Dallas didn’t have their best games. Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley looked a bit unlike their usual selves, and I’d imagine they were two of the names Gulutzan was alluding to with his comments about fatigue and lack of “pop.” But for the first time in a while, the forward groups also started to look a tad on the thin side—which they are, given all the injuries—and the 21-53-22 trio was really doing the bulk of the chance creation.

That said, the fourth line once again found a way to be an offensive contributor for Dallas, as Nathan Bastian scored another huge goal to give the team life after an early 2-0 deficit, and Colin Blackwell nearly added a couple himself that Arvid Söderblom (who was very good for most of this one) had to come up huge on. Oskar Bäck, meanwhile, did Oskar Bäck things on that line. He’ll do that, reliably.

Dallas will have a tougher task on Tuesday, when Vegas rolls into town. The Duchene line will need to get back to its recent groove, and the Stars will hope that Myers and Bunting can both build on their game to become what the Stars know them to be. There’s a lot of good to work with, and Dallas found enough of it to win this one. They’ll likely need a bit more of it in the next 19 games.

Bunting said that, after the Stars went into the first intermission trailing, they were confident, feeling good about their game. Bourque echoed that, saying that shots on goal were pretty even after it was 2-0, and they weren’t concerned. This is pretty standard hockey stuff, to remain confident despite an early deficit, but why wouldn’t this team be confident?

Nathan Bastian scored a goal, and why not? Mavrik Bourque and Justin Hryckowian added another pair, and why not? These are players who have been key parts of who this team has become: A group of high-character players (as Gulutzan has repeatedly said) that has found the depth it’s needed to. So whether it’s the 12th forward or the #1 defenseman when it comes to needing a goal, the Stars keeping answer “Why not?” with the right response at the right time. Sometimes, it just takes a minute or two longer than usual.

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This game’s pace couldn’t have felt more different from the start of the Colorado tilt. Cagey and cautious were the words of the first period, rather than the frantic, aggressive game we got on Friday. Such is life in the Central Division, where you go from the top of the league to the bottom on a nightly basis.

Casey DeSmith made a couple of crisp stops early, but the Stars ought to have taken a lead when Connor Bedard fell at the Stars’ blue line, giving up a 2-on-1 to Duchene and Steel. Duchene passed the puck over for Steel to fire home, but he appeared to double-clutch, and it fizzled before anything was able to be put on net.

At the other end, Tyler Bertuzzi converted the chance he got, expertly tipping Artyom Levshunov’s shot past DeSmith as the Stars failed to contest either the shot or of the netfront quite as much as they would like to have done.

Thomas Harley probably could have been a bit more engaged at the netfront there, but what are ya gonna do?

Once again, the Duchene line generated a great chance at one end, only to have the Stars give up a goal shortly after. Duchene tipped a shot that just barely caught the top of Söderblom’s pad, and then Sam Rinzel got a wide-open look at the other end after Blackwell and Oliver Moore both went into the boards. 2-0.

Blackwell would stay out for his next shift, while Moore had to be helped off the ice by his teammates, then went down the tunnel.

The sag in energy was palpable there, as the comedown from the Avalanche loss and the early 5pm start had combined for a whole lot of lethargy that a young Blackhawks team was happy to take advantage of.

Dallas got its own opportunity when Nick Lardis tripped Robertson to give Dallas a power play, but opportunities are only as good as what you make of them, and the Stars didn’t generate anything until the second unit (which featured Bunting, Hryckowian, and Bourque with Harley and Lindell), which at least forced some saves to happen.

That momentum led to a goal, as the Stars’ fourth line came out and did what they’ve done not infrequently in recent days: Score a goal, courtesy of Nathan Bastian, who batted in a Lian Bichsel shot with a slick deflection.

The building came to life after that, and thank goodness. Dallas wouldn’t get another before the intermission, but they looked more like themselves, and that was victory enough, for now.

Dallas began the second with a better push, but once again, Chicago got good looks on the counterattack—one a 4-on-1 that Ryan Donato fanned on, and another one being turned over by Lundkvist and Myers trying to sort out a puck behind the net. But the game remained 2-1 as the midway mark approached.

That’s when Wyatt Kaiser took an interference penalty to send Dallas back to the power play, and this one looked much better as the Stars continued to control player. But credit to Arvid Söderblom, as he made a couple of nice stops to keep Dallas from converting.

Chicago took nearly 15 minutes before getting their first shot on goal of the period, but Söderblom kept Dallas off the board with multiple big stops, including ones on Bourque and Blackwell from in tight. But DeSmith made perhaps the most important stop of the period, shutting his five-hole after Donato got what turned out to be a breakaway, after Myers turned over a puck and got a little too eager to fix his mistake.

All’s well that ends well, though. After 40 minutes, the Stars had one goal still to make up.

And make it up they would, as Bourque didn’t even need a minute to put a backhand off the post, off Nazar, and into the net, tying the game right at the start of the third period.

That was also Bunting’s first point as a Star.

After Chicago finally exerted a bit of pressure—shots on goal were 24-10 by this point—Dallas got back on the power play when Adam Erne was brought down in his own zone. And once again, the second unit got things done.

This time, the goal was scored after Hryckowian and Bourque’s sticks both got on the rebound. But Bourque shot Hryckowian’s stickblade, and the latter was the one that hit the puck, which gave Hryckowian the final credit as Dallas took the lead:

With shots on goal at 30-11, the Blackhawks were given a power play with 4:03 remaining when Connor Bedard clamped his arm down on Johnston’s stick and went to the ice, drawing a call.

Casey DeSmith and company got through it though, as he made a couple of big saves and his defense gave him a couple of big clears.

But because this game was Early Game Cursed, the Stars gave up another 6-on-5 goal on a point shot, when Connor Bedard fired a puck through traffic that banked in off the leg of Myers to tie up.

Overtime arrived, but it didn’t last long.

Miro Heiskanen skated to the boards and made a play just before Bedard closed him down to avoid an immediate turnover. Shortly after that, Duchene carried it into the zone and dished it ahead to the onrushing Heiskanen, and the Stars’ top defenseman swatted the puck home artfully to win the game before any further nonsense could happen:

Dallas will welcome Vegas on Tuesday for what should be another very interesting game.

Lineups

Dallas rolled out their new guys:

Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Steel-Duchene-Benn
Bunting-Hryckowian-Erne
Blackwell-Bäck-Bastian

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

DeSmith

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Chicago tried this:

Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teravainen
Mangiapane-Moore-Mikheyev
Lardis-Donato-Slaggert

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov

Söderblom

After-AfterThoughts

• This was a nice touch from the Stars today, I thought:

  

• Casey DeSmith’s start today makes two of the last three games for him. With the Stars facing Vegas and Edmonton next week, I’ll be curious to see whether they go with Oettinger for both of those, or if they continue with a 50/50 split for the time being. Certainly rest down the stretch wouldn’t be the worst thing for anyone.

• With Tyler Myers (and Michael Bunting) debuting today, Myers officially became the first native Texan to play for Dallas.

• Nickname idea for when the Bichsel-Myers defense pair passes the puck between each other: Tree to Tree pass.¹

• With both Hintz and Faksa missing from the lineup, the Stars got some big faceoff wins from Duchene (80%), Johnston (70%) and Hryckowian (85.7%). The overtime faceoff win by Duchene was perhaps the biggest one of all, as Dallas went 69% on the dot all night.

• Bastian’s goal in the first period was his third in five games. It’s been really good to see him find new life after struggling to get into the lineup in the first half of the season. Easy player to root for.

• Jason Robertson’s virtue as a playmaker isn’t just vision and patience, but it’s how he combines the two to create chances out of nothing. Look at how he appears to have been contained along the boards here, only to turn and get a nice look with a teammate at the net for a rebound:

• The new guys shared the hat tonight after the game for a fun picture. It’s always nice to get a win in your first game with a new team, I suppose.

  

• This is now copyrighted. Do NOT steal it!!!!!!

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