Game 64 AfterThoughts: Depth, Goalies, and Captains

Don't be fooled: this one meant a lot

Song of the Game

Years ago now, I couldn't hold my eyes to the stars
Burdened by how they slept so far away
I see now this is better in so many ways

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If the game against Colorado was a track meet that turned into a heavyweight tilt, this one was a cagey wrestling match the whole way. Space was at a premium, and even when Dallas did get their looks from the inner slot, they didn’t always test Adin Hill to the extent they would have liked.

(Apologies for any 2023 hockey PTSD triggered by that last line.)

But the sparse shot total didn’t end up mattering, because Jake Oettinger slammed the door after an early Jack Eichel goal, and the Stars only needed the two scrappy tallies they got en route to a 2-1 win over a team that always plays them tough. This time, however, Dallas was tougher.

The tactics were as both coaches predicted; Dallas protected their inner slot well, forcing Vegas to settle largely for tips and rebounds from distance, and that’s what happened. Dallas, meanwhile, preferred quality over quantity, though in the end, they got one goal off a rush chance rebound, and the second on a bit of a broken power play chance that Jamie Benn whacked home.

The chart tells the story at a surface level pretty well, I think:

HockeyViz.com - Grey shapes are missed shots, of which Dallas had many.

“It was tight out there,” Glen Gulutzan said afterwards. “Not a lot of grade-A chances. I thought, outside of the first six, seven minutes of the second period there, I thought they really had a push on us, and Oetter kept us in.”

Gulutzan praised Oettinger for keeping the Knights to one goal during their early push, allowing the Stars time to come back and, eventually, to find the game-winning goal.

“I liked our resolve,” Gulutzan said. “We kind of pushed back and kept with it, and the way we checked in the third is what we needed to do in this type of game.”

The checking Gulutzan mentioned was one key difference between this contest and so many early-season wins against the run of play. Given the fact that the Stars have let in a couple of 6-on-5 goals in their last two games, locking it down in the final minutes was especially critical, but they stayed in good shape and didn’t give much of anything for free.

“It’s important for their mindset,” Gulutzan said of not allowing a tying goal late. “So it doesn’t grow into something bigger. Because you look at the goals there, and they’re different in nature. I thought the guys did a good job today packing it in, a little bit more blocking when we could. But yeah, you don’t want those things to get out of control, and then you guys [the media] are talking about it forever.”

(The last part, needless to say, was said good-naturedly.)

Tonight, Oettinger didn’t have to steal the game outright, but he was exactly what the Stars needed in a game like this, and after Eichel’s goal, he was constantly in the right spot, even stretching out a couple of times to make sparkling stops, including one on Jack Eichel with his pad (which you can find down below). They say the position is one that requires mental resilience, and Oettinger showed that quality in spades tonight in a performance that had to remind Vegas quite a lot of the series they lost to Dallas two years ago.

And Oettinger said that the playoffs are exactly what a game like tonight can prepare him for.

“I think a lot of what I did tonight is just playing patient, being back, trusting my reads, and trusting the guys around me,” Oettinger said. “I feel like when I’m patient and reading the game well, then I’m a pretty good goalie. So I feel like I did that tonight, and hopefully I can continue to do that and build on until the playoffs.”

As for the offense, Dallas had a couple of pretty outstanding one-two combinations. One on the power play, and the other—much like Faksa’s Game 7 goal two years ago—by the fourth line.

First, Colin Blackwell got a long Thomas Harley stretch pass and put the puck through Hanifin’s legs to generate a chance he artfully swatted back against the grain.

Blackwell didn’t score it, and he said after the game that when he was on the ground, all he saw was the puck going into the back of the net. He wasn’t even sure who scored it.

Oskar Bäck was the guy this time, following up hard on the rebound to crash the net, then putting the puck past Hill for a tying goal that felt huge, given how much pressure the Golden Knights had mounted after their first goal.

It was a goal the Stars have been getting from depth players a lot over the last month—whether it’s been Adam Erne, Lian Bichsel, Nathan Bastian, or yes, Oskar Bäck.

“A game like that’s really fun,” Colin Blackwell said afterwards. “It’s gonna be like that every single night for the rest of the way. We got a really tough schedule, and playing teams like that—big, heavy, physical—I thought our line did really well. Shout out to Arttu, he came in, stepped in, and was awesome for us, and Bäcker as well.”

Oettinger also made a point to praise the team’s depth, including a player who wasn’t even in the lineup.

"We've had so many different guys contribute,” Oettinger said. “Like Bass [Nathan Bastian] is not even in the lineup, and he's been doing so well for us. It just shows you how deep you are when you gotta take a guy out that's been playing as well as him."

Jamie Benn echoed Oettinger’s thoughts, too.

“Yeah, it seems like every night, you’re talking about different guys chipping in,” Benn said. “And that’s what’s great about this hockey club. It’s different guys every night, and that’s what it takes a team to win this league. It takes 60, sometimes 65 minutes. I think the guys are doing a great job.”

Gulutzan sees the same depth scoring that you do. And while you might not expect it of a coach who spent the last few years on the bench of a top-heavy team like the Edmonton Oilers, Gulutzan said a widespread sense of ownership has been key.

“I think the one thing that we’ve done a good job of this year in our group,” Gulutzan said, “Is that they all feel like they got a little piece of this thing. And that’s important, because you’re not going to win it with one line, two lines. You gotta win with your depth.”

Early in the season, it was all about the top players keeping Dallas in front. Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson were constantly on league-wide leaderboards for goals and points (or PIMs), and Casey DeSmith was stealing less-than-clean games regularly.

But somewhat counterintuitively, the Stars’ best run of form this year has kept up for seven games despite losing Rantanen and Roope Hintz, and despite asking players like Bäck, Hryckowian, and even Arttu Hyry to play center in lieu of Radek Faksa.

Playing 82 games requires a lot of everyone, both on and off the ice. Playing 64 of games and only dropping 14 in regulation means the group is doing something pretty special indeed.

And while that’s special right now, it’s also very good preparation for Game 83 and beyond.

“When all the good teams start playing each other, when it’s down to 16 and then eight, and then four, you’re gonna need more than the superstars,” Gulutzan said. “Some nights you’re gonna need those other guys. I think our group has got a lot of guys that are bought in and feel that they’re counted on to make a difference.”

Goals are always a focal point, but it really has been the Stars’ defensive play where you see that buy-in the most. Dallas and Vegas entered the night as two of the stoutest defensive teams in the league—the two stoutest, according to the numbers Gulutzan alluded to after the game. So to see these depleted Stars still manage to out-xG a Golden Knights team with Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Rasmus Andersson, and a whole lot of other dangerous players was something impressive. Even if the chances, like Jamie Benn’s goal, almost seemed to come in slow motion.

It was eminently fitting that Benn scored the game-winner (though he loathes talking about his own accomplishments), too. Because despite being the oldest player on his team, and despite sporting a new scar where his face was split open by the ice (after having recovered from a collapsed lung), he still knows how to lead a team, and he showed it tonight.

“Jamie coming and banging the bench to say “stay with it,” Gulutzan said in describing Benn’s leadership. “Saying the right things defensively, reloading, changes. Just echoing the sentiments.”

Encouragement and positive reinforcement are important in a general sense, but Benn’s leadership was also very specific at one point late in this game, as Gulutzan said.

“Artie [Hyry] wins a draw out there late against a good draw man,” Gulutzan said, “And he [Benn] comes to the bench and tells him ‘Good draw.’ All that adds to the younger guys who are feeling value. When it comes from your captain, it’s a lot better than when it comes from your coach.”

Highlights and Lowlights

The game started out a bit chippy, with Bunting and Reilly Smith getting into it in front of the benches, but it took a full ten minutes before the Stars threatened to score, when Jason Robertson and Thomas Harley turned a Vegas rush into a Blackwell Breakaway:

Braeden Bowman was forced to slash Blackwell on the play, and that might have been just enough to put Blackwell’s shot off the post. At the time, it could have been demoralizing, coming that close without converting.

Gulutzan said after the game that if you know Colin Blackwell, then you know he’s not the kind of guy to get frustrated by a just-about like that, and the rest of Blackwell’s night would demonstrate that fact.

Unfortunately, that chance off the post before the penalty was called would end up being better than anything Dallas got on the ensuing power play, and things went back to 5-on-5, where scoring chances were so hard to come by that Gulutzan opted to leave the third line out after a Vegas icing gave Dallas an offensive-zone draw.

And that’s also where the fun hockey went to die, as almost nothing happened until a flurry at the end of the period that began with Vegas flinging pucks from distance and hoping for bounces in traffic. After 20 minutes, shots on goal were 3-3, and all we could hope for was more action in the middle frame.

The second period would provide that action, unfortunately for the home side. A failed Dallas exit by Wyatt Johnston (who didn’t realize the danger he was in before Barbashev made a great play to knock it off his tape and keep it in the zone) led to a Vegas reload, and Jake Oettinger ended up giving up a goal on a pretty clean look to a pretty good player: Jack Eichel.

I’m of two minds on this goal. Initially, my read was that you have to get that save from your goaltender. But after the game, Oettinger said it was a lucky one for Eichel, as the shot ticked off Heiskanen’s stick and changed directions. And to be honest, it’s tough for me to say exactly whether the puck did that, even after watching multiple replay angles.

But hey, if that sort of mentality allowed Oettinger to shake the goal off and close the door after that, then more power to him. Because Oettinger indeed rebounded quickly from that one, and he had to, coming up with a couple of crucial blocker-side stops as Vegas’s momentum mounted, followed by this right-pad beauty on Jack Eichel:

Adam Erne nearly equalized on a chance in front after he tipped a puck into Hanifin to start some chaos, but he ended up putting a chance back into Hill, rather than into the net.

Rasmus Andersson would catch Johnston’s face with his stick on another Dallas chance midway through the second, and the Stars had a second chance to convert on a power play, which they did about as well as their first one.

But as had been the case in the first period, Colin Blackwell managed to create a 5-on-5 scoring chance when nobody else could. And he did so after a Harley stretch pass just barely got past the point—risky, that—sending Blackwell in 1v1, when he made a nice move to create a rebound that Oskar Bäck shoveled home to tie the game:

It hadn’t been a pretty game to that point, so it was a fitting way to hit the reset button.

The Golden Knights got their first power play of the game right after that, when Bichsel got whistled for interference. But that was followed by Esa Lindell’s music, and the Stars killed the power play without much incident.

An incident did occur shortly after that, when Bichsel got heavily high-sticked, putting Dallas on their third 5v4 of the game. And this time, it looked deadly and efficient, with a couple of nice keeps from Heiskanen, a dangerous slot shot from Robertson, and ultimately, a far less pretty but more effective goal by Jamie Benn—his first power play tally of the season, in which he channeled some old baseball talents and whacked a puck home:

The special teams pollution continued after that, as Thomas Harley took a tripping penalty on Barbashev, and Vegas had a chance to equalize. But great work by Jake Oettinger prevented them from doing so, as he made a couple of big pushes across to make important stops, and Vegas went 0-for-2.

At the end of that penalty, Harley stepped out of the box and saw Tyler Myers rushing lankily onward, and he fed him for a chance that Myers put off Hill’s blocker, narrowly missing a fantastic first goal as a Star. But it wouldn’t be the last chance the Stars would get, as Bourque got a gift of a turnover that Hill came up big on, and that Barbashev took a penalty on. Dallas wouldn’t convert the first 40 seconds of it before the second intermission arrived, but the carryover loomed menacingly on top of their 2-1 lead. (I suppose almost anything that looms usually does so menacingly.)

Dallas wouldn’t convert it, however, and then Vegas got a chance to do so themselves when Eichel went down, and a tripping call was made by the referee in the far corner. You be the judge:

Nonetheless, the Stars made it through unscathed, and they had a one-goal lead with 16 minutes left in regulation.

With just under 13 minutes to play, a nice shift from the top line ended with the puck in the net as Bourque hooked a puck across the crease while being dragged down by Eichel, and it went off Robertson and in. But the goal was immediately (and properly) waved off for being kicked in, and Robertson knew it immediately.

Dallas’s power play didn’t give them anywhere close to as good a chance as that one, however, and we reached the final 10 minutes still at 2-1. Bourque nearly made it 3-1 after a great setup from Johnston in the slot, but his one-timer from between the circles found Hill’s stomach, and nothing more.

Lian Bichsel, of all people, led another rush for Dallas after picking off a puck, and once again, Noah Hanifin got his corner turned, and he had to sprawl as Bichsel fed a pass over to Hyry crashing the net. The play didn’t connect, but seeing Bichsel make that rush was a reminder of just how high his potential really is.

In the final minutes, Dallas ended up sheltering in place, never really threatening the empty net, but also never really allowing many pucks to get through, despite a pair of long-distance Eichel crosses that Barbashev fanned on.

In many ways, this game evoked at lot of the Stars’ wins from the first half of the year, when the shot totals and the play style weren’t always the prettiest at 5-on-5. And like so many of those early wins, this one ended in a one-goal victory for Dallas, and Jake Oettinger.

Lineups

Dallas rolled out these nice folks:

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

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

Oettinger

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Vegas brought this to bear:

Barbashev-Eichel-Bowman
Howden-Marner-Dorofeyev
R. Smith-Hertl-Kolesar
C. Smith-Dowd-Sissons

McNabb-Theodore
Hanifin-Andersson
Lauzon-Korczak

Hill

After-AfterThoughts

• Daryl “Razor” Reaugh mentioned on the latest episode of Podman Rush that the Stars/Avalanche tilt last Friday drew 300,000 viewers on Victory+ alone.

  • For context, the most-watched national game in 5 years on ESPN drew just over 900,000 viewers in the entire country. So for just one of the two cities involved in a regionally broadcasted game to draw a third of that figure—on a streaming service—is pretty impressive. Sure seems like the Stars’ Victory+ experiment is going well, less than two years in.

• Michael Bunting is known for drawing penalties, but he wasn’t able to do so on this play, where it’s unclear whether he even played the puck before getting hit by McNabb.

• Esa Lindell’s penalty-killing should have a trophy invented for it. Just look at the routes and reads (and ultimately, clearance) on this PK shift:

• Colin Blackwell should probably get two assists for this one, yeah? What a couple of plays to create the rebound here.

• Lian Bichsel and Tyler Myers gave a perfect example of how tough it is to operate along the end boards against those two with about 10 minutes to go in the third period. Bichsel in particular won multiple pucks along the back wall, and Myers also locked up his man en route to a Stars clearance that they very much needed. Small things from big men.

• Arttu Hyry took the most faceoffs of anyone on Dallas (14), and he won nine of them, good for a 64% mark. Talk about vindicating your coach’s decision, right?

• Finally, this stat seems like a good one to reflect upon: