Game 7 AfterThoughts: Process Improvement, Results in Progress

The Stars played an outstanding defensive game tonight at 5-on-5, and they got a point to show for it

Adrian Kempe is from Sweden, but he apparently doesn’t like UT, or something.

Glen Gulutzan pointed out earlier this week that when you’re playing badly, you sometimes win games that you shouldn’t be winning. Conversely, when you start playing well, you then sometimes lose games you deserve to win.

The Stars are now 3-3-1 for a mathematical .500 record. And that is probably exactly what they deserve.

Gulutzan said as much after the game, too: “Sometimes the results lag.”

“We were good in all the departments except the most important one,” Gulutzan said. “I thought our power play looked good. It was dangerous. We gave up another PK goal early, but 5-on-5, we gotta find some scoring there. We had a lot of chances. We outchanced them heavily 5-on-5. We gotta find the back of the net. You know, there’s a little bit of squeeze¹ still left in us.”

Just as scorers are streaky, so also are most NHL teams generally prone to peaks and valleys. Tonight, the Stars played the sort of game that might have broken their way if they had come in on a good run, but instead, they managed to erase two deficits in order to get to overtime, only for the final play of the game to steal the second point.

“It’s never linear, right?” said Gulutzan. “You know, it’s up and down. You get hot, you get cold. You know, 50-goal scorers don’t score in just 50 straight games. Same thing with us. We’ll find it.”

Gulutzan said the Stars have been “really hammering” on the details of their defensive play, and that showed tonight. They severely outchanced the Kings at even-strength, but that isn’t much consolation when you lose because of a 5-on-3 goal, a wacky-bounce goal from Cody Ceci, and a 3-on-3 goal after a Miro Heiskanen rush gets shot just over the net.

Still, would you like a chart? Sometimes charts make people feel better. Look at how few shot attempts Dallas allowed within the house when both teams had the same amount of players:

Even-strength shot chart from HockeyViz.com

You’re tired of hearing it, but Darcy Kuemper really did make some nice saves tonight. That kept his team in it to the point where a bounce or two (and perhaps a missed call to put Dallas down two men) were all the Kings needed to go their way. That’s the job, and he did it quite well.

If anything, maybe Dallas feels like they defied the will of the hockey gremlins tonight by getting a point out of this one at all. When that LaFerriere deflection went in (before being chalked off as a high-stick), it really did feel like the outcome of this game was predetermined, right? Sometimes you just have to solemnly nod and bow your head, pretending that you didn’t just witness something that I think felt pretty cruel and unfair to a lot of people on the green side of things tonight.

And while it may seem paradoxical, I don’t think you can really lay this game at the feet of Jake Oettinger at all. That Ceci goal was a crazy bounce in that exact opposite direction, and the 5-on-3 goal came after he made two saves, with Lindell’s stick lying broken on the ice. And the game-winner came on a 2-on-1 pass across that is the textbook example of why every play tries to make that pass when they can (including Tyler Seguin to Colin Blackwell early in this one). It’s almost impossible to stop when you connect.

The players were frustrated tonight, but not quite in the way they were in the winless streak late last season. Robertson even said the two don’t feel the same, pointing to how last year Dallas was locked into the playoffs, whereas this year they’re trying to get off to a good start and avoid the more serious consequences that come from having to climb uphill in your division all season.

Gulutzan said afterwards that it might be a little easier for coaches to sleep after this one, seeing the defensive parts of the process so shored up. But only a little. Both coaches and players find it hard to take much comfort from bad results, especially when they are stacking up in a row.

But that’s the thing: Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston had genuinely outstanding games, and really, so did the team in general. It’s early enough to where it really does feel like the Stars have the option of treating this game as negative motivation or positive, and one suspects that it’ll be easier to choose the latter after getting a bit of shut-eye. Some nights are best slept off and forgotten about anyway.

---

With the Stars shorthanded late in the first, a couple of breaks went badly for Dallas.

First, Sam Steel poked a puck away from Adrian Kempe at the point and won the battle for the puck to race down on a shorthanded breakaway.

Kuemper got a piece of the shot, however, and play continued back the other way. That’s when Corey Perry drew a high-sticking call with his vehement reaction to this play, where Lyubushkin’s stick gets caught under his shoulder cap, only to be called high-sticking after Perry’s reaction, which we could charitably call instinctive, were it anyone but Corey Perry.

No, that was an Extremely Corey Perry Play (ECPP), giving the Kings 30 seconds of 5-on-3 time. And it would be made even more of an ECPP on the ensuing 5-on-3, when Thomas Harley had a chance to clear the puck, only to shoot it right onto the tape of Kempe. The puck then got back down low and was eventually put on Oettinger a couple of times, after the second of which it trickled back out into the doorstep, where neither Harley nor a stickless Esa Lindell could beat, you guessed it, Corey Perry to the loose puck.

1-0 to Los Angeles, and the Stars headed to the first intermission trailing after playing one of their better periods so far. I imagine the intermission dialogue was pretty simple in the room: Shake it off and keep on outplayin’ those goofballs, buddies. These things tend to even out, right?

---

Sure enough, Jason Robertson would draw a fairly marginal hooking call in the neutral zone a few minutes into the second, and it would only take him 12 seconds to convert his own power play with a snipe from the point that eluded Kuemper’s glove hand to tie things up.

From there, the Stars were buzzing, and the top line nearly scored on the next shift after some nice passing from Hintz and Rantanen, after which Robertson came back out and nearly tucked a wraparound of his own past Kuemper, who did well to beat him to the post.

Unfortunately, neither chance went in, and the Kings came right back down and took the lead back with a low-to-high pass to Cody “I am serious, it was really Cody Ceci” Ceci, who fired a shot that bounced off Bourque’s stick, into the ice, and ricocheted into the opposite corner of the goal past a helpless Oettinger, who was sliding over toward the pucks’ original trajectory.

So, I dunno, maybe these things don’t even out after all.

Alex LaFerriere further tested that theory with a crazy tip-in as he was falling down, but it led to an extended review lasting more than three minutes, after which a collection of angles showed the puck to indeed have been deflected from above the crossbar.

So, maybe these things do even out? I’m losing track.

The real test came a minute into the third period, when Joel Armia took his second high-sticking penalty in ten minutes to give Dallas a gift of a chance to tie it up. And while it took the top unit 96 seconds, they would eventually do just that, when Johnston deposited the puck into the gaping net after Rantanen fed Hintz for a Grade-A shot that went off Kuemper and right to Johnston. Brand new ballgame.

From there, the game got tense. The Adrian Kempe penalty with six minutes to go looked like a perfect setup for Dallas to steal the special teams palooza outright, only for the Kings to narrowly miss hitting Kempe out of the box after two minutes for a wide-open breakaway chance.

Oettinger had to grab a couple of other pucks in the final minutes of regulation, but both teams probably weren’t terribly unhappy to grab a point and head to overtime—even if the Stars probably felt they deserved both of them already.

ESotG

Lineups

The Stars began with this lineup:

Steel-Hintz-Rantanen
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Erne-Seguin-Blackwell
Hryckowian-Faksa-Bastian

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal

---

The Kings rolled out this lineup:

Kuzmenko-LaFerriere-Kempe
Fiala-Byfield-Armia
Foegele-Danault-Moore
Malott-Turcotte-Perry

Dumoulin-Doughty
Edmundson-Clarke
Anderson-Ceci

Kuemper in goal

AfterThoughts

• I didn’t mention this on social media, but Glen Gulutzan’s most recent timeline for Nils Lundkvist’s return is “at least a month, if not six weeks” per his interview on The Ticket with the fellas from The Hardline on Wednesday. (Six weeks from today would be the first week of December, for all you calendar heads out there.)

• Gulutzan also said that “Jamie [Benn] is still a few weeks out,” while the Stars are hoping to get Oskar Bäck and Matt Duchene back “by the weekend.” (Bäck sounded like the more certain of the two to return this weekend, but I suppose you can listen for yourself and decide.)

• Cody Ceci got a short little “welcome back” during the first TV timeout. Apparently he felt so welcome that he decided to score a goal. So much for hospitality.

• Nate Bastian only played 3:39 in this one. My feel of the game (if that’s a real thing) was that it was more a consequence of the score than anything else, but I’ll keep an eye out at practice on Friday to see if there was anything else going on there.

• This note from Lia was bonkers, by the way. Great stat.

  

• Gulutzan began the game with the Johnston line, and they immediately generated a scoring chance just a few seconds in. It was part of a good first few shifts for Dallas, giving them at least a momentary boost that felt pretty important, all things considered. Generate good chances, and eventually you’ll score, right? Well, turns out it was an omen, actually.

• On the Stars’ first power play of the game, the top unit spent 1:45 straight with the puck, but a lot of it was once again spent on the perimeter. Miro Heiskanen also looked a little hesitant at times, and he also lost a race back down the ice to a collect a puck. I’d be tempted to start giving Harley a look up top right now, not only to help juice that unit, but also to give him a confidence boost.

  • Then again, they did score two more power play goals tonight, and Heiskanen did make a nice rush up ice in the second period using his skating, and he eventually put a backhand toward the net. He had some good moments in this one after a rough start, but much like the start of last season, everything doesn’t quite feel like it’s synced up just yet.

  • Then again, Heiskanen’s choice in overtime to try to win it all with a rush chance on his own rather than hold onto the puck and wait for reinforcements led to the Kings’ taking over, and eventually ending it.

  • So, I dunno. Harley and Heiskanen are both kind of in that weird spot the whole team is: you know they’re better than the results and play of late, but you have a hard time believing it when you see them get burned in the ways they’ve been getting burned.

• The Stars took two penalties in this game right after missing a Grade-A chance themselves:

  • First, Sam Steel had a glorious chance on that shorthanded breakaway late in the first period. He didn’t score, but it was some really hard work by him to win the battle and get the chance. Lyubushkin’s “high-sticking” penalty on Perry came right after that, though. Tough one.

  • Rantanen then got robbed by Kuemper’s glove early in the second on what looked for all the world like the tying goal. Seguin would then take a high-sticking call off the ensuing faceoff. The Stars would kill that one, though.

• Darcy Kuemper was making the saves he had to make through two periods, and one or two extras besides. Late in the second, Steel got a chance at a severe angle, but a flailing Kuemper still managed to stretch out and shut down the shot. The Stars also got one more chance in the final seconds of the, er, second, only for Kuemper to once again hold his ground.

• Through 40 minutes, the Stars’ top line of Steel/Hintz/Rantanen was up 10-0 in shot attempts, along with a 100% xGF.

  • (That’s good).

• Tyler Seguin continues to look good at center after last game. He said this morning that in some ways, he and Duchene have both functionally played center at different times when they’ve been on a line together, even if Duchene tends to start there. Still, getting that little extra bit of speed winding up down low with the puck is fun, and you can see that same old Tyler Seguin at times when he’s on the breakout in that position. It’s fun.

  • Seguin also added that feeling actually healthy makes a big difference in terms of mobility at center, too. And yes, I’d imagine he and Erne both are enjoying playing on fresh hips again. If that line starts to score more, we may have to start recycling all the old hip surgery puns from ten years ago. Give it time, though.

• Johnston and Robertson continued to look like Dallas’s most dangerous players all night long. That duo was just fantastic tonight, and they deserved the two goals they got on the power play and more besides. Gulutzan wasn’t wrong a couple of weeks ago when he said putting smart, skilled players like that together tends to work out well.

  • Now, if they could just get that 5-on-5 scoring to start showing up again.
    

1. As in “squeezing the stick a little too tight,” is how I took that.