Game 74 AfterThoughts: The Stars Go Marching On

What a month it has been

I’m not sure I can remember another month where the Stars put up an .800 points percentage, let alone one with this level of concern being raised by media, players, and coaches alike. I’d wager there hasn’t been one in a long time, but this March, the Stars went 11-2-2 like they were paying the electric bill on a lazy Saturday morning.

This wasn’t the prettiest game you’ll ever see, with all the pucks shot past goalies taking place in the first few minutes of the game, and lot of Other Stuff happening after that.

After the game, Pete DeBoer was pretty sanguine about it. He mentioned that it’s not often you go 4-0-0 on a road trip, and yeah, that is very much the case. The Stars have lulled their fans into the opposite of a false sense of security in the last 15 games, convincing us there is plenty to worry about while quietly playing like one of the best teams in the NHL. Which, according to, uh, the standings, they are.

I’m going to keep this short (well, for me) because it’s late, and you’re already heading to bed in Dallas. I’m sitting in the press box in Seattle just kind of shaking my head about this team. Can you imagine any other version of the Stars going 7-0-2 with multiple postgame call-outs by their coach, including words like “concern” and “sloppy”? The bar has been raised so ridiculously high that it all kind of makes sense, until you look at the standings.

Dallas is a good team. Whether they’re good enough is a question I’m finally ready to admit we can’t totally answer, right now. Because lately, they’ve been looking like an expert electrician on a tight budget, only allowing just enough amperage to power the devices and light bulbs that need it. Sometimes it means a room feels dim or a toaster takes a while, but darned if everything isn’t more or less getting done, eventually.

This team is confusing, but confusing and great. The process isn’t the kind designed to make fans feel confident and cocky, but pride goes before the fall, right? Maybe humility goes before being called up to the head table. The Stars have eight games left to keep confusing you before the judgments will finally start being made. And I have less confidence than ever that I know what’s going to happen in those next eight games, left alone the four to twenty-eight that might come after it.

(Probably Wyatt Johnston will be scoring goals during that time, though.)

---

Casey DeSmith came into the game as the NHL’s best goaltender in terms of shots saved above what the average NHL goaltender would be expected to stop.

Part of that calculation has to do with the fact that DeSmith has also faced a heavy workload in limited games, as backup goaltenders generally do. You wouldn’t expect that performance to hold up over more games, which is why DeSmith hasn’t ousted the Stars’ franchise goaltender. But no matter how you slice it, DeSmith has been outstanding for Dallas in spelling Jake Oettinger this season, and he did excellent work once again on Monday night.

DeSmith said after the game that this is probably the best stretch of his career. It’s crazy how many amazing stats and performances have been a little overshadowed by the Stars’ other recent shortcomings, if you can even use that word. It’s a results business, right? Maybe this is just the hockey world’s biggest instance of early season karma being restored in the final months. Casey DeSmith will take that. So should we all, I suppose.

---

Seattle played a feature about Jamie Oleksiak before the game tonight. It’s funny, in some ways Oleksiak is reminding me of Ilya Lyubshkin these days: Very serviceable, and ideally playing on a good team’s third pairing.

It’s fun to remember how good Oleksiak was in that 2020 bubble run playing with Miro Heiskanen, but then again, Oleksiak is in his thirties now. It’s been a long time since he made his Dallas debut in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, playing 16 games in his 20-year-old season and probably not being entirely ready to do so.

But then, Reilly Smith had done much the same thing with a three-game cameo the prior year. The Bankruptcy Era was a very interesting time.

---

It’s worth remembering that the Stars are dealing with pretty close to champagne problems right now. Their top line is clicking, Mikko Rantanen has been scoring a point per game since his acquisition, and both Tyler Seguin and Miro Heiskanen are working towards returns at the start of the playoffs, with the Stars continuing to pile up points in their absences.

Meanwhile, in Colorado:

Just something to think about, as the Avalnache lost in the shootout tonight to Calgary. Dallas won in Seattle, you may remember.

Lineup

The Stars began the game with this lineup:

Robertson-Hintz-Rantanen
Marchment-Duchene-Granlund
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Bäck-Bourque-Blackwell

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Dumba

DeSmith

Sam Steel, as you read earlier today, took a maintenance day after sustaining a bit of an injury on his collision with Brendan Smith in the game on Saturday. Both players skated this morning, however, so the hope is the injury isn’t too serious.

Philipp Grubauer was in net for Seattle.

Game Beats

The first shift of the game was not a pretty one for Dallas, as they got spinning in their zone after a couple of persistent reversals and a win off the wall. Eventually, Jaden Schwartz curled out from behind the net after another switch of direction, and he found Kaapo Kakko streaking down the slot with everything short of a red carpet, burying a chance DeSmith never had a prayer on.

The Stars nearly equalized just after that, when Jason Robertson got a net-front cross from Thomas Harley on an alert 2-on-1 rush. But Grubauer saw the pass coming and pushed across hard, and he was there to deny Robertson.

That wouldn’t be the case when Matt Duchene tipped a puck past him a minute later, though. After a painful block by Jared McCann on Matt Dumba’s first effort, Dumba recovered the puck and dished it to Mason Marchment, who sent a one-timer toward the net that ticked off Duchene’s stick just under the gloves and past Grubauer.

Oh, and by the way, are you familiar with Wyatt Johnston? The Seattle Kraken certainly are, but the acquaintance was renewed even moreso after Johnston scored yet another crushing goal against them less than a minute after Duchene. Johnston basically did to Vince Dunn what Connor McDavid did to Ilya Lyubushkin a few weeks ago, going from this:

to this:

Johnston fought through the desperate stick check to beat Grubauer’s blocker with a quick shot, and the Stars were up 2-1.

They were nearly up 3-1 after Mikael Granlund found Mason Marchment heading to center ice, hitting him with a brilliant backhand from the wall of his own zone. Marchment headed in on a breakaway from the red line in, but he tried to bet Grubauer low on the blocker side, and he got stopped by the goalie’s right pad.

Marchment would take a penalty a few minutes later when he got a stick into the hands of Andre Burakovsky in the neutral zone, causing(?) the Seattle forward to fall to the ice. Marchment immediately signaled that it was a dive, and you would think the officials would defer to his wisdom and experience in that department, but such was not the case, as Marchment went to the box without any company.

At least, he was unaccompanied for a bit, as Roope Hintz fought through Brandon Montour to create a shorthanded chance after a momentary bobble by the Seattle defenseman. Montour wound up on his belly at his own blue line, flinging his stick behind him, and managing to catch Roope Hintz’s skate enough to prevent Hintz from getting in with speed on Grubauer, though he did still snap a shot at the near corner. Tripping was correctly called, and four-on-four play ensued.

DeSmith made a very smart save on the quad-v-quad play after Jordan Eberle came downhill from the top of the circle and tested DeSmith’s right arm with traffic at the net. But DeSmith held on, and the Stars began an abbreviated power play.

The Stars ended said power play with a Robertson shot off Grubauer that Seattle recovered and cleared up the ice as Montour left the box, collecting it for a 2-on-1 against Harley. The Stars’ defenseman sprawled to block the pass, and Montour toe-dragged the puck around him before testing DeSmith again, who came up aces, as he does.

DeSmith’s left pad had to be sharp on another Eberle chance from a quality area with 2:30 left in the first. After allowing that early goal, DeSmith looked stronger with each puck he faced.

The Stars’ top line had their first truly dominant shift in the 19th minute of the period, when Thomas Harley showed he could join a rush with three incredible forwards and not look remotely out of place. Robertson, Rantanen and Harley all put pucks toward the net, with Robertson one-timing a wobbly puck just wide of a yawning net.

The second line also had a beautiful shift at the end of the first in something of an homage to the previous sequence, with another feed to the back door coming oh-so-close to a third Dallas goal. But it wasn’t to be.

Dallas finished the first period up in shots on goal, if you can believe that, 15 to 11. They were the better team, as they are.

Second Period

DeBoer swapped Bourque and Dadonov to start the second period, making the bottom six look like this:

Benn-Johnston-Bourque
Bäck-Blackwell-Dadonov

Grubauer had to make a very slick stop on a Matt Duchene one-timer after the second line executed a crafty and incisive zone entry early in the second period. DeSmith was called upon a couple minutes later to do the same on Jani Nyman, but both goaltenders did their jobs, as goaltenders so often do.

Ryker Evans then took the Kraken’s second penalty of the game after Mikael Granlund got the puck past him at the Stars’ blue line, only for Evans to drag Granlund down to prevent him from getting to the puck and the open ice awaiting. It was the second penalty of the night for Seattle that you could have at least made an argument for a penalty shot to be awarded, but as this was not a game against Anaheim in Dallas, none were given.

The Kraken got the equivalent of a penalty shot after an Eeli Tolvanen shorthanded chance materialized Mikko Rantanen was all alone back to defend a 2-on-1. The pass got across to Tolvanen, unsurprisingly, but DeSmith’s blocker came up huge, and the Stars were allowed to play all two minutes of their power play without goals for either side.

Matt Duchene got a one-timer off after coming on from a line change, with Colin Blackwell setting his table low in the right circle at the end of his shift. But Grubauer was able to stand tall to keep it 2-1.

The second line would get hemmed in their zone for a good while just after that, with some shots from distance generating rebounds Dallas didn’t quite allow Seattle to make the most of, and some strong DeSmith work on his near post. Things finally went the other way when a rim around got collected by Marchment for a partial breakaway, and he put his head down and took the puck hard to the net with Oleksiak leaning on him. Marchment would go into the net and collide with Grubauer, but everyone looked okay, and the officials ruled that Marchment had been partially pushed into the net. I guess it is possible not to send Marchment to the penalty box when the officials really put their mind to it.

As the game passed the halfway mark, the 2-1 lead was looking a little shaky. The new fourth line then put a couple of good chances on Grubauer in an attempt to balance things back out, and the second line came on for an offensive zone shift to try to build off that momentum. But the puck quickly went back the other way as Seattle continued to build momentum after killing the Stars’ penalty earlier in the period.

That led to a tripping penalty in the Dallas zone that was called, after some thought, against Matt Dumba. Sometimes you just feel like you can see the wheels turning before a call is made, you know?

Seattle came out hard and fast on the power play, and Esa Lindell was working overtime, even for him, to keep things under control, including a goal-saving block with his stick along the ice on a pass out from behind the net. Kakko sent some one-timers on DeSmith that looked dangerous, with a quick one traveling through the crease with DeSmith scrambling to get across after some brisk puck movement. But the Stars escaped that frying pan only to dive into a brief fire, when Lian Bichsel was called for a high stick nobody in the building saw with 10 seconds remaining on the prior penalty.

Johnston grabbed the puck off the 5-on-3 face-off, however, and he took it north to kill a few extra seconds, knowing that Dumba was about to exit the box to steady the ship a bit. The Stars picked up the penalty kill after that and did what they tend to do, and Shane Wright’s shot over the crossbar from the front porch was their best chance of the second period’s final moments.

Dallas ended the period with their same 2-1 lead, with shots on goal having tilted back against them on the back of two penalties taken.

Third Period

The world of Mason Marchment is not a low-event place. Four minutes into the second period, there was a perfect example of that when Marchment attempt a feed up the ice to Granlund that was picked off for a Seattle attack. But after the Stars turned the puck over shortly thereafter, the puck got sent back to Marchment and Granlund in the neutral zone, where they got a 2-on-1. Marchment fed it across, but the puck bounced a little too hotly off Granlund’s stick for the play to come together.

DeSmith was tested in tight, eight minutes in with a deflection on the doorstep, but DeSmith’s aggressive play allowed him to cut down the angle enough to address the chance.

Mikey Eyssimont tried a wrap-around on a rush of his own, but DeSmith once again was the quicker one to the post, and the Stars continued to nurse the 2-1 lead past the ten-minute mark of the final frame.

Things got a bit sloppy from there, but DeSmith came up with an almost unbelievable save through traffic on a deflection. Lian Bichsel then erased a man below the goal line to grab the puck and start things out of the zone, with Jason Robertson going to one knee to ensure a clearance. It was a nice little example of the Stars’ patchwork defending on a weird night in Seattle that Razor referred to as the most highly-compensated men’s league game you’ll see, or so I’m told.

DeSmith had some final stops down the stretch, including a sharp blocker save with Dumba diving to take away the bottom of the net. But somehow, this game just felt like it had been decided after the first three minutes, and no amount of power plays or back-post passes was going to change that.

Mikael Granlund wouldn’t change it, but he would ice it, as he took a hot potato of an empty-net passing sequence in the Stars’ zone and finally did what needed to be done, nailing the net down the ice to render the final few dozen seconds perfunctory, despite some optimistic goalie-pulling down two goals by Seattle.

Dallas won the game, and every game on this road trip. They are 7-0-2 in their last nine games. They went 11-2-2 in March, and they were out shot in all but two of those games. But score effects are real, and the Stars have shown they are an elite team, even when they don’t play elite…ly. That’s what they’ve done for the last month, and that’s what they did on March 31, fittingly.

---

Now the Stars return home for games against Nashville and Pittsburgh, two teams with little left to play for this year. We’ll see what happens in those contests, but for at least one day, it’s worth just sitting back and admiring how Dallas ended up painting a Monet of a March with the equivalent of a stubby old Crayon. They say it’s the shoddy carpenter who blames the tools, and the Stars managed to build a pretty great month, no matter the implement.