Game 8 AfterThoughts: Stars Break Skid, but at Undetermined Cost

Roope Hintz took a big hit and did not return in this one

Mikko Rantanen was one of many players who blocked a shot in the final minutes of this game.

Coming into this game, Dallas was looking for more of their structured defending, a bit more 5-on-5 scoring, and a reduced amount of odd-man rushes allowed.

This game didn’t really feature any of those boxes being checked (unless you count a Heiskanen pass getting tipped into Carolina’s own net as 5-on-5 scoring), but in the NHL, you have to win the game you find yourself in, whether it’s the one you would have chosen or not. And Dallas managed to do just that, taking down yet another one of the top teams in the NHL to snap their four-game skid.

It was costly, and it was difficult. Any time a goalie named Brandon Bussi (3 career NHL games played) is a big part of the story, you know things didn’t exactly go to plan. But for once, the Stars got enough good fortune to cancel out their earlier mistakes, and some yeomen’s work to keep the line from breaking.

We don’t know if Roope Hintz will miss time after taking a big hit from Taylor Hall midway through the third period and not returning. Glen Gulutzan said he agreed with the charging call, but that Hintz was still being evaluated as of postgame media availability, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon in Nashville to see whether Hintz is absent or not.

As for contingency plans if Hintz can’t go, the Stars have a couple. The simplest one(s) would be for either Oskar Bäck or Matt Duchene to play, as both were termed possibilities for Sunday earlier in the week, and “day to day” most recently.

If neither of those forwards are ready quite yet, the Stars would need to call up another forward from Texas. And in order to do that, they would have to move Nils Lundkvist to LTIR in order to create enough cap room for another NHL salary, as they only have around $300K in space right now, and NHL minimum contracts start at $775K.

The final alternative for Dallas would be for the team to play a man short for a game in order to qualify to use an emergency recall the following game, but that seems like a worst-case scenario, so I wouldn’t worry about it just yuet.

We’ll see how it all shakes out in Nashville on Sunday.

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Back to this game, Gulutzan said the Stars “didn’t follow the game plan in the first,” then had to do a “reset” in the intermission after giving up a painful last-minute goal to go down 2-0 after the first period. But that reset wasn’t a change in game plan so much as a “back to basics” sort of approach in order to win the final 40 minutes. And so the Stars went back to their game plan.

“They play a very aggressive style,” Gulutzan said of Carolina. “They’ve been trading chances in their six wins.”

From there, Gulutzan said the Stars focused on keeping their structure intact in order to weather the heavy “pinch and press game” of Carolina. And in the end, they did enough to win.

“They’re heavy on the walls,” Gulutzan said. “We can’t mess around at the blue lines. I think the guys did a really good job of regrouping and pushing back.”

Indeed, the Stars did a better job of that as the game went along. And they had to, because they did a very not-better job of it to start.

Despite not getting caved in by Carolina shots as has often happened to teams facing this group, the Stars probably deserved the 2-0 deficit they had after 20 minutes, as Carolina defensemen hit two crossbars in addition to the two goals, and Oettinger faced multiple odd-man rushes.

One of those featured his best save of the period, after both of the top lines put together great shifts, hemming the Hurricanes in their own zone for extended time. But Carolina got the best chance of the lot when a 2-on-1 developed at the end of it all. Oettinger was there to save this one, though, and it looked like he had done enough to keep Dallas within one.

However, the Stars saw another little blip from the hands of Miro Heiskanen, as he lost the handle on a puck, then decided to go for an “all-or-nothing” play to keep it in, ultimately leading to a 2-on-1 the other way that ended with a goal to double the Hurricanes’ lead with ten seconds to go. And you just can’t do that.

But of course, that wasn’t the whole story. Because Heiskanen would bounce back after the reset to score a fortunate goal early in the second period, and he would win the game with another friendly bounce late in the third period.

It continues to be odd how not-quite-sharp some of the Stars’ best players have been at times early this year, but if you’re getting the win, you can round off the corners as you go. And after Heiskanen ended the Los Angeles came after taking a shot that didn’t turn out well, it seems only fair that two of his shots got a little nudge from the powers that be to let Dallas off the hook tonight.

Confidence and composure are byproducts of good results. When things aren’t working, players often squeeze sticks more tightly, etc. etc. etc. But if the Stars can bank a couple more wins to settle things down early, suddenly it will be a lot easier for fans to have patience as they get a bit healthier and calmer. It’s just a matter of getting there—and it’s not like they’re out of the woods yet.

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Sam Steel’s goal was a similar sort of reward for a lot of the work he’s been doing this year. He said after the game that it’s been a change for him to be on the power play this consistently after being mostly a PK player in the last few years, but when Jason Robertson isn’t scoring on a breakaway, I suppose things have to even out somehow, right?

Mavrik Bourque did great work to draw the penalty for the 4-on-3 power play that eventually won things for Dallas, and man, that line with Robertson and Johnston really was great in this one. If those three can develop into a consistently dangerous line at 5-on-5, the Stars will really have some scoring depth to scare people with. (Or at least, they will if they stop losing centers to injury.)

After a pretty structured game against Los Angeles that ended in an overtime loss, the Stars found themselves in a more wide-open contest on Saturday night, which is what Carolina’s pressure will do to you. The Stars gave out 2-on-1s for much of the first period or two. They may give up another one on the way to the airport before flying to Nashville. But this game finally featured things breaking just right enough for a collective performance to win them a game. It’s much more pleasant when things go that way.

The big blocks by Rantanen, Johnston, Lindell, Harley, and others at the end of the game really were huge. Gulutzan summed them up pretty simply: “That tells me how bad they want to win. It’s a really good sign.”

You have to block shots against Carolina, because they tend to throw a lot of pucks at the net from all over the place. Really, this one felt like it could have shaped up as yet another “Stars squander chances at 5-on-5 and lose because of it” game. But the power play came up big once again, as it’s done for basically all of their wins.

Even-strength shot locations per HockeyViz.com

The penalty kill also came up big in this one, and that was big after the goals Dallas has been uncharacteristically allowing when down a man. For the players to earn a result like this one after a tough loss to Los Angeles has to feel good, even if the bruises sting the next day.

ESotG

Lineups

Dallas 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

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Carolina ran with this lineup out of the gate:

Ehlers-Aho-Jarvis
Hall-Stankoven-Blake
Svechnikov-Staal-Martinook
Jankowski-Kotkaniemi-Nadeau

Reilly-Walker
Chatfield-Nystrom
Nikishin-Legault

Bussi in goal

AfterThoughts

• If you missed the story earlier this week with APMC COO Jason Walsh talking about the changes to the Stars intermission and pre-/post-game shows this year, check that out.

  • Walsh mentioned in that conversation that they were already looking at making some changes, and sure enough, I noticed at least two during the first intermission tonight. (If there are more, feel free to chime in.)

    • One is that the broader NHL-focused segment from the Frankly Hockey show on Victory+ to begin the first intermission has been shortened to a minute-long “around the NHL” format, with a counter in the bottom right corner.

      

    • The second change I noticed is that the hanging microphone arms are no longer present:

      

• Seeing Logan Stankoven at center is interesting. On the one hand, you can see why a hard-nosed player like Rod Brind’Amour would love a similarly tough pivot like Stankoven up the middle. But there’s also been some real skepticism from others I’ve hear from about whether Stankoven can stick long-term as an NHL center, given both his size and skillset. But then, I suppose he’s already proven a lot of people wrong up to this point, right?

• Colin Blackwell got this game off to a rollicking start with three big hits on the opening shift.

• Alex Petrovic came into the game leading the team in minuses, and he picked up another one after this tough faceoff play, where he stepped up to break the puck out, only to have it poked away right to Jackson Blake, who took advantage.

• The Stars did a nice little welcome back video for Logan Stankoven, which he received with gratitude. It probably helped that he had just gotten an assist on the opening goal, too.

• In the first period, it would have been nice for the Stars to grab momentum back by cashing in on the power play they got immediately after giving up the first goal of the game to undo the dreariness of playing Carolina from behind. It also would have been nice for Adam Erne to cash in on a borderline breakaway/2-on-1 with Colin Blackwell a few minutes later, rather than not scoring, then taking a penalty themselves when Rantanen took a high-sticking minor in the offensive zone.

  But if and buts and candy and nuts, and so forth.

• Nikolaj Ehlers is a goal-scorer. And he showed it with a beautiful tap-in early in the second period. Do you think Miro Heiskanen was trying for that exact play? I wonder.

• Brandon Bussi had a pretty chaotic game, but he made a couple of big stops early to frustrate Dallas on great chances, including these two saves on the Stars’ power play early in the second.

  But you know what they say: you might contain Johnston, but nobody can stop Sam Steel. At least, I’m saying that now, in this situation.

• Lian Bichsel and Alex Petrovic got caught out for nearly five minutes in total after the midway mark of the second period—though that included a TV timeout about a minute into it, and two icings afterward. Still, the Stars were fortunate to escape without any damage, as the Hurricanes were smelling blood.

  • In fact, the moment Petrovic and Bichsel got off the ice, a puck was sent back through the maze of bodies at the benches to create a 2-on-1 for Carolina that Esa Lindell did incredible work to keep from being poked home by clamping down on a Carolina stick for all he was worth…after which Jason Robertson got a breakaway he didn’t finish. It was some pretty breathless hockey for a bit there.

• Miro Heiskanen logged a 3:00+ shift of his own after Esa Lindell took a penalty, staying out for all two minutes of the PK and then joining a subsequent rush for Dallas. Lungs work differently for defensemen, I guess.

• Nate Bastian made a great read to attack Sebastian Aho at the point and clear the zone, but unfortunately, he also whacked Aho’s stick out of his hands to create a breakaway for himself. That put the officials in a position where they kind of had to call a slashing penalty, and they did.

• Jake Oettinger’s glove hand came up huge a few times in the second period, including on a Logan Stankoven backhand chance from close range. He was even steadier in the third period, tracking pucks well and staying in position even as Carolina was changing the angle of shots. Getting to the third period with the 2-2 score intact felt like a small victory for the Stars, all things considered, and Oettinger’s steadying of the ship was a huge part of that, both early and in the very end.

• Taylor Hall was assessed a major penalty for his hit on Roope Hintz, though no penalty call appeared to have happened in the moment.

  • Gulutzan said afterward that a lineman by the benches saw the hit differently than the referees, and presumably “didn’t like” the hit. That led to the major being called and the review, and it all resulted in charging minor for what Gulutzan said he thought was a high hit where Hall left his feet. Gulutzan said he agreed with that determination.

• The Stars have now won four games, three of which have come against Winnipeg, Colorado, and Carolina. If you looked at their schedule before the season and asked someone to work out whom they would beat and lose to en route to a 4-3-1 record through eight games, would this have been just about the last possible combination you would have guessed?

  • @Winnipeg: W

  • @Colorado: W

  • Minnesota: W

  • Vancouver: L

  • @St. Louis: L

  • Columbus: L

  • Los Angeles: OTL

  • Carolina: W

• Finally, the Stars did an “SNL” theme for a lot of pregame and stoppage content. I particularly appreciated the Deep Thoughts segment. I think my favorite Deep Thought of all-time might be this one:

  • One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. “Oh, no,” I said. “Disneyland burned down.” He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.