Game 80 AfterThoughts: Anything but a Regular Season

Jake Oettinger got a shutout on a day the Stars needed him to be perfect

Song of the Game

I can’t get over nothing
But it’s everything, I say
And maybe I’ll forget about it all

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I know that fans all want playoff success more than anything. I know that regular season banners are more often a subject of mockery than pride, with the Presidents’ Trophy even being the subject of silly curse talk that isn’t based in fact. And I know that Minnesota actually lost three minutes before the end of this one to clinch home ice in the first round for Dallas even before Robertson’s empty-netter.

But man, I think you really have to appreciate just how good life has been for Dallas Stars fans in recent years. Dallas now has 108 points after today’s 2-0 win over the Rangers. If they win just one of their final two games, the Stars will finish with 110 points, which would be their second-best season of the last 20 years.

Take a look at this graph, and the picture gets clearer: The Stars have had nine 100+ point seasons since their loss to New Jersey in 2000. Four of those nine campaigns have come in the last four years, consecutively.

Hockey-Reference.com, which will update to 108 points overnight.

For this team to have put together this good of a season despite all the adversity they’ve encountered is nothing short of astounding. They’ll likely finish the season as the third most-injured team as well as the third-best team in the league.

Dallas Stars fans have it good, is what we’re saying here. Don’t look past that in search of a bigger goal to be disappointed about, just yet. Bask in the success, and appreciate how many fun hockey days and nights the Stars have given this city and their fans. Even without a Cup in the last three years, these are the sorts of runs that many hockey towns never even taste.

And how has that all happened? Well, Jason Robertson pointed to how Dallas has had the same core group of players for a few years now as one reason for the continued regular season accomplishments.

“When you come to Dallas, you buy into a certain philosophy. Regardless of Gully coming this year, the past couple of seasons, guys don’t cheat the game. That’s what I’ve learned over the past five years. Guys coming in, they play the right way, and there’s a certain standard that we hold, certainly, during the regular season. Guys play up to it. Doesn’t matter who’s coming in throughout the season. Lotta different bodies, but everyone’s played up to that standard in the regular season, and hopefully going into the playoffs.”

-Jason Robertson, on the Stars’ recent run of success in regular seasons.

I don’t know what more you can add to that. It’s not been solely about the coach, or the captain, or the top scorer, or even the goalie, but about all those things, whoever they’ve been in a given year, coming together and working. So many teams right now are asking why things haven’t come together for them, why their collection of talent and will and commitment hasn’t been enough to play an 83rd game of the season.

In Dallas, there are still questions to be answered. But one thing that continues to be true is that the Stars are one of the best teams in the NHL, yet again.

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As much as the dust has all settled on the regular season seeding for the Central, Dallas didn’t start the day with anything guaranteed. And until Minnesota lost with just a few minutes left in this one, everything was still on the table—especially because the Stars didn’t score a goal until Robertson’s power play marker at 12:49 of the final period.

“We don’t score easy. We grind to score,” Gulutzan said. “But I mean, we start off different than a lot of teams. We’re not out here trading chances back and forth. We’re playing a little bit of a stingier brand of hockey that we’re willing to stay with, and hopefully that, you know, usually that’s the way it goes in the playoffs after everything settles down. And hopefully that benefits us as we go.”

Gulutzan went on to say that he had to remind the Stars in the first intermission that “it’s no fun to just defend,” encouraging them to make a few more plays.

“We’re very, very good without the puck, but it’s more fun to play with the puck,” Gulutzan said. “And that was really the message here: We gotta do some things. Hold onto pucks, start getting our forecheck, get our feet moving through the neutral zone so we can play with it. I mean, who wants to defend all night? That was kind of the message there, and it’s been the message for about a month.”

That’s absolutely true, and the Stars will need to bring a bit more aggressive playmaking to their first-round series against Minnesota if they want the right to play in another second round. It’s one thing to absorb pressure and maintain structure, but you do have to force the other team to back off a bit, too.

The exception to that is on the penalty kill, where you can only get so aggressive without big risks coming into play. Tonight, the Stars’ penalty kill had five power plays to kill, including a stretch of 5-on-3 hockey late in the second period. But they protected most of the dangerous areas, and Jake Oettinger took care of everything they let through.

Power Play shots for New York today - HockeyViz.com

This was Oettinger’s fourth shutout, which is just one shy of his career high for a season. Don’t look now, but Oettinger has been rounding into form lately, and one suspects the goalie Minnesota sees in the playoffs will be very much similar to the one that has gotten Dallas to the Western Conference finals for the past three years. In his last five games, Oettinger has the second-highest GSAA (Goals saved above average) in the league at 5v5 and along with the 3rd-best save percentage. He’s heating up, and you couldn’t really ask for a more perfect time in which to do so.

Gulutzan said the penalty kill won the game for Dallas tonight, but Oettinger still had a fair bit of work to do, particularly in a first period that saw the Rangers pushing a whole lot harder than the home team. It’s a good time of year for positive signs in net.

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As for the rest of the club, Mavrik Bourque was second on the team in 5v5 ice time, and his defensive play late in the third led to the nail-in-coffin empty-netter for Robertson. The Stars have a top-six winger named Mavrik Bourque that they didn’t have last year, and he deserved every minute he got tonight.

Jamie Benn’s hit on Vladislav Gavrikov and subsequent fight with J.T. Miller narrowly avoided putting Dallas on a five-minute penalty kill, but it ended up looking worse than it turned out to be. I’m not sure you can say the same for the stick Tyler Myers took to the mouth, but it takes sacrifices of all sorts to win sleepy day games like this one was, and Myers certainly had a better outing today than he did the other night. That’s important.

Gulutzan said after the game that he’ll be getting other players into the lineup in the last two games, which you’d expect. The hope is that Radek Faksa and Michael Bunting can still get into one of those two final contests, though Bunting’s inability to meet the team’s criteria to play today is of moderate concern. We’ll hope he gets to where he needs to be in time to feel comfortable again. The Stars will need everyone in the first round, this year as much as ever.

Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz may or may not be back by then. We truly don’t know. Sam Steel is another name in the “Hope” category. When you start to think about how deep this lineup would look with most of the bodies they’re missing right now, it’s pretty impressive. But at the moment, it’s just a sobering reality. This team has accomplished so much in recent years, and you hate to move past the sacrifices made over 80 games and counting just to raise the bar for what they hope will be four successive playoff series.

But that’s the nature of the NHL. Every success, whether individual or collective, is only as worthy of reflection as the team’s overall progress toward the trophy but a single group of people will hoist. It’s not fair, really. These players give so many people so much joy, and it costs them some things many people never see, even as they get handsomely rewarded in their bank accounts. To hand-wave the last 80 games away just to gear up for a series that both teams will feel they have a right to win is almost cruel, really.

That’s hockey, though. The suffering is baked into the whole experience, for fans and players and coaches and executives. If you don’t have the scar tissue from years past to help you through that first game of the first round, you’ll find out soon enough. For now, though, you might want to take a few breaths and appreciate what’s already happened. There’s been a whole lot worth smiling about this year, even if some of that happiness is tinged with the bittersweet. The best thing about the playoffs is that everyone is in this thing together, for better or for worse.

Whatever the final two games of the 2025-26 season hold, the first 80 have brought many moments of good. And truly good things always transcend the numbers on the scoreboard.

Highlights and the Lowdown

Adam Erne laid a pretty decent hit on Adam Sýkora early in the game. Other than that, the first seven minutes were filled with hockey of little consequence.

Thomas Harley changed all that when he got his stick up into the face of Adam Fox, putting the Rangers on the power play. Mika Zibanejad tested Oettinger with a one-timer halfway through, but the Stars goaltender was up to the task. Otherwise, Dallas kept the puck from getting to the net until Sýkora tried a wraparound as Harley got out of the box, and 5v5 play resumed.

With 4:39 to play, a turnover on a breakout led to a J.T. Miller one-timer from the circle that Oettinger held onto, and then Tye Kartye and Jamie Benn got into a scuffle, injecting some much-needed life into what was thus far a sleepy afternoon affair. Unfortunately for Dallas, Benn and Tyler Myers both got tagged for roughing, while Kartye only got two minutes, putting the Stars back on the penalty kill. But once again, they killed it off without too much trouble, and the first period mercifully ended after that.

The second period began much more eventfully, with Duchene leading a rush that finished with a drop pass to Jason Robertson, who fired it on net with traffic, leading to a rebound, but Igor Shesterkin was able to keep his post.

Oettinger had to come up with a couple saves of his own, including a great chance by Noah Laba and company on the fourth line, and the game began to pick up in pace, as so often seems to happen in the second period. Shots crept up to a rip-roaring 6-4 for New York, and we finally had some entertaining hockey going on.

Robertson had a big takeaway after the Stars turned it over in their own zone, and that led to a chance at the other end for Duchene that nearly found the net:

Unfortunately, Bourque would take a holding penalty right after that sequence, sending Dallas to their third penalty kill of the day. But stop me if you’ve heard this one: they killed it off.

In fact, the Stars would get the best chance of the period shortly afterward, when Harley sent a stretch pass to Duchene that put him in all alone. But Shesterkin’s paddle sealed the five-hole, and Duchene was denied.

Vincent Trocheck took the Rangers’ first penalty of the day with about six minutes left in the middle frame, when he got his stick into the skates of Justin Hryckowian, sending the rookie forward into the end boards in a crash that thankfully looked worse than it ended up being.

Duchene and Johnston both got great looks on the power play, but beating Shesterkin is hard enough even without bodies between you and the net, and the two minutes elapsed without result.

A big result came after Oettinger made a big save off a faceoff in the Stars’ end, and then Jamie Benn laid a big hit on Vladislav Gavrikov at the other—one that got him an initial boarding major, which led to a review.

However, the hit was reduced to a two-minute minor after review, and the Stars had two minutes to kill.

Things grew worse, however, when Blackwell was given a high-sticking penalty 36 seconds into it, putting Dallas down two men with 1:07 to play. Mike Sullivan called his timeout, and the Rangers planned to take advantage of their two-man, ah, advantage.

But the Stars bowed up, and Oettinger made a couple of big stops. And then, with nine seconds left in the period, Trocheck caught Tyler Myers in the mouth as he backed toward the crease, drawing a lot of blood while also short-circuiting the remainder of the 5-on-3.

Dallas made it to the power play portion of the double-minor early in the third and got to work. Rantanen cut in just ahead of Braden Schneider on a reload and quick entry, but as had been the theme, the goaltender won the duel.

New York put a couple of shorthanded chances on net themselves, and the disjointed game continued to be up for grabs as the penalties all wound down. Duchene got another grade-A look when he came down main street with acres of space, but Shesterkin came way out to challenge and shut down the angle, getting the rebound as well.

Cameron Hughes nearly got his second goal when things got back to 5-on-5, when Rantanen found him with a hot pass as Hughes broke to the net, reaching out and tipping the puck right on goal. But Shesterkin Shesterkined. He would make another save a minute later on Lyubushkin, who crept down the weak side for his own great look. Goaltending is important, as the 0-0 score through 49 minutes clearly testified.

Matthew Robertson got nailed for a holding penalty with 8 minutes to play in the game, and the Stars had a gilt-edged chance to grab a 1-0 lead late. And this time, they would carpe the metaphorical diem. Wyatt Johnston did some hard work to win a puck battle, and he fed it back to Duchene up high. The Stars’ center then snapped a quick shot at Shesterkin’s pad, and Jason Robertson made short work of a rebound chance, backhanding it high into the far corner for the game’s first goal.

From there, Dallas was able to take care of business. And with a minute to go, a Mavrik Bourque play high in the Stars’ zone turned the puck over, and Robertson and Duchene headed up ice toward the empty net, with Robertson eventually finding it after Duchene hit the post in what turned out to be a pretty slick pass.

Dallas will finish second in the Central Division, ensuring that they’ll start the playoffs on home ice next weekend. It should be a fun time.

Lineups

Dallas put together this group:

Hryckowian-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Duchene-Bourque
Erne-Hyry-Benn
Hughes-Bäck-Blackwell

Lindell-Lyubushkin
Harley-Myers
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger

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The New York Hockey Rangers tried this:

Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Sheary
Cuylle-Trocheck-Brodzinski
Sýkora-Laba-Chmelař

Gavrikov-Fox
Vaakainen-Schneider
Robertson-Borgen

Shesterkin

After-AfterThoughts

• Today’s game marked the 159th straight sellout for the Stars. We’re a long way from the bankruptcy days.

• Congratulations to Jeff Kovarsky, who celebrated his 20th anniversary with the Stars today, and received a nice tribute on the video board as well.

• During warmups, the Stars had a certain someone show up on the bench—a pair of someones, actually:

  

• Glen Gulutzan had this to say before the game when asked if the MRI results for Miro Heiskanen were closer to the good news he had been hoping for:

  • “It’s kind of in between. There’s probably not going to be an update until [we] give him three or four days and see what happens, and then see where he’s at.”

• Some interesting drama on the NYR side today: Drew Fortescue was a late scratch, and it sure seems to have been for, ahem, business reasons:

  

• Only Benn knows his thought process, but the captain’s hit on Gavrikov couldn’t help but make you think of the fact that Tyler Seguin’s ACL was torn by the same Gavrikov when the teams met back in New York this season.

• Esa Lindell has had a lot of practice in the postgame Fan Appreciation Night antics on the ice, when players toss t-shirts (or fire them with a t-shirt cannon) into the crowd. However, he said after the game that he hasn’t really tried to refine his technique.

  • “I only handed them to Tommy [Harley], and he shot the gun. So, that was the teamwork,” Lindell said, a bit sheepishly.

• Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston both have 44 goals, though Robertson has 10 more assists as well. Who’s your bet to finish atop the team leaderboard this year?

• Wisconsin got a 1-0 lead this afternoon in the NCAA final, but Denver did what Denver does under David Carle, and wound up winning yet another title.

  

• Jake Oettinger certainly looks like he’s in playoff form right now, doesn’t he? These third period stats are quite good.

  

• Finally, how about this: In their past four seasons the Stars have finished first or second every single time. This year and last, they finished second to the Presidents’ Trophy team, who happened to win the Central Division.

  • Back in 2023, the Stars also finished second in the Central, ahead of Minnesota and behind Colorado. As you surely recall, the Stars beat Minnesota in six, then faced Seattle in the second round, after a surprise upset by the Kraken over the Avalanche.

    • Nothing is guaranteed in this league, and the Kings are stingy defensively. If they can win two of their last three games, Los Angeles would earn the right to face the Avalanche in the first round, and you know what they say about hockey: anything can happen. (Which means the Kings could lose in five or even six games, if everything goes right for them.)