Game 81 AfterThoughts: Mavrik Is His Name

Matt Duchene's three-point night may have been overshadowed

SotG

Smooth as a handle on a gun
[Mavrik] is the name
Wild as a wind in Oregon
Blowin' up a canyon
Easier to tame

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This was a game played within certain constraints. And early on, those constraints were limiting.

Lian Bichsel and Adam Erne were sitting out, so three of the Stars’ depth defensemen were starting in Heiskanen’s absence. Michael Bunting and Radek Faksa were also put back into the lineup for the first time in a while, and that naturally led to experimentation.

When the result of a game doesn’t actually matter, this is probably the best approach a coach can take. Rest the players you can, and try out some looks that you might end up needing down the road. Playoff runs are (hopefully) long, and you never know when you’ll need to ask a player to do something different. If you can gain even a passing familiarity before crunch time necessitates such a move, this was the game in which to do it.

That’s why Arttu Hyry was playing wing rather than his usual center. It’s also why Michael Bunting was up on the Johnston/Rantanen line, and Tyler Myers was playing on a pairing with Esa Lindell. And early on, those combinations were causing more problems than they were solving.

Gulutzan pointed out that a couple of bad line changes cost them goals tonight. The Stars were indeed pretty disconnected at times, but considering how different this lineup was from what they’ve been rolling, you could kind of understand a bit of chaos here and there, especially early on.

“I think it’s a game against a team that has some skill, but they’re playing a little bit loose, and they had a really good first,” Matt Duchene said afterwards. “We weren’t great, but they came out firing. Then we were able to get a couple quick ones. I mean, we stuck with it. I think that’s the good part.”

Nobody is going to hang a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner after allowing five goals, but as Duchene went on to say, you never know what sort of game you might have to win in the playoffs, and the Stars were able to persist and come away with the win in a wild one.

The other thing about constraints, however, is that they can also lead to great works of art. And in the midst of the chaos, the Stars’ lead conductor was Mavrik Bourque, whose four-point night began with an individual effort early in the second period, stealing a risky William Nylander pass and scoring all by himself to jump start the first comeback. He would add a second goal five minutes later by going fearlessly to the net to find a rebound, putting Toronto on their heels.

How goals are scored, sometimes. Victory+

Bourque would add an assist four minutes after that, kicking off a beautiful sequence that led to Robertson’s 45th goal of the year. Of all the combinations in the lineup, these three might have had the most recent experience with one another, and it showed tonight. Duchene wound up with three assists, while Robertson had two points of his own.

But after the Stars went down 5-3 early in the third period, it looked like the meaningless game would end in disappointment for the competitors. But that’s where another key weapon the Stars will need in the postseason kicked in: Wyatt Johnston, on the power play. Because he simply couldn’t stand by and let Jason Robertson be the only one to hit 45 goals tonight, could he?

Still, the Stars needed another tally to complete the second comeback, and that’s where the depth finally came through. Because after a night of frustration and adjustment, Arttu Hyry’s quality showed through. After ripping a shot off a crossbar in one of three prior scoring chances, Hyry would end up scoring the tying goal thanks to dogged forechecking and a big piece of luck, as Troy Stecher frantically whacked the puck away from Hyry, but into his own net.

“As coaches say, a good forecheck leads to goals,” Hyry said. “Didn’t even need to shoot the puck, but I’m glad I got that one.”

I wouldn’t be telling you the full truth if I didn’t include just how sloppy both teams were throughout the night, though. That was never made clearer than when Kyle Capobianco got a bit too complex with the puck at the point, leading to a deadly turnover and a Nicholas Robertson breakaway in the third period of a 5-5 game. But with the lead hanging in the balance, DeSmith came up with his biggest stop of the game. And Mavrik Bourque had the perfect seat from which to watch that sequence.

“Big stop, big stop,” Bourque said. “I was sitting right by his brother, and he was pretty happy about this one, so it was actually pretty funny.”

That wasn’t the best part of the third period for Bourque, though. Because with five minutes left in the game, he scored his first NHL hat trick by going to the net again, outfoxing Oliver Ekman-Larsson in order to bang home a rebound for what wound up being the game-winning goal.

“I’ll tell you what,” Duchene said, “I’ll be looking for him every time I have the puck in Buffalo, trying to get him that 20th [goal]. Obviously a contract year for him, it would be nice for him to get that mark.”

Seven points combined in this screencap from Victory+

When the dust settled on this one, it was a fun hockey game. Defense: Optional contests usually are. Still, Bourque getting to 19 goals on the season is no small thing. In fact, he’s now all alone in fourth place on the team in goals and sitting just three back of third place. And if tonight was any indication, that’s not an impossible deficit for the sophomore forward to eliminate.

Highlights and the Lowdown

Both goalies had to work early, as Easton Cowan and Wyatt Johnston both had good looks in the opening minute. But Arttu Hyry would get a stick up on Troy Stecher on his first shift, and that loaded up the Toronto power play.

Dallas killed the first chunk of it efficiently enough, but a questionable decision by Myers to try a bump pass to Blackwell at the netfront went horribly wrong, and Tavares quickly took advantage, burying his 31st goal of the season:

Dallas would get its own power play midway through the first, when Colin Blackwell made a nice individual effort to force a Morgan Rielly interference. But the most interesting thing about the power play was that Kyle Capobianco quarterbacked the second unit, and the two minutes resulted in no goals.

Benn put his own effort on net just after 5-on-5 play resumed with a quick one-timer in traffic, but it didn’t get through Akhtyamov. After another rush chance for Dallas where Rantanen, Johnston, and Bunting tried a tic-tac-toe play that Johnston couldn’t send to Bunting, the Leafs doubled their lead on a wraparound the got through DeSmith in time for Jacob Quillan to, ahem, “direct” the puck in with his skate, earning his first NHL goal:

I was a little surprised that there didn’t appear to be a review of the goal, but given that the game meant nothing to Dallas, perhaps everyone just wanted to get on with it. Still, I was a little surprised that Rantanen’s goal the other night merited a longer review than this one did.

Also, if we’re picking nits, Myers probably ought to have pulled up at the post there rather than lunging for the puck—a habit he’s demonstrated on a few occasions with Dallas so far—as he would then have been in position to help close down Quillan, potentially. But again, the game means nothing to Dallas, so I don’t imagine folks are dwelling on it too much.

The Leafs would add a third goal on a fortunate bounce and a nice play, when William Nylander found a rebounding puck in the air and batted it through DeSmith’s five hole like he was trying to do exactly that:

Overall, it wasn’t a great first period for the Stars, but as Brien Rea said at the first intermission, you can expect Toronto to have some extra pep, as they were playing for pride in their final home game of the year—and possibly Morgan Rielly’s final home game as a Leaf.

Mavrik Bourque is not one to be overawed by the moment, however. After Wyatt Johnston turned a puck over early in the second period to generate a look, Mavrik Bourque then stole a very questionable pass from William Nylander and snapped it five-hole to cut the lead to 3-1, 52 seconds into the period.

The sloppiness was fairly mutual in this game, and the Leafs had three near-misses shortly after that, including a Matthew Knies poke after Lyubushkin got caught fishing on the rush.

But Bourque would get the next one, doubling his total for the night after finishing a Robertson backhand shot off the rush to make it 3-2:

Jamie Benn took a tripping penalty on Stecher right after that, but this time, Dallas killed off the penalty, though it took a big DeSmith stop and a painful Oskar Bäck block to do so.

Still, good things come to those who are good at hockey, as they say. And Jason Robertson proved that aphorism that I just made up true as ever, when he finished off a great shift on which he and his line recovered the puck multiple times with a goal to tie the game at three.

Arttu Hyry got two chances to put Dallas in front after that, but one shot went off the crossbar, and the other (a tip play) was stopped by Artur Akhtyamov. The Faksa line generated a couple of dangerous looks as well shortly thereafter.

Dallas’s push continued late, and Rantanen was brought down by Ryan Tverberg on a Stars rush to bring out the power play with 1:59 remaining in the period. The top unit would stay out the entire time, generating no fewer than four Grade-A looks, only for Akhtyamov to come up big every single time, from two looks by Johnston to a solo big by Rantanen in the slot by himself. The period ended 3-3, and yet that felt like less than Dallas deserved, somehow. (Possibly, Toronto are not very good this season.)

Nick Robertson nearly matched his brother with a tip attempt early in the third period, but DeSmith held firm. That would not be the case a moment later, however, when Johnston turned a puck over in the offensive zone, leading to a 2-on-1 puck going the other way. Nylander fed over to Domi, and DeSmith was helpless. 4-3, Leafs.

Johnston nearly made up for the error immediately, hitting the post on a chance down low after Toronto failed to clear past Harley at the blue line.

But some chipped paint was all that resulted, and the Leafs would benefit from a less accurate shot a moment later.

A Troy Stecher point shot missed both goalie and posts, only to bounce hard off the end boards and right to Nick Robertson. And with DeSmith having gone out to challenge the original shot, the angle was perfect after the unintentional pass, making it 5-3:

Bunting hit another post through traffic right after that goal following some good work off the boards, but in Canada, posts don’t count. (Also in everywhere.) That point was further emphasized on the Stars’ next power play, when Rantanen walked down from the point off a face-off win and sizzled a puck—you guessed it—off the post and out of play.

But things somehow got even weirder after that, because once again, Dallas erased a multi-goal deficit. First, on a Wyatt Johnston power play goal from the office, like it was nothing at all (which it isn’t, for him):

And then the cherry on top of the Bonkers-Bazonkers sundae, when Arttu Hyry psyched out Troy Stecher to such an extent in a puck battle that Stecher put the puck past his goaltender and into his own net:

Just like that, it was 5-5. And at this point, you really might have begun to suspect that the Leafs had some real defensive issues.

They weren’t the only ones in this game to qualify for that label, however. A loose affair got even looser when Nick Robertson capitalized on a Kyle Capobianco turnover high in the zone, getting a breakaway pass that only DeSmith’s right pad was able to silence.

Hyry took a puck up to the face later in that sequence, and he was in some obvious pain. But he’s a tough one, and he still played the puck before going to the bench for repairs. He would also return for the final minute of the game, looking none the worse for wear.

The Stars would take their first lead in the game after Mavrik Bourque made a good play along the boards, and a better one at the front of the net to complete his first NHL hat trick with five minutes to go:

Berube emptied the net in the final minutes, and it took a crucial Matt Duchene block to prevent a dangerous Nylander shot from between the circles from getting to the net. Toronto wouldn’t be able to get the goaltender out again until there were 20 seconds to go, however, and Benn combined with Bourque to suffocate the puck along the boards as the clock ran out.

What had begun as an early 3-0 hole wound up being a banner night for Bourque and the Stars, who now sit at 110 points with one last game to play in the regular season.

Lineups

Dallas players were:

Bunting-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Duchene-Bourque
Benn-Hryckowian-Hyry
Bäck-Faksa-Blackwell

Lindell-Myers
Harley-Lyubushkin
Capobianco-Petrovic

DeSmith

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Toronto fellas were:

Cowan-Tavares-Nylander
Knies-Domi-Robertson
Maccelli-Haymes-Jarnkrok
Lorentz-Quillan-Tverberg

Rielly-Stecher
Benoit-McCabe
OEL-Villeneuve

Akhtyamov

After-AfterThoughts

• Frank Seravalli said during the first intermission that Sam Steel is on the road trip and a possibility to play on Wednesday in Buffalo, which is a mildly positive update for the Stars winger, albeit one consistent with everything we’ve heard from Gulutzan in the past week. As always, we’ll wait and see what happens.

• The Robertson Duel is always a fun game, as Mercedes Robertson demonstrated with her attire:

  

• The more important intermission content, however, was the segment on Very Good Dogs:

  

• I’m still not sure how Jake McCabe missed this shot, but it was just the first half of an amusing sequence early in the second period:

• The second half of that was Casey DeSmith, who literally hopped over a shot to avoid being used as a backboard for a shot on goal:

• This DeSmith reflex save on Knies more than made up for that bit of hilarity, however:

• Arttu Hyry ripped this shot off the crossbar, in case you need a reminder that he’s got a sneaky-good release:

  • Of course, Hyry would get some karma later, so maybe these things even out.

    

• Michael Bunting looked better as the game went on, I thought. He’s a smart player, and he put a puck off a post with a sneaky shot. If he can gel with Rantanen and Johnston, that allows Hryckowian to play down the lineup a bit. We’ll see where everyone ends up tomorrow, but again, options are good things.

• Radek Faksa was similarly solid, I thought. Nothing tentative in his game, which is a good sign. But perhaps seeing how he responds to his first game since February will be the truer test.

• Tyler Myers’s play on the first goal was not a good one, but his work on the second Leafs goal was more complicated, I thought. I wanted to go through it right quick, if you don’t mind.
  
  First, Myers tried to hold a puck in at the point that back out to him high, and all he could do was shovel it to the side to avoid a clean breakaway. Not a great play, but he was put in a tough spot to begin with, and he avoided the worst-case scenario initially.

  

  From there, was gapped up on his man back at the blue line, only for the weak side forward Lorentz (18 blue) to beat Benn down the wall because he had more momentum when the turnover happened intially. That will force Myers into a drastic adjustment a tick too late.

  

  Myers uses all of his reach, and it’s enough to prevent the shot from happening, initially…

  

  …but unfortunately, DeSmith was out to challenge on what looked like a possible breakaway at first, and he’s too far out to easily go post-to-post- after Lorentz carriers behind the net, as you can see here.

  

  The result: DeSmith dives across desperately, and the puck slides through him to Quillan for his first NHL goal.

  

  Given how the game ended, maybe that’s something everyone can live with. I’m still reserving judgment on Myers until we get to the postseason, honestly.
  

• Is this good? This seems good. I think it might be good.

  

• Finally, what a sweet moment it was to see Joe Bowen get a long, long ovation from the crowd in his final home game. Every time one of the longtime pxp folks ends their run, it feels like a loss for the hockey world, and this one more than most. But it was great to see Bowen get some well-deserved praise from the people he’s served.