Monday Practice Update: Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson Still Definitely Maybes, Matt Duchene Breaks Down the Game-Winning Goal

It was a good time at an optional practice today

May 05, 2025

Two quick notes before we get to practice today:

First, I took Sunday off, mostly because I was exhausted and drained after being up until well past 3am after Game 7, so I needed a break. That’s hard for me to do when the playoffs are so chock-full of stories to tell, but I appreciate y’all’s forbearance in the wake of one of the most incredible Stars games we’ve seen in a while. What a game that was.
Second, the wonderful Dimitri Filipovic had me and David on The PDOcast (still one of the best names of any hockey podcast ever) to talk about Game 7 and the series as a whole. You can listen to that here, and then you can tell me about how terrible all of my takes (is that what they’re called?) were.

At the Stars’ optional practice in Frisco today, Pete DeBoer didn’t have any breaking news with regard to Miro Heiskanen and/or Jason Robertson.

Both players were skating with around a dozen other players today, including Nils Lundkvist, but it was an optional, and it looked every bit the part.

As for when those two players might return to the Stars’ lineup, DeBoer said both are expected to return during the second round. But after ruling both of them out ahead of time for Game 7, DeBoer returned to holding off on making any pronouncements ahead of time. At least for now.

One thing he did touch on is the different between Heiskanen’s return and Robertson’s, and how Heiskanen’s process might be slightly different, given he had surgery and Robertson did not.

“It’s another layer, because the surgeon has to sign off on it,” DeBoer acknowledged. “But I think they’re both in similar spots. You want to get them to a spot where you know you can’t do any more damage, you’re braced and in a good place that way, as far as what you need around those injuries so that it doesn’t happen again.”

DeBoer also went on to say that there’s a comfort level returning players need to get to after coming back from injuries, but also pointed out that a lot of people are “playing uncomfortable” this time of year.

Heiskanen is probably the more crucial player to get back, just by virtue of his position, but I do wonder if Robertson could surprise us all and end up getting back into the lineup before Heiskanen in this series, given that he missed less time and theoretically would have less of a “rebuilding” process to get back to where he needs to be to play.

But then again, without knowing the extent of either injury, we’re all just guessing.

As ever, we will have to wait and see. But just seeing Robertson and Heiskanen back out skating and practicing with the team is a good sign.

Matt Duchene also spoke to the media at practice today, and he mentioned that playoffs are “a different animal,” pointing out how different a lot of the games in the Colorado series were from some of the “track meet’ style games the two teams had in the season.

The Stars will certainly be hoping the second round is a similar departure, given how thoroughly Winnipeg controlled play for much of the season series between the two. Dallas did win one home game against the Jets after taking a 1-1 tie into the third period before that Mason Marchment backhand goal put them ahead, and Roope Hintz sealed things with a late empty-netter.

Duchene, however, is as excited as ever for another playoff series.

“My two years here has been the best playoff experience I’ve ever had,” Duchene said. “It’s cool to be learning as much as I still am at 34, and 16 years in the league. I just didn’t get this experience as a young player, so I’m grateful for it, excited about it.”

Duchene also talked about how he thinks his line with Mason Marchment and Tyler Seguin has “another gear” to get to. He said they probably deserved more points than they got, and he’s confident they’ll get there in the second round.

Duchene said that for his part, he’s okay with his offensive production in the series, given the team was winning. He also talked about how he was more on the “passing end of things,” and he didn’t have “a ton of looks” when it came to shots.

“Scoring is streaky,” Duchene acknowledged, “And I think at the end of the day, as long as I’m making plays and producing offense, whether it’s going in or not, or creating momentum, I think that’s what I’m here to do.”

Duchene explained his thought process on Wyatt Johnston’s game-winning goal, which was pretty fascinating. Duchene said he made the decision in that moment to go down to the goal line rather than playing in his usual spot.

“I was going to the goal line because I wanted the puck, and I knew he’d be over there if I could make a little play there. I just wanted it down around the net, and it’s kind of funny how your instincts take over. I don’t know why I went there, I just decided, I was like, ‘I’m going there.’ So, great pickup by him. He’s such a good player, you give him that chance, he’s gonna score. I mean you give him a foot of open [net], an angle to put it in. I mean, it’s a whole net, but it’s a tight angle, right?

When that puck went in, I couldn’t even be all that happy, because I was so emotionally drained, I was just, I wanted to fall on my knees and cry, when that thing went in. That was great. Great feeling. That building erupted. That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard our building. Just a really cool moment. A game I’ll remember for my whole life.”
-Matt Duchene, on Wyatt Johnston’s game-winning goal in Game 7

You could see Duchene’s determination to make that play on the game-winner, too. Duchene pointed out that he and Johnston had combined for basically that exact same power play goal back in Game 5, as well, so he knew what he was about with that pass.

(The below embed should start at 6:43 with that goal, but if not, you can skip ahead to there.)

Duchene wrapped up his always-interesting media availability today with one other story about Game 7 that I thought was pretty cool, so we’ll finish up with that story verbatim:

“My son, I think he went to two games in the series. I think he went to the first, and he went to that one [Game 7]. My wife said he was crying at the start of the third when [Colorado] scored, and wanted to go home. And then my wife said they were jumping up and down, hugging each other when that one went in.
He rode home with me after the game, and I just, you know, that was special, for sure.”
-Matt Duchene, 5/5/2025

Duchene’s son, Beau, is six years old.

By the way, if you haven’t seen it, here’s another (pretty adorable) video of his kids celebrating a Stars goal by Dad earlier this year.

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