Monday Rundown: Thomas Harley's Return, Family Photos, and Autograph Sessions
Everything matters, if anything matters at all
It’s New Year’s week, which means it’s going to be freezing for two days, then 75 after that. Living in Dallas means days like yesterday, when it was 84 in the afternoon before wind chill plunged the temperature down to 28 when I left the American Airlines Center last night.
Two quick New Year’s takes before we get started:
New Year’s Eve is the biggest letdown of any holiday, because you’re not really celebrating anything at all. We aren’t a people that live seasonally anymore, for most practical purposes, so the passing of a year is largely an arbitrary distinction. This is why the best way to do New Year’s Eve is to pick a tradition with which to anchor your celebration: A themed party (one that won’t require much effort in the way of costumes), a favorite meal (curry is always good and easy to share), or a classic movie to watch every year (Casablanca is what some good friends of mine watch every December 31st). The comfort of the routine will take all the stress out of “figuring out New Year’s Eve plans” each year, and the latter options are also handy excuses for introverts to avoid crowded parties. “Sorry, I’d love to go, but I’ve got this curry on all day.” Talk about a win-win.
Auld Lang Syne is a perfectly fine song, but if you want something more evocative from that genre, I commend to you “The Parting Glass,” sung in at least three-part harmony (but preferably four). We used to sing this song at one of my old jobs whenever a longtime employee was leaving, and I’ll never forget how perfectly it captured that feeling of appropriately melancholy goodwill. It’s a song that places you smack dab in the middle of love and loss, both at once in equal measure. I never had the opportunity to have it sung to me before that job ended, which is probably a good thing, as I would have cried like a baby.
Anyway, I think the Wailin’ Jennys do a pretty great job hitting all the right notes here (figuratively and literally).
Speaking of melancholy goodwill, let’s talk about your favorite second-place team that has also lost1 two games in a row: the Dallas Stars.
Thomas Harley’s Road Back to Elite Defending
After practice on Sunday, I talked with Harley briefly. One thing he said was that after initially returning from his injury, he felt like he was “thinking too much,” which isn’t when he plays his best.
Harley and the Stars have both declined to elaborate on the nature of his lower-body injury, but his skating speed data doesn’t show any obvious indications that he’s playing hampered right now. By all accounts, his health is good, and he’s now just trying to get back up to speed after missing a good chunk of the first half of the regular season.
Harley is a very easygoing player. He tends to be every bit as blunt in admitting his mistakes as he is reluctant to talk about his goals. But it’s been apparent to anyone who watched Harley carry the Stars’ blueline for the second half of last season and most of their first two playoff series that he hasn’t yet gotten back to that elite form this year.
And even his new head coach knows that we haven’t seen the best of Harley yet, either.
“Honestly, his game has been up and down, especially lately after the injury,” Gulutzan said on Sunday. “He was out for a long time. I thought he’s played some fantastic games, and then he’s played some average games, for him. So I think his best hockey is coming.”
One of the reasons for Gulutzan’s confidence in Harley is that, whatever the injury was, it wasn’t something minor. Quite the opposite—whatever it was.
“The injury is a big injury,” Gulutzan said. “It’s a long time [out], and he came back a little bit early on, because he’s cleared. In an ideal world, would he have sat out for 10 days? Probably. But at the end of the day, what I like about players like that is you can see this elite, high-end game. It’s just not there all the time. So that means it’s coming, and certainly last year it was there. So it means it’s coming, but he’s had a lot to deal with, right? Every time you try to take a step forward, you take a step back with injuries and whatnot. So, I think his best hockey’s ahead of him.”
As far as how the coaching staff has communicated with players like Harley as they get back into their old form, Gulutzan said it depends on a few things. One of those things is the player’s position, as Alain Nasreddine knows most of the defensemen very well, and therefore is a natural go-to guy for them—though Gulutzan of course talks with his players, too.
“I talk to most of the guys,” Gulutzan said. “Probably the D a little less than maybe the forwards. And that’s just because, forwards-wise, I’m a little tougher on the forwards than I am on the D, and Nas has got a pretty good handle on them. But, yeah, we talk to them, and I think the biggest thing with [Harley] that we’ve talked to him about is finding that right level.”
This is where Gulutzan made a very interesting comparison and contrast to another of the top players on the Stars’ roster: Mikko Rantanen.
“[Harley’s] strength is, he’s very calm,” Gulutzan said. “He can skate, and he’s cerebral. But like I’ve said to every one of my players, even like a ‘Rants [Mikko Rantanen], I mean, his strength is his passion and his energy. But that can become your weakness if it gets too much. And Thomas has got to find the right level of intensity within that calmness that he plays [with]. And when he’s at that level, he’s as good as anyone. And that’s what we’ve talked about primarily, is just finding his right compete level to play, where he’s calm and relaxed and making plays, but he’s also intense.”
Seeing Rantanen’s intensity and Harley’s calm as both strengths or liabilities makes a lot of sense, from a coaching perspective. As with all things, it’s about moderation.
“That’s what all of our players do,” Gulutzan said. “You try to find that right level where they perform. And with the injuries, he just hasn’t been able to get there all of a sudden.”
If last season was any indication, a healthy Harley will doubtless get “there,” even if it takes a little more time.
Team Leaderboard
With only two games played since last Monday, there’s not much point getting too far into the, uh, points. But here were a couple numbers that jumped out at me:
Jake Oettinger has 16 wins, but he surrendered the NHL league lead in wins over the weekend to his old backup, Scott Wedgewood (who now has 17). Colorado, man.
Mikko Rantanen is 2nd in the league in assists, and 5th in the NHL in points.
Meaningless plus/minus silliness: Rantanen is a +2, and Connor McDavid is a +1. Nathan MacKinnon is…a +47. Colorado, man.
However…since the start of 2022, Esa Lindell has the 5th-best plus/minus of any skater in the league. Cale Makar is behind him during that stretch, in 6th place.
Since 2021, Jason Robertson has the 13th-best plus/minus in the NHL, right behind former Selke Trophy finalist Auston Matthews.
Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston have finally edged out in front of Radek Faksa for the team lead in 5-on-5 assists, with nine apiece. (Faksa has eight.)
Trivia question: Who has the hardest shot by any Dallas Stars player this year? (Hint: It happened against Minnesota on December 11.) Guess in the comments, if you don’t know.
Faceoffs: Still Weird
One last bit of stat business: the Stars’ faceoff numbers are wonky this year.
Roope Hintz is having a career year in the circle so far, winning nearly 58% of his faceoffs. His previous best was 56.2%, which he did back in 2023-24.
Rookie Justin Hryckowian is also doing well, rocking nearly a 57% percentage on the dot (in limited action).
Meanwhile, Wyatt Johnston is way down at just 47%. Johnston spent the last two years as an over-50% faceoff guy, so we’ll call this an anomaly…for now.
However, with Tyler Seguin’s injury, I do very mildly wonder if the Stars might look for a right-hand shot who can take faceoffs to acquire before the deadline, even if it’s a player who is otherwise a depth forward. Johnston and Mavrik Bourque are the only two right-shot faceoff guys in the Stars’ top 10, and they’re both struggling, while Colin Blackwell has a career-low 40% number thus far.
Signing Bonuses
We talked about Wyatt Johnston signing autographs in McKinney a few weeks back, and sure enough, he was one of a few players to spend a good chunk of time on Sunday in Euless signing all manner of things for young fans after practice.
Johnston was far from the only one to do so, as many other Stars players took time to pose in selfies, chat with young fans, and otherwise make a whole lot of days for kids in attendance.
Another one of those players who spent a lot of time with fans after the practice was Mikko Rantanen.
Rantanen spent a good bit of time signing autographs both before changing out of his gear as well as afterward. From everything I’ve seen, Rantanen is a superstar who genuinely enjoys playing this part of the role.
That isn’t true of every NHLer, but it’s always cool to see it in action. The Stars have had more than a few great players come through Dallas who put the time in with fans, but seeing Rantanen yesterday really did drive the point home that he isn’t just cashing a paycheck here in Texas.
Sounding Off
We mentioned Hilary Knight’s quote about the growth of women’s professional hockey in yesterday’s piece on the fantastic PWHL Takeover Tour game at American Airlines Center. But now that the video of the presser has been uploaded, I wanted to include her Knight’s response in all its context—especially because of her teammate Danielle Serdachny’s reaction in the moment, which I think says as much about the truth of Knight’s words as anything:
We’re well over a decade into Knight’s professional (and sure to be Hall of Fame) career, and that she’s only now finally playing in a league where players are actually paid a living wage. It’s absurd that it’s taken that long, and I can’t imagine anyone begrudges her candor one bit. If anything, Knight is probably still being too kind to some of the mismanagement in former leagues.
‘Tis the Season
Let’s end with two heartwarming photos on a freezing day.
First, Tyler Seguin is facing his ACL rehab with the same sense of humor (and competitiveness) Stars fans have come to know over the past 13 years. Who’s not betting on his daughter here?
Jessica Benn also shared a heartwarming family photo on Instagram, if you didn’t see it:
It’s safe to say Benn has come a long way from his WHL days in Kelowna.
In the current points system, calling overtime or shootout defeats “losses” is all but a complete untruth.