Postgame Beats: So That's Why They Call It a "Power" Play

They say it's supposed to be a series between the two best teams in the West, and it felt like it.

Through forty minutes, the Oilers were the better team, and it wasn't all that close.

Connor McDavid was blowing by the Stars defense like a bad restaurant on the side of the freeway. The Oilers defensemen were getting better looks down low than anything Dallas got on their opening power play. And Leon Draisaitl was spending so much time in the Dallas zone, his rent went up three different times in the second period alone.

But the thing about hockey games is that they still require both teams to play the third period. That’s a lesson the Colorado Avalanche learned the hard way a few weeks ago, and it’s a lesson the Stars apparently wanted to review in Game 1 against Edmonton, spotting the Oilers a 3-1 lead before ripping off three power play goals like a pool hustler sinking shots with his ride waiting at the curb.

Really, I don’t know what you can say about a power play that looked so utterly lost in the first period, only to walk into a transmogrifier after the second intermission and emerge with a full-scale map to success.

Actually, I do know what you can say: Wow. Wow. Wow.

Tyler Seguin was incredible, stepping up in a moment of great need with a three-point night and two beautiful goals. Matt Duchene finally broke his goal drought by shooting a puck off Roope Hintz’s read end as a warm up. And Mikael Granlund and Miro Heiskanen added power play goals from the second unit, which is really just the second number one unit, when you look at the personnel.

This team finally has something like a full cast, and they needed an ensemble tonight. But Dallas has done a lot of damage in these playoffs by waiting for dramatic moments, so why would this one be any different?

You do not apologize for wins, and the Oilers probably won’t be asking for one. Game 1 was the stuff of dreams, but it was also a wake-up call. We’ll see what time the alarm rings on Friday for Game 2.

Lineups

The Stars began the game with a more traditional 12 forward/ 6 defenseman lineup:

Granlund-Hintz-Rantanen
Robertson-Duchene-Johnston
Marchment-Steel-Seguin
Benn-Bäck-Dadonov

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Heiskanen
Bichsel-Lyubushkin

Oettinger in goal

Alex Petrovic was a healthy scratch, as expected.

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The Oilers trotted out this lineup, to start:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Kapanen
Kane - Henrique - Brown
Frederic - Janmark - Perry

Kulak - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Walman - Klingberg

Skinner in goal

First Period

The Lindell-Ceci pairing was the third one used, and they were put over the boards when Leon Draisaitl’s line came out. With Miro Heiskanen presumably being tasked with shutting down Connor McDavid (as much as anyone can do such a thing), those were likely to continue being familiar matchups.

Oettinger made a brisk pad save on a Draisaitl wrister through traffic after a good bit of zone time from Draisaitl and company, but Skinner had to be alert for a Harley shot from the circle.

The most dangerous chance came on a McDavid 2v2 rush where he turned Lindell inside out and then tried to go backhand/forehand on Oettinger, only for the Stars’ goalie’s left arm to stand the test.

The chances were exchanged pretty freely after that, with Duchene and Robertson getting looks at one end, and Draisaitl’s line continuing to look dangerous at the other.

The Stars’ top line then got going again, and some excellent passing among the three forwards led to a great setup for Roope Hintz, whom Kulak had to hook into next week to prevent a great setup from Rantanen from being converted.

The power play did not inspire confidence after their 0-fer performance last year, with a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush from Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark threatening the Stars’ net at the end of the two minutes.

Esa Lindell made a beautiful play to block the pass to Janmark, but it would be a short-lived relief for Dallas.

Draisaitl and McDavid has been a familiar post-penalty kill duo for Kris Knoblauch. It’s a sound strategy, as the other team’s top players generally aren’t on the ice after two minutes at the other end (that’s the idea, at least), and you can often capitalize on that with two of the best players in the world.

That’s what happened, as Draisaitl circled the entire zone with Wyatt Johnston tracking him, until a perfectly executed Connor McDavid glide-and-pick slowed down Johnston just a tick.

It was a play so well-executed that calling it a pick isn’t really accurate, unless you mean it in a basketball sense. You could run that play in basketball, with McDavid simply gliding in a straight (and inconvenient, for Johnston) line.

And that little bit of space it generated for Draisaitl was all he would need, as he went to his forehand and popped it far side as he’s done a whole lot of times in his career. 1-0, Edmonton.

But Draisaitl giveth, and Draisaitl taketh away. Because under some Tyler Seguin pressure as Draisaitl curled back up high, Seguin got him to fumble the puck at the point, and Seguin jumped up and grabbed it, getting a breakaway from center ice in. And for the next five seconds, Seguin looked every bit like Tyler Seguin, leaving everyone behind.

And Seguin knew what to do with the time and space, surprising Skinner with a low shot on the glove side that beat him in a flash, sending Skinner falling backward in surprise.

Seguin threw himself against the glass in the surly sort of celebration that a tying goal in the first period deserves.

Lian Bichsel laid a good hit on Connor Brown shortly after that, and Wyatt Johnston also had a great shot from the slot that Skinner caught up with. But overall, it was Edmonton with more offensive zone time, and more offensive zone pressure. A Cody Ceci turnover saw Esa Lindell making another Grade-A block on a royal road pass, however, and Oettinger took care of the other pucks he did see.

Dallas was surely happy to get through those 20 minutes with a tie ballgame.

At least it was entertaining, I suppose.

Second Period

Connor McDavid greeted Thomas Harley by blowing past him on the outside before testing Oettinger’s blocker. But Oettinger was ready for it, and he came out to the top of the crease to stop the shot just as Heiskanen was cutting over to help.

A sentence I said multiple times early in the first: “Man, that Connor McDavid guy is pretty good.”

Esa Lindell and Mattias Janmark got into a bit away from the play, with Lindell returning the love with a chop to the back of Janmark’s leg. I suppose old friends can be enemies, too.

After a great keep by Harley who charged into the offensive zone to subvert an Oilers’ exit, he couldn’t hang onto the puck under heavy pressure. Marchment came back to help, but he ended up reaching out with his stick and finding the skates of Zach Hyman, putting himself in a familiar position: the penalty box.

The Oilers didn’t need long to capitalize on the chance, as a Connor McDavid pass to Corey Perry in the slot got poked away by Oskar Bäck.

But his lunge was about as helpful as Marchment’s reach, it would turn out. The puck got poked perfectly across to Nugent-Hopkins, who stepped up and ripped a wide-open shot past a helpless Jake Oettinger.

I imagine the new plan for Dallas at that point was simple: Never Take A Penalty Again. But given recent history, that didn’t seem terribly likely.

The Oilers continued dominating the puck as the period went on. And after another great stop by Oettinger on a too-open Brett Kulak, another Oilers defenseman would get a chance that he wouldn’t miss.

We are speaking, of course, about Evan Bouchard, who found himself open after some outstanding F1 work by Vasily Podkolzin. The Oilers would retrieve and circle, and the puck would get rotated around to Bouchard, who stepped into an open lane and fired it over Oettinger’s glove from the face-off dot before any help would arrive.

The defensemen in blue and white continued to cause problems for Dallas, and Darnell Nurse hit the crossbar behind Oettinger right after the 3-1 goal. It was a sobering reminder of just how relentless this Oilers team can be when they’re feeling it. And they were certainly feeling it.

DeBoer tried some new looks in lines after that, with him trying Benn-Duchene-Rantanen at one point. The trio nearly got a look off a turnover at one end, only for Leon Draisaitl to work some more magic and nearly score a highlight-reel goal at the other.

Dallas would test their luck a bit more after Thomas Harley got whistled for interference on Mattias Janmark at the far blue line with the puck still being brought out of the Edmonton zone.

It was really a cross check, after which Janmark stumbled to the ice. It was a surprising call, given how much nonsense had already occurred away from the play thus far, but Dallas would nevertheless have a penalty to kill.

This kill went much better, however, and Dallas got through the set with remarkably little trouble. Proof of concept, if nothing else.

Lian Bichsel and Evander Kane got into a bit after the penalty, but despite some hits and shots exchanged by both sides, nothing was called. Until the Stars got some pressure up the ice with the reunited Seguin-Duchene-Marchment line, however, and Kulak’s stick got into Marchment’s midsection, after which Marchmen went to the ice, drawing a call. I’m not sure the stick actually sent him down, but then again, with Marchment’s skating, it can be tough to tell.

With only a minute left in the period, Dallas never really got a good possession going, however, and a quick Seguin-to-Granlund chance in tight didn’t sneak through Skinner.

The lines started to get scrambled with the two-goal deficit. Wyatt Johnston was moved off Duchene’s line, playing shifts with Dadonov/Robertson as well as Rantanen/Granlund (right after a PK in the resting Hintz’s spot).

The Marchment-Duchene-Seguin line looked to be reunited, too, with the Stars needing some magic. After a period Edmonton thoroughly won, the Stars had half a power play left to start the period. And it felt like they would need to make something of it if they were going to have a real look at getting this game back.

Third Period

Dallas would make something of it, thanks to what I think is technically called a “Super Duper Screen” by three of Stuart Skinner’s teammates.

Heiskanen hit his spot with Skinner’s vision totally occluded, and the building came alive.

The life continued two minutes later, when Sam Steel got high-sticked by Corey Perry. And suddenly, Dallas’s power play felt like a weapon. Especially with the second unit out there.

Mikael Granlund took advantage of a perfectly timed Jason Robertson screen and wired a shot over Skinner’s shoulder, and suddenly the game was tied.

In the above picture, you can see the puck bulging from the top of the net, where it quickly bounced in and out—so quickly that Wes McCauley waved off the goal initially before being quickly corrected by the other on-ice officials. Indeed, the game was tied, and the building’s roar became deafening, with chants of “SKINNNNNNER” sounding throughout the building.

Dallas would get yet another power play right after that, when Matt Duchene got high-sticked by a reaching Evander Kane just as he got a scoring chance off some great cycle work by the reunited Marchment/Seguin/Duchene trio. The Oilers protested, but Duchene had been veritably gotten up high, and the Stars got their third chance in five minutes to convert.

They would do so, again, after Granlund fired a one-timer off Skinner’s glove that I think the Edmonton goalie thought had gone into the net, because he seemed to give up on the play as the puck went behind the net and back to Duchene.

In fact, Duchene would need a couple of whacks, with a prone Roope Hintz actually making a save for the other team. But Duchene persisted, and his second effort would bank off a slowly recovering Skinner and into the net for Duchene’s first goal of the playoffs, 14 games in.

Duchene extended his arms skyward, and the crowd more or less lost their minds, with the Stars now in front 4-3 after scoring three power play goals in under six minutes.

They nearly added another goal after that, with Lian Bichsel, of all people, joining a forway into the zone with numbers, after which two Oilers defenders ran into each other, and a puck got whacked off the post. But Bichsel lingered just a bit too long down low in search of another look, and the Stars would eventually get caught, with Heiskanen defending a 2-on-1 with sufficient desperation, only for Bichsel to take a penalty as he hooked Bouchard.

It was a big moment for Dallas, but their kill came up huge once again, and the clock ticked down to five minutes to play with the 4-3 lead still in place. But it wouldn’t last for long, for the best of reasons.

Edmonton was every bit as stunned as you’d expect them to be after the flurry of power play markers early in the period, and they reverted back to the hopeful, sloppy sort of plays Robertson talked about having to avoid this morning. Sam Steel took advantage of just such a play after some great neutral zone work by Dallas to refute an Edmonton rush and go the other way.

Steel lost his man and cut to the middle, lifting a backhand over Skinner’s shoulder. It may or may not have been on its way over the crossbar as well, but Seguin took no chances, whacking it down into the net behind Skinner for a dagger of an insurance goal.

The crowd was beside themselves (can a crowd really be beside anything?) with joy, and the celebration would get cranked up even further just 40 seconds later. For Edmonton barely got Stuart Skinner to the bench before Esa Lindell said “ah ah ah!” in that “not so fast” tone that annoying babysitters are wont use, and he drilled the empty net from what the NHL says was 167 feet away.

Dallas took a bummer of a game and turned it upside down, proving that their Game 1 Redemption Arc travels through their home arena just as well as it did Winnipeg’s. But this time, Mikko Rantanen didn’t have to score three goals to make it happen, because everyone else combined for six.

And six is one less than seven, which is the number of wins the Stars have before they reach their goal.