Preseason Game 4 AfterThoughts: Dallas Drives off Doldrums, Duchene Delivers
Let’s get the big story out of the way here: Colorado may have cheated.
Well, to be clear: not cheated in the traditional sense. More skirted the rule in order not to have to try very hard. That sounds less bad, sure, but if there is one thing I know about being a sportswriter, it’s that I am supposed to make a very big deal about very minor things, then get mad if anyone else tries to say they thought of it first.
Surely this is what Twitter is for: I only count seven "veterans" on the Colorado roster tonight, but the minimum is eight for preseason. Who am I missing?
I got MacDonald, Megna, Wagner, Kelly, de Haan, PEB, and Georgiev.— Robert Tiffin (@RobertTiffin) September 28, 2024
As you’ve probably heard by now, NHL teams are required to ice at least eight “veterans” in order to not make a mockery out of the paying fans. The rule reads thus:
As a reminder, NHL teams must dress at least eight “veterans” in each preseason contest. “Veterans” are skaters who played 30 NHL games the previous season, goalies who dressed in 50 NHL games or played in 30 NHL games the previous year, any player who has played 100+ NHL games, or a current year first-round pick.
Minnesota just barely scraped by the other night with the bare minimum, but it doesn’t appear that Colorado reached that threshold. However, I fully acknowledge that my research was cursory, i.e. Looking up each player in NHL.com and HockeyDB to see their career games played, draft position, and most recent season. But it is the fourth game of the preseason for Dallas (and somehow only the second for Colorado?) so we have to find the juicy storylines wherever they present themselves. I would be happy to collect the fine from Colorado, if it would help.
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In the waning days of the forward roster competition, a few things stood out: Kole Lind had four shots on goal and scored an empty netter in the dying minutes, and Matěj Blümel got sprung on a breakaway by Justin Hryckowian in the second period, only to hit the glass. We know that the coaches don’t view those two events in comparable terms, but I think it’s fair to see them as representative of those players’ position in the large struggle. Lind said after the game that he feels like he’s had a pretty successful camp, and it’s hard to disagree. One other point Lind made is that you have to balance working smart and hard when you’re fighting for a roster spot. As Lind put it, “You don’t want to be running around doing other people’s jobs.”
There’s a lot of confidence and trust that goes into that mentality, as anyone who’s ever played a sport like hockey or soccer on a bad team knows. It’s really tempting to start getting out of position and trying to do everything yourself, but the best fourth-line players stick to their system and make each other better.
Blümel also had four shots on goal, but man, you really would’ve liked to see him put that breakaway chance in the net, you know? Scorers are held to a higher standard than most other players, and it’s perhaps unfair. But then, aren’t sports always?
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The Matt Duchene Vs. Colorado Avalanche narrative was alive and well, even in a preseason game. Duchene mentioned after the game that some of the Avs’ players were giving them a hard time for taking the game seriously enough to run plays off faceoffs, but the fact that he mentioned that in the first place kind of shows you that he understands what it takes to be a great player in this league better than the assemblage of characters in burgundy and blue did.
Matt Duchene: "Even tonight, [Colorado's] guys were giving us crap for setting up plays off of draws and stuff, but we are attacking it like it’s a regular game. We want to hit the ground running."
Probably wasn't a good idea to try to mock Duchene and Seguin for trying to win.— Robert Tiffin (@RobertTiffin) September 28, 2024
I mean, honestly: to make fun of Duchene and Seguin for trying too hard to beat you, in any game at all? I don’t know how anyone would expect that to end any differently than it did, where Duchene and Seguin each racked up three-point nights. The grapes, they can be sour from the Colorado mountainfolk.
Duchene in particular looked to be in regular season form, and he mentioned that he loved the shorter summer, and that it was “the right length for once, and it didn’t drag on.” It’s easy to forget that Duchene has never had as deep of a playoff run in his career as he did last spring, but it’s clear that he hasn’t forgotten. The motivation was apparent tonight, as Duchene and Seguin just looked to be playing a different game than the other players on the ice on most of their shifts. Specifically, they appeared to be playing “NHL Hockey” as opposed to the sloppy pond hockey that showed up once again in the middle frame of a preseason game. This is what happens when someone holds the monkey’s paw and wishes that the Stars would stop having slow starts in the first period.
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Yes, the second period saw a sag from the group, and Colorado evened it up with two goals that Jake Oettinger never really had a chance of saving. Oettinger looked almost bored at times, wisely not attempting superb saves on dead-to-rights passes like the Ivan Ivan (yes, that is his names) slam dunk on the back door. NHL goalies know when they are beaten, and they don’t risk their precious groin muscles trying to pretend otherwise. Does it seem preposterous to praise a goalie for wisely not trying? Well, it’s the preseason, folks.
The third period saw a couple of shakeups in response to said nadir, with Evgenii Dadonov and Jamie Benn switching places in an effort to “change things up a little bit,” per Alain Nasreddine, who also added with a smile, “and it paid immediate dividends, I would say.” I think coaches deserve to take some credit for decisions that work, given all the flak they take for decisions (or lack of them) that don’t.
Seguin also credited the brief reunion with Benn for giving him “a little spark,” and who among us is going to argue with delighting in that duo’s chemistry? Seguin has been in Dallas for almost 12 years now, and for him to still be taking joy in moments like that is pretty special. Remember, this is a player whose career nearly ended a couple years back. It’s safe to say he’s not taking any goal his line scores for granted, particularly if it happens with an old friend on the ice. These are human beings who have been through a lot of things together, and that means something.
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Lian Bichsel played with Esa Lindell, and they saw two goals go in the other team’s net while keeping their own clean. That’s the idea, you know. It didn’t always look picturesque, but then, it doesn’t have to when you have Miro Heiskanen on another pairing and Thomas Harley dishing out behind-the-net assists to Seguin on yet another pairing. It is, indeed, a pretty good left side of the defense, even when one of them is on the right side. Bichsel had two very nice plays, including a good hit on Chris Wagner (who mixed it up with multiple Stars players), and a great stand-up in the neutral zone that led to a Wyatt Johnston scoring chance.
Lian Bichsel again levering defensive movement and physicality into a counterattack. pic.twitter.com/r4BELYxdHy
— David Castillo (@DavidCastilloAC) September 28, 2024
It’s a shame that the Stars have yet to play a really comparable group of NHL forwards so far, but I suspect Sunday’s game against Minnesota will see that happen, and in St. Louis even moreso. It would be nice for fans to feel justified in looking at a 4-0-0 preseason record and drawing confidence from it, but the reality is that the wins are, at best, a reflection of the team’s systemic depth, not their impervious 20-man roster. The real battles have not yet begun.
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Finally, how about Ben Kraws, stopping all seven shots he faced? That’s a pretty neat experience for the young goalie, regardless of where he’s assigned this weekend. Pursuant to an unrelated conversation, I asked Kraws today if he’s ever been to a crawfish boil (I promise it wasn’t a complete non sequitur), and he said, unfortunately, no. Here’s hoping the stars align for Kraws to someday return to Dallas and get the full experience. Everyone deserve to get a first-hand taste of just how underwhelming crawfish actually is.