The Battle within the Battle for Dallas v. Colorado
I think I’m finally getting over my annoyance about Game 1. The Stars lost the special teams battle and squandered their chances, after all. Those are fixable problems! Game 1 barely even counts, anyway. Teams have to win four. That’s a lot more than one! How much more, nobody really knows, but that’s the thing about math: it’s totally relative, I think.
Speaking of math, let’s do some together! At least, I assume “listing things” is the same as math. We’re all about progressing from the concrete to the abstract around here, so to that end, here are a quick few things I’m going to be looking for in Game 2 (and the whole series) as Dallas attempts to Listerine the taste of Tuesday out of their collective mouths.
Can Chris Tanev continue to contain Nate MacKinnon? So far, he’s been Pete DeBoer’s answer to everything, and he’s been good in that role. But you have to think MacKinnon is going to want more than just power play tallies at some point.
Is it possible to use peanut butter to lure out one of the squirrels operating Alex Georgiev from the inside like a giant robot? I have some extra peanut butter if it is helpful. Unlike Georgiev, who is decidedly frustrating! There’s nothing worse than feeling like a subpar goalie is having a worldy of a game at the worst possible time. Nothing. You can’t think of a single more frustrating thing than that, I’ll bet. I am not taking calls.
Will Dallas’s penalty kill decide to show up? I would recommend putting in at least a solid 1:50-2:00 of work per penalty taken, personally (margin of error: 10 seconds).
Is Cale Makar going to continue to outduel Miro Heiskanen?
Can Dallas just score ten goals during the half of the game when the top Colorado line is on the bench? This seems like a reasonable ask. Winnipeg basically did this!
Winnipeg also won Game 1 of their series against Colorado before stepping on every rake imaginable. Also Connor Hellebuyck was sitting on the end of the rakes and got flung into space each time they stepped on one. You cannot scientifically disprove this assertion! Anyway, what I am saying is Dallas is actually just doing the opposite of what Winnipeg did, which is always the best way to live your life.
Will the top line for Dallas get more than like 20% of the shot share during their time on ice this time?
Finally, will Mason Marchment live up to the hype and bring the Stars some life and hope after a bitter loss? By which I mean, is he really an Aussie Shepherd in disguise?
Okay, finally finally, this guy is my idol. I wanna scribble all over a whiteboard about a hockey game when I’m retired and turn it into a career:
Wait, why did I even go to college, except to make friends, get dumped, and justify a lame job for six years to pay off college debt?
Wait, if that’s why I went to college, then what was grad school even for?? Not making friends, surely, so I guess it was just a chance to justify quitting said lame job and changing careers in order to get less sleep.
My A/C unit conked out last night, but I put in a work order this morning, and it was fixed by 5pm! That’s the kind of great service that my landlord always provides. If you would like to live here, too bad, I am saving all of the empty units for my friends from college, once they return my Facebook messages.
I think this game will hinge on whether Thomas Harley can find a way to be dangerous again. He’s been the biggest casualty of the Five Defenseman Initiative, I think. If he can get going, regardless of his defense partner, I think the Stars have every chance to go into Game 5 with a good shot at taking the series.
Lists are really annoying, eh?