Thursday Dallas Stars Roundup: Catching up with Jason Dickinson and His Face, Edmonton's Defensive Evolution, and Glen Gulutzan's Jack Adams Advocate

These Oilers look different

The Dallas Stars won’t be making any lineup changes for tonight’s tilt against Edmonton after defeating Vegas 2-1 on Tuesday, Glen Gulutzan said this morning.

That accords with what we saw at morning skate, where the Stars lined up like this:

Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Steel-Duchene-Benn
Bunting-Hryckowian-Erne
Bäck-Hyry-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

Oettinger

We’ll see if the Stars can complete the season sweep after a pair of wins over Edmonton back in November, including a shootout victory that saw the Stars come back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period and an 8-3 drubbing in Edmonton’s building a couple weeks after that.

Like that big win, tonight’s game will also take place without Mikko Rantanen, though he missed the contest in Alberta for very different reasons than the injury keeping him out of the lineup right now. And with Edmonton’s play improving of late, Gulutzan knows these Oilers likely won’t look like the ones Dallas rolled a few months ago.

“Obviously I’ve been around this team for a long time in Edmonton and it’s the time of year where you can see their game is ramping right up,” Gulutzan said. “Everything’s starting to click. And I think it’s that time of year, too, where a top team like that sees the light at the end of the tunnel, and they start to hum at a different level. So it’s gonna be a good game.”

As for any adjustments, Gulutzan did say today that the Stars spent a bit more time prepping for the Edmonton power play than they do against other teams’ man-advantages.

“Yeah, we looked at it this morning as a group, which isn’t often we do that,” Gulutzan said. “But we did a little bit as a group. You can do everything right against this group, and it can still go in your net. But certainly they have some tendencies, and you’ve got to mix things up. Because if there’s too many patterns that look the same, then they’ll pick them apart.”

Still, Gulutzan admits that there’s only so much you can do when it comes to the Oilers’ league-best power play. And that’s something he knows as well as anyone.

“You get a collection of guys like that, that play together for so long,” Gulutzan said, “They’ve got great chemistry. They know what they’re trying to accomplish, and it makes it difficult for anyone trying to defend it.”

If there’s any consolation to be had for Dallas, it’s that Edmonton’s penalty kill is 26th in the league, whereas Alain Nadreddine’s PK has climbed up to 12th in the NHL. We’ll see how much of a factor special teams end up being tonight.

Glen Gulutzan’s Jack Adams Buzz

Speaking of Kris Knoblauch, he responded to a question I asked about what it’s like to coach against his former assistant (Gulutzan) with an unprompted bit of stumping for Gulutzan as a Jack Adams Award contender:

Here’s the quote in case you don’t have sound right now.

“Well, I’m so happy for him,” Knoblauch said of Gulutzan. “Obviously he’s doing a really good job. I saw a poll on who should be coach of the year, and I was astonished to see that [Gulutzan’s] name was not among the leaders. You see the team, the success that they’re having this year, and they’ve had numerous injuries. And they still continue to be winning. Obviously he’s doing a fabulous job, and I’m not surprised, because being able to work with him the last two years. I know he’s a wonderful coach.”

I’m going to write about this more next week, but Gulutzan should definitely be in the conversation for this award, which is voted on by the NHL’s broadcasters. Not only have he and his staff led a team with brilliant special teams (which coaches spend a ton of time on) despite missing key pieces most of the year, but he’s also revamped Dallas’s defensive system despite injuries to Harley, Lundkvist, and Bichsel that required the Stars to go nine-deep in their blueline depth at times this year.

Gulutzan’s work gets more impressive the more closely you look at it this year, but as the Jack Adams Award often ends up being more of a “most improved team” award than an actual recognition of great coaching, Knoblauch’s appeal may not move the needle too much. Then again, maybe this year will be different. Stay tuned.

Edmonton’s Defensive Adjustments

While the Oilers are just 4-3-0 since the Olympic break, the underlying numbers (of which Gulutzan is surely aware) tell a more intimidating story: the back-to-back Western Conference champs are starting to look like a really good team again. The offense is getting back to its scary self as the same time that, perhaps even more impressively, their defense has also tightened back up, as you can see here: