Game 5 WCQF AfterThoughts: These Stars Are Hard to Define, Easy to Love
Maybe I love you
Maybe I hate you
There is something in your eyes
That leaves me paralyzed
***
You can breathe now.
In some ways, it still feels like the series is hanging by a thread. Was it really so long ago that the Stars were in overtime, one goal away from a 3-0 series deficit? Because when Chandler Stephenson came bearing down on Jake Oettinger with less than three minutes left, my brain immediately fast-forwarded to the part where Dallas somehow frittered away this game in overtime and then got stomped in Vegas, completely demoralized.
That didn’t happen, though. And if you’re Vegas, it has to feel like you were never really all that close, despite the fact that every game in this series has been essentially a one-goal contest. Even with the ~Golden~ Knights hitting a couple of posts in this one, Dallas controlled the most dangerous parts of the ice, as they’ve done all series. And frankly, if Dallas could start finishing the gift-wrapped chances they’ve gotten at the start of every game, they might not have to be flying to Vegas at all.
But we’re not here to question Dallas’s recent decisions, because winning three straight games in a series is always going to put you in a good spot. In fact, you could point to the two Vegas goals as sort of parallels of the first two games of the series. Mark Stone scored his second annoyingly effortless power play deflection goal of the series, as he did in Game 1. He’s been otherwise ineffective in this series, and I frankly think he’s playing hurt. But timely goals can also hurt, just as the loss in Game 1 still stings when I think of it, and Stone is no slouch.
As for the second Vegas goal, it was unequivocally a Stars slip-up, just like surrendering a 2-on-0 to Vegas’s best players in Game 2, when they came back to beat Dallas. But this time, Esa Lindell’s failure to finish William Carrier while Jake Oettinger lost track of the puck wasn’t fatal. The Stars have their scars from this series, but they’ve started to fade, while Vegas’s wounds don’t seem to be healing.
I mean, look at Bruce Cassidy’s approach to a tied series. He abandoned Logan Thompson, who had been one of the best goalies in the playoffs despite giving up some goals off his noggin and some rebounds off his [everything], in favor of a not-quite-right Adin Hill, who hadn’t played in two weeks. That decision probably didn’t cost them this game, but what do you do now? Go back to Thompson even though Hill had an acceptable game, with Thompson now playing for both his starting position and the team’s playoff life? It’s a goalie controversy worthy of Mikel Arteta, and it never really had to happen. That’s why I think Cassidy blinked, and also becaues everyone has to blink, sometimes. Dry eyeballs are bad for you!
The other changes Cassidy made were on the forward lines, moving Pavel Dorofeyev to Stone’s right wing. But that, uh, didn’t last all that long, with Dorofeyev getting benched for the game in the second period.
Bruce Cassidy is shortening the bench tonight.
Pavel Dorofeyev is on the bench, but he hasn't taken a shift since there were 6 minutes left in the 2nd period.— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) May 2, 2024
I hope Dorofeyev and Nils Lundkvist spent the third period playing Battleship or something, just to keep those competitive juices flowing.
***
There were two referees in this game tonight, in case you didn’t notice.
The early penalty call on Miro Heiskanen was frustrating, especially when Mark Stone scored so quickly into the resulting power play to re-enact Game 1. It’s not that Heiskanen wasn’t using his stick as leverage to restrict Tomáš Hertl, which indeed a penalty; it’s that the official standing 20 feet away, staring at the play, didn’t call a penalty. Instead, the referee in the neutral zone called the hold, and the Stars were down 1-0 after having all the best chances to start the game. I’m always annoyed when it seems like two referees aren’t on the same page, because they can often end up calling really unpredictable penalties in hopes of balancing the other’s decisions out. It’s a bad place to be.
That said, the Stars ended up winning this game because they scored two power play goals while Vegas scored the one, and the teams each chipped in a goal at 5-on-5. So you won’t hear Dallas complaining, and rightfully so. But we are the Objective Viewers, those who are obligated to judge the people in charge of making sure the game is As Fair As Possible, and boy howdy, do we have some Decisions to Discuss in a bit.
Anyway, special teams could have been the problem for Dallas, but the Stars changed the script this time, immediately punching back with Evgenii Dadonov after a great Heiskanen stick check and a gorgeous Stankoven feed to tie the game back up. And if I may paste a low-grade screenshot in here, take a look at how Evgenii Dadonov is already shifting his skates to open up his forehand before Stankoven even starts to pull the puck down past a sliding McNabb:
It’s a great example of how “stopping at the net” doesn’t always need to mean parking yourself on the doorstep like you’re stuffing letters into a slot. Dadonov’s intelligent positioning here allows him to eventually elevate the pass by Stankoven, and that got the crowd, and the team, right back into it.
And that would prove crucial when the Stars went up 2-1 off a soft penalty call and a Duchene rebound through Adin Hill’s legs. Duchene had a very good game all around, compared to his slow start to the series, and this goal might well get him going, should Dallas need him for a prolonged playoff run.
It wasn’t quite a make-up call, but also it was kind of a make-up call, as Carrier’s stick is between Steel’s legs, sure, but it’s also playing the puck:
It was important to score that power play goal to establish the man-advantage as a threat, but that didn’t deter Alex Pietrangelo, who took his second roughing minor in as many games, with his team paying the price as a result, much to his coach’s chagrin. More on that in a moment.
Things got quiet in the building later in the First when Brett Howden hit the post on a familiar Vegas 2-on-2 rush later in the First, but then Chandler Stephenson (who will have some bad dreams tonight, you’d think) tempted Fate’s Whistle by gloving the puck on a faceoff to put Dallas back on a gift of a late-period power play, with the chance to take a lead to the intermission. Unfortunately, Vegas was able to clean up the rebounds around Adin Hill, and it was 2-2 after 20. At this point, I already felt drained, with Dallas having trailed, then led, then tied it up, then almost given it up, then almost gone ahead again. Thank goodness this was all happening at 7pm rather than midnight.
The second period started with two more glorious Stars chances, with both Pavelski and Stankoven missing open nets in the first 90 seconds of play, only for Evgenii Dadonov to top them both with a breakaway that wasn’t, as the puck never really got under control before Hill poked it away. I swear, never has a team missed so many Grade-A chances, only to continue beating a good team anyway. Dallas may not be outright squandering their best chances, but they sure do seem to like keeping these games closer than they need to be.
Head Coach Bruce Cassidy after Game 5 pic.twitter.com/OWKu0BuEGA
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 2, 2024
You may have heard Cassidy up there talking about how Tyler Seguin “left his feed and targeted the head” on the call early in the second period, and man, you tell me:
Tyler Seguin gets 2 minutes for an illegal to check to the head of Shea Theodore pic.twitter.com/ZxeAjf04uj
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) May 2, 2024
If Seguin is targeting Shea Theodore’s head, he’s exceptionally bad at it. For all the world, it appears that Seguin is anticipating contact by a defenseman breaking out with the puck, and he turns his back to brace for impact before Theodore arrives.
My problem with this call isn’t necessarily the result, so much as the process, however. The officials initially called nothing on the play, and only whistled it dead when Theodore stayed down after Vegas got possession. Then the officials announced that they were calling a five-minute Major on Seguin, which Dave Jackson (for whom Stars fans will have lost little love) praised them for, since apparently calling a penalty you didn’t see in order to watch TV in order to actually call a penalty is preferable to just trusting what you see. Anyway, the hit was “downgraded” from a Major to a two-minute Minor for a Check to the Head, which seems pretty unfair, given that Seguin’s “check” basically involved cutting in line and letting Theodore run into his back with his face. For my money, that’s a bad call. My guess here is that the officials obviously wanted to make sure they didn’t miss something egregious, and then they decided to assess a minor after the fact to show that they had indeed been right to assess the Major to begin with. The NHL just needs to add a VAR-type official if they’re going to go this route, because it’s absurd to throw around Major penalties like video game tokens that let officials use the iPads.
Later in the Second, Mark Stone and Wyatt Johnston get tied up, with Johnston wisely reading the room and drawing the sixth power play of the game through 30 minutes of play. That meant another power play to Dallas, albeit a fruitless one with tantalizing chances but no real questions asked of Adin Hill. But the power play would have one more chance, thanks to foolish behavior.
Tyler Seguin started it all with some wonderfully petulant playoff-grade forechecking on Alex Pietrangelo, who then retaliated by giving Seguin a glove shot to the face that bloodied his nose and sent him off for medical attention. (Aside: If your first thought was to grimace and mutter “Tootoo”, then we are friends.) True to form, the officials called, you guessed it, a major penalty so theywould be allowed to watch TV in order to officiate the game. Anyway, the result of it all is that a punch to the face and a bloody nose is a minor penalty, same as a hook to the waist or gloving a puck on the faceoff. Jason Robertson, however, finally made Vegas pay, with a persistent bit of pressure from the low point/high slot that eventually saw him collect his own rebound and beat a befuddled Hill.
Jason Robertson makes it 3-2 Stars with a shot off his own rebound
(video via @DallasStars) pic.twitter.com/ZaKv9yxcdZ— SportsDay Stars (@dmn_stars) May 2, 2024
The best part of that video, by far, is the long shot of Seguin on the bench with one nostril stuffed full of gauze, fresh off screaming happy things to Matt Duchene, as well as perhaps one less-happy thing as Pietrangelo skates back to the bench:
I believe the proper lip reading of this is, “Hooray for your, Mr. Pietrangelo, whom I respect but am not entirely happy with at this time.”
This is where the game really did change for good. Dallas, for three games now, has established their ability to bring a game home, even without insurance goals. And bring it home they did, albeit in a roundabout sort of way.
Stankoven and Dadonov got a 2-on-0 chance from the blue line in with Duchene trailing to make it a 3-on-0, but Dadonov shot Stankoven’s initial feed over the net immediately, presumably because he didn’t want to risk the extra pass, but some former Stars didn’t love the play, as well as all current fans.
The real “daddy” would have gone back to Stankoven
— jason demers (@jasondemers5) May 2, 2024
One other thing before I forget: Alain Nasreddine told Emily Kaplan that Dallas was looking to use “certain” defensive pairings against “certain” Vegas lines. Based on the shift charts, my guess is they were looking for Heiskanen and Harley against the Karlsson/Howden line, and Chris Tanev and whomever against the Eichel line. Tanev still has not been on the ice for an even-strength goal against in 103 minutes of 5v5 ice time, by the way. Sitting at plus-5 while routinely playing the toughest minutes is not normal against a team like Vegas.
Equally abnormal was the neutral zone breakdown by Heiskanen and Harley to allow Chandler Stephenson the aforementioned breakaway. But Jake Oettinger redeemed himself for the second (and final) Vegas goal, which you should listen to here:
Jake Oettinger professional hockey guy.
What a SAVE! #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/GNbZaOqyLM— Abby Jones (@_abigaiiiil) May 2, 2024
I say “listen to” because Josh Bogorad is calling the goodness gracious out of this series, though it’s a shame Comcast and seemingly half the television world can’t currently hear it. Razor and Josh are just flat-out more insightful and entertaining in presenting this series than the rotating cast of national broadcasters, which is a quirk of the presentation in every sport at this time of year. Still, if you have the chance to listen to the hometown guys present the game with the fullest possible context, I’d urge you to do so. We’re spoiled here in Dallas.
Spoiled is almost what the Stars did to their lead with Vegas’s net empty, by the way. I don’t think any of us wanted to contemplate what sort of scolding Ray Ferrarro (who is excellent, as alway) had in store if Dallas had collapsed and let Vegas force overtime, but I’m perfectly content that Ferraro’s Patrik Štefan rant is still the last one aimed at this organization, for now.
So, the Stars brought things home, and they’ve put Vegas in the unenviable position of returning to the home rink they just dropped two games in. But this isn’t a guarantee of anything other than the fact that Vegas will be giving it everything they have left. I’m not sure that’s all that much, but then again, those first two games felt like trying to win a boxing match in the mud. Dallas can’t afford to let Vegas get comfortable, least of all when they’re at their most desperate. The Stars could pull off something special (for the first round of the playoffs, at least), but DeBoer’s job now is making sure the team isn’t overly satisfied with the work they’ve done so far.
Maybe that’s where mistakes like Carrier’s goal or the Stephenson breakaway can be used for good. Pointing out how thin the margin for error still is, even with things going as well as they possibly could have after the nadir of Game 2, has to be the coaching staff’s top priority. But then again, do you really think the Stars need all that much more motivation? Tyler Seguin just got punched in the face, and the Stars did some weird hockey judo to make that their moment of victory. That’s some Homer Simpson boxing nonsense, except Dallas has also learned how to punch back.
The Stars aren’t easy to define at this point, because they’ve done so many different things so well. They’ve gotten physical when needed, and they’ve locked things down (well enough) defensively, when needed. Their special teams have done what they’ve had to, and the goaltending and ramshackle defensive pairings feel like they get stronger each game (though the more balanced minutes in this one surely helped that cause). This team isn’t the offensive rush-crew of 2016 or the grind-it-out opportunistic bubble squad of 2020. They’re too filled with young studs to be the 1999 veteran-laden champs, but maybe they have enough people who’ve been around the block to get to their next stop, just the same. Besides, do you really think Logan Thompson needs to stop and ask for directions?
Not every player is bringing their best game of the season right now, but they’re certainly bringing their all, such as they have. Duchene’s goal follows Dellandrea’s from last game as a reward for unseen struggles, and Jason Robertsn’s ferocious celebration (in addition to his yeoman’s work on and off the puck, as usual) was the catharsis the entire building was waiting for. The Stars are, by choice, playing four top-pairing defensemen right now with Ryan Suter ably rotating in for nearly 20 minutes of his own each night. And the Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, and Logan Stankoven line was their number one forward trio as they locked down a one-goal lead against the defending Cup-winners. It’s preposterous, delightful, and still fragile. It’s always fragile until the handshakes happen, but Dallas has given its fans a gift they never would have dared to ask for just a few days ago. This team may not do everything in the most familiar fashion, but they give gifts more precious than comfort food. Seguin’s bloody nose was a rallying cry, and his teammates, 11 years after his arrival, responded as readily as ever. Sometimes, you have to be willing to try something new.