Wednesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Altitude Apathy, Matchup Madness, and Awaiting the Returns of Heiskanen, Robertson, and Nils Lundkvist

Rocky Mountain highs and lows

Before the Stars hopped on their charter flight yesterday afternoon, head coach Pete DeBoer met with the media. You can watch it for yourself, but one or two things in particular jumped out at me from it that I wanted to touch on today.

First, DeBoer said candidly that the Stars were prepared that Gabriel Landeskog’s returning to game action in Colorado was "probably gonna happen.” He also said that Landeskog’s return wouldn’t really affect anything the Stars did, though I would guess they have a specific way they would want to, ah, welcome Landeskog back to the lineup.

DeBoer also mentioned that an emotional return like that can cut both ways, too.

“There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that to perform,” DeBoer said of the potential return of Colorado’s captain. We asked about whether the Stars were aware of all the lineup hijinx from Colorado before Game 2, and DeBoer said matter-of-factly that they were “aware,” but that it didn’t change anything the Stars were doing.

Jared Bednar and DeBoer have both been much cagier about lineup decisions in this series than they were during the regular season. That’s interesting on a couple of levels, because while it doesn’t benefit the coaches to reveal more information than necessary—Bednar said this explicitly—I also think the other teams have way of finding out everything there is to be found out about the other side, within the constraints of good conduct.

In other words, I think the Stars had kind of known all along that Landeskog was most likely to return at home, rather than on the road. And I think they have a strategy for how to attack a team riding that wave of emotion.

When it comes to injured players re-entering the lineup, you can see how the initial boost from Landeskog could turn the other way if his line isn’t effective early on. The Avalanche haven’t gotten nearly enough from their middle-six group so far—far more from their fourth line, in fact, which has three goals in two games, or four if you count Coyle’s goal in Game 1, which came from fourth-liners Parker Kelly and Jack Drury.

Fun fact: here are the only even-strength goal-scorers for Colorado so far in the series:

When you remember that Lehkonen goal came off a crazy bicycle kick, you realize how much the Stars actually have contained the Avs at even-strength through two games at home.

No goals from Nečas, MacKinnon, Makar(!), Nichushkin, or Nelson. One fluke goal from Lehkonen.

If the Stars can keep frustrating the top scorers for Colorado, there’s a path for them to really take control of this series. But that is, of course, easier said than done.

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The Stars have been content to send out Esa Lindell and Cody Ceci in two games so far as the primary defensive pairing against the Avalanche’s top line. So far, despite their getting predictably out-shot at even-strength, Lindell and Ceci actually have a net positive expected goals percentage per Natural Stat Trick, as they’ve protected the most dangerous areas of the ice very effectively. Here are Some Numbers About That: