(2024 Playoffs, Round 1) Game 1 Stray Observations: Vegas beats Dallas 4-3

Well, damn.

As I said on Twitter, although I’m a fan of the Dallas Stars, I rarely act like it. And not just because there’s a minimum level of professionalism expected of me now that I’m writing for D Magazine (not that Mike ever put that in my 25-page contract). Nope. Most of it simply comes from my approach. If I want to understand why Joe Pavelski is underperforming, or why Jason Robertson is growing defensively, rooting for them to succeed won’t help me understand or validate whether said phenomenon reflects the truth.

Why the confession? Because this year, I can’t hide it. This team feels too close to genuinely winning the Cup. Not since Tampa has a team looked this complete on paper. And so it was all I could think about leading up to the game. Watching the Colorado vs. Winnipeg and Vancouver vs. Nashville games didn’t help either. In both games, the underdogs made it a streetfight.

Unfortunately, it was true for Dallas tonight too. Just like last year, Vegas seemed to take advantage of the moments, and moments were all they needed.

Speaking of moments, I felt like Dallas really lost the game when they failed to pressure a janky-looking Logan Thompson. Neither goalie looked set, but Dallas being unable to generate more shots in the first two periods really felt like the biggest lost opportunity.

In terms of performance, I would give Dallas the split decision, but if this game was a microcosm of anything it’s that this series will be back-and-forth. That’s not the most reassuring description coming from a 1-seed versus an 8-seed, but it is what it is

Logan Stankoven: X-Factor

This was awesome.

Not enough can be said about Stankoven; who continues to be proof that there are plenty of valuable stand-in traits for experience — like enthusiasm. Stankoven was fueled by nothing but enthusiasm and skill, and continued leveraging it each and every shift. It probably helps that he plays postseason hockey in the regular season anyway.

Top line, or mere depth?

One thing I’ve talked about given the top line’s lack of dominance is whether or not it’s better to have something like MacKinnon’s line in Colorado, or the raw depth that fueled Dallas to the top spot in the West. One game won’t answer that question, but Dallas will need more from the Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski trio if they want to win this series. Hintz had his moments in the first period and then disappeared, even looking frustrated at times, while Robertson had looks late, but it’s worth wondering if there’s not a superior trio lurking in the tossed roster napkins of MoneyPuck templates.

Heiskanen and Harley

I didn’t see many people talk about them, but the Heiskanen-Harley pair were rough in that first period. Harley took some questionable angles, perhaps owed to the ringer Vegas’ forwards put him through while Heiskanen seemed like he was thinking too much about how to counter. It was an uncharacteristic performance from the duo, but also some proper scouting from Vegas’ end. How they respond will be essential to Dallas’ fortunes in Game 2. Especially Harley.

Jake Oettinger: still a tale of two halves

I didn’t really think Oettinger had a bad game. Vegas seemed to get the right bounces, and they were or less occurred as a result of defensive lapses, but goalies are ultimately judged by the boxscore. Fair or not, I didn’t see anything to feel worried, but I didn’t see anything to feel reassured either. If the bar is set at Logan Thompson — admittedly a goalie with a better save percentage during the regular season — then it’s a bar Oettinger should be able to surpass.

Worst take of the night

This could be a fun feature for every game. Hopefully it’ll be a take from someone else (especially the commentary booth) but I’ll put myself on blast here and say this — I didn’t like that Jamie Benn goal. Yes, it was a big deal in the context of the game, and building momentum, but it was a massive cherrypick. Benn’s defense has been a question mark for years, but this season especially.

So seeing him just blow the zone — Johnston was in the middle of a 50/50 battle so it wasn’t some magical read either — felt wrong to me, even if it ended with the right result.

This isn’t to be hypercritical of Benn, nor do I think a play like that is always wrong. Down by two, it’s valid to take chances you otherwise wouldn’t. But this is too much of a pattern for me to suddenly celebrate just because a goal happened. Overall Benn played a really solid game though.

Again, it’s a bad take, but is it a logical one? I think so.

The Vegas perspective

Vegas has been a tough evaluation all year. They started out hot and then went lukewarm the rest of the way. To be fair, they had all kinds of injuries — for which the topic of conversation has dominated to the point of me not caring to even discuss it. So the lack of dominance made sense, but usually the bones of great teams still show structure, and Vegas seemed deprive of even that. I think it’s safe to say it’s back. And then some.

Much was made of the fact that their roster was a first for them, but this all felt irrelevant to me. These are all veterans they brought in. It’s not like we’re talking about high school freshmen jocks being mixed with the track team and the cheerleaders for the first time to complete a class project. They didn’t look great, but they looked like Vegas (especially Mark Stone).