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GHJ's avatar

It’s plain to see the Jets are standing in defense of their blue line by clogging up the neutral zone, over and over again. If the Stars can figure out that issue by getting good transition through the neutral zone or at least better than last night, it should be even better for the Stars obviously. But they’ve gotta figure out that neutral zone with the Jets standing up at the blue line messing it all up that way.

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David Castillo's avatar

Honestly, it probably won't happen. Winnipeg's one of the better teams when it comes to that, so Dallas will have to beat them at the margins, like special teams. Make no mistake: this series will be a slogfest. Also wouldn't be bad if some of non-Rantanen forwards started scoring.

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GHJ's avatar

Thanks David, understand that probably is the route into offensive zone, along with flipping the puck over the Jets defense and RUSHING that net. Do you know what the face off numbers were in total? It appeared to me the Jets were winning at about 66%.

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Sam D.'s avatar

David, can you stereotype/generalize how much Miro's return to assist with d-zone breakouts would help address this issue of neutral zone clogging? Does it even make a difference, or would the Stars mostly resort to flipping the puck in to gain the o-zone regardless?

Having PTSD from that WCF series against Vegas...

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Johnny Ward's avatar

I know the refs get in a let them play mode in the playoffs but that game last nights officiating was about as bad as I have seen all year. I don’t care if that is the way it has always been it’s time for a change. The Hintz penalty should be reviewed by the league and the refs reprimanded

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David Castillo's avatar

I mean. Yea it sucks, but given what we've seen elsewhere (Toronto vs. Ottawa, Toronto vs. Florida, Edmonton vs. LA), I'm almost grateful by comparison.

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Andrew S.'s avatar

I can't get over Hintz getting called for roughing because he got mauled by a DeMelo temper tantrum. If you can just jump on the back of the other teams best players and rip their helmet off and get him off the ice for 2 mins this is gonna turn into an MMA match.

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David Castillo's avatar

That's what the NHL wants. That's why Sam Bennett gets treated with kids gloves while he takes brass knuckles to the ice. I hate it as much as the next fan of a more progressive game, but hockey loves this bullshit.

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ZisforZubov's avatar

With a pair of monsters to run up the right side all game and an 11-7 set up possible upon Miro's return, I'd like to see the LW/C pairs mixed up

Hintz-Seguin

Robertson-Duchene

Benn-Granlund

Back-Steel

With Rantanen & Johnston eating the bulk of the starts on the right, i wouldn't mind Blackwell plugging the gap and eating enough starts to keep their engines running smooth. PK play and a more definded yet less penalty inducing physical game puts him over Mush & Daddy, imo, for this scenario.

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Paul's avatar
May 8Edited

I was expecting you to open with "Are you not entertained?", you were close.

While I loved Rantanen's performance, the rest of the forwards seemed to shrink into the background. I was expecting Beast Mode, but all we got was a stupid penalty mode. He and Marchment should have been sat for a while after their penalties.

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