Game 1 Stray Observations (WC Finals): Dallas' 20 minutes of dominance wins it over Edmonton 6-3

It was a bloodletting. Until it went the other way.

Last year, the story of this matchup was special teams, and home ice. Dallas couldn’t win at home, and they couldn’t win the special teams battle. As a reminder, the Stars went 0-14 on the power play, while Edmonton went 4-11. The injury to insult is that Dallas was outscored on their power play, having given up a shorthanded goal in addition. But this year was different. Armed with Mikko Rantanen, it would be the Stars who could win the arms race. It would be Jake Oettinger who would stand taller than Stuart Skinner. Et cetera et cetera.

Indeed they did. Six minutes of the third period turned into the floodgates opening up, as Dallas’ power play scored three to take the lead, with the penalty kill only allowing one goal, and once again doing what it has done all postseason — restrict opponents to lameduck attempts.

Unlike in the previous series, it wasn’t just Team Finland who took over. It was Tyler Seguin, and Matt Duchene getting on board too. Oettinger looked good while Stuart Skinner looked like Stuart Skinner. I’d say something about special teams but we’ve been down this road before.

For sure, there are still a few asterisks despite the scoreboard. The Stars getting put on the power play over and over is not something they can count on, and for a minute there (well, 40 to be exact), it looked like Dallas couldn’t generate anything on Skinner beyond a break when Leon Draisaitl and John Klingberg fumbled the puck in front of Seguin who scored on a breakaway. Some of this will obviously change, and I doubt DeBoer is celebrating the victory as some kind of blueprint for the series moving forward. But the Stars are showing you don’t need blueprints when you a psychotic belief in being able to win a Cup.

McDavid plus Draisaitl

There’s no way to stop two of the game’s best players on the same line. All the Stars can do is contain their dramatic chances, and leave them the hard ones. To McDavid and Draisaitl’s credit, Dallas forced them to break through the hard way — with an extended shift that forced them to cycle the puck high and get creative until the added effort paid off. Giving up goals like that to these two is fine. In a way, Dallas did hand them that chance — it came directly off a power play that failed to pressure in any meaningful way. But it was still a hard-fought initial goal that the Stars will be happy to give up if that’s the way they’re gonna score all series.

Vintage Tyler Seguin

It’s easy to forget what a start to the season Seguin had given how long ago it was. But he was a point-per-game player through 19 games. A small sample size, sure, but not that small. It’s been difficult to gauge what kind of player he truly is at this stage of his career. But nights like Wednesday are exactly what Dallas needs from him. He doesn’t need to lead the way. He doesn’t need to be perfect. He doesn’t even need to be good. He just needs to be visible. Few players have sacrificed as much as Seguin has to be a professional hockey player. For one night, Seguin was rewarded for all that sacrifice, and became a hero.

Dallas’ PK vs. Edmonton’s PP

One of the stories going into this series was Edmonton’s lagging power play versus Dallas’ elite penalty kill. Honestly, I kind of expected the hockey gods to reverse the narrative in a cruel twist of fate. That’s how it started at least. But who knew it would be this lopsided? If there’s one sustainable element in Dallas’ potential run a Stanley Cup Final, it’s that they’ve absolutely rolled over opponents with their special teams. Nullifying any momentum on the other side has allowed them to build their own. Sure, the third period was a dramatic example of this, but it was a dramatic example of an existing truth: Dallas will score on their power plays. Their opponents won’t. By all means, skeptics (that includes me), take that to the bank.

Jake Oettinger vs. Stuart Skinner

I saw Oettinger take some modest smoke on social media early on, but I disagree. The first three goals were wide open Edmonton players taking uncontested shots. That’s hardly on Oettinger. But I’m not sure how good Oettinger really needs to be if this is the version of Skinner that Dallas is gonna get.

I don’t think Skinner is a bad goalie. If you look at his fancier numbers, he grades out as a good goalie. He’s just a good goalie who will have some absolutely wretched games. While he wasn’t good, I also think Edmonton simply gave Dallas the looks they needed. Seguin’s breakaway goal was a bullet. As was Mikael Granlund’s. If that’s the kind of defense in front of Skinner Dallas can expect, then they can do this all day.

Moving forward

It was a great win, but like I said above, it does come with some asterisks. For one, Edmonton will likely get Mattias Ekholm in the lineup at some point, taking Troy Stetcher out of the lineup. Calvin Pickard, who is not traveling with the team, is less likely but even then — this is not the goalie version of Robertson or Heiskanen. The real question is how Dallas manages the game at even-strength. While power play goals are nice, they only exist as long as the other team is taking penalties, and most of the Oilers’ errors were unforced. It’s an interesting dynamic that projects to really dictate the ebbs and flows of the series.