Stray Observations: Florida beats Dallas 6-4 in Finland for their first of two contests in the Global Series

Well, there was a lot to talk about BEFORE the game at least.

Unfortunately I don’t have any good stories related to Finland. I enjoyed the Finnish movie Rare Exports, and I remember the hype around “Mr. Finland” Makwan Amirkhani when he made his MMA debut, but these are four-out-of-10 stories at best, and thus I won’t waste your time with any more.

That’s what I found myself loving about this Global Series — the stories of others. It brought back the feeling of the Dallas Stars as the center of the universe. Granted, the Stars haven’t actually ever been the center of the universe, even in Dallas. But you get what I mean. All of a sudden I could read about Robert Tiffin’s travels to Finland, and what makes this trip extra special for Esa Lindell. Lia Assimakopoulos had Stars fans covered with respect to Miro Heiskanen and the childhood rink that he still trains at, among other unique and personal stories for the Finnish Mafia.

Reading Robert and Lia’s work, I couldn’t help but feel like the beat was and is back in Dallas. But better than ever. And that’s not even counting some of the other great writing created to highlight the Finnish connection, like this extra comprehensive history of Finnish players in Dallas, or Ralph Strangis’ personal account of Finnish Stars royalty, Jere Lehtinen.

Of course, there was still a hockey game to be played, and that — for Stars fans at least — turned out to be the least interesting story of the week.

All in all, I didn’t see what it seemed like so many others saw. The game was wide open, and Florida got the better bounces. That’s not to say Dallas deserved to win or that Florida deserved to lose; only that in a less chaotic world, we’re looking at two more kindred looking spirits here.

Schedule for the month: Click here to access to the Stars Stack calendar. This feels like the finished product moving forward. Again, two free posts per week, and one paid, with each paid post alternating between prospect reports and the deep dives into either analytics or video. As always, I value your feedback. If there is something lacking, something you want to see more of (or less of), or have your own ideas, I’m all ears. With a more structured flow to this place, I’ll be able to figure out quickly how much more writing I can fit in. And don’t forget that if you just want to hang out with myself and other Stars fans/writers free of charge, there’s always our Dallas Stars Discord with a channel for everything.

Line juggling

I don’t mind the line juggling. Jamie Benn, Mavrik Bourque, and Jason Robertson have all had varying degrees of tepid starts. Insofar as coaches have tools to get players going, the blender is your number one defibrillator.

However, any proper blender should have all the settings marked for ALL intensities. By that I mean, if the Seguin line is firing on all cylinders, doesn’t the logic follow that each man is responsible, and therefore might — on his own — add to any other line they’re on? It’s one of the totally understandable but minor hypocrisies of the coach’s blender, because the precise thing you’re trying to forge — in this case, new chemistries — can end up being prevented by what you’re trying to preserve — old ones.

I feel like if we’re gonna see Bourque, Benn, or Robertson gain some momentum, having access to everyone on the roster should be up for debate. I’d love to see what Duchene could do for Bourque, or whether or not some of the other fourth liners have something to offer the middle six. I know this is tricky because of seniority, ice time, and much more, but it’s always my first thought when I’m in armchair coach mode. At one point Jason Robertson was with Wyatt Johnston and Evgenii Dadonov. Surely lowering the ceiling of the Seguin line is less costly than shattering the floor completely of another trio?

Matt Duchene, hoop dreams

I don’t have anything to say here. I just thought this was a really cool play from a player who just can’t be stopped right now.

The Matt Dumba Effect

We are nowhere near having a discussion about the newly-acquired $3.75 million per year defender for the next two. But we are definitely in the thick of the Dumba Effect, which refers to his ability to make games more interesting for both negative (he takes the most penalties), and positive reasons (he also draws the most!).

Data and visual courtesy of HockeyViz.

It’s too early to sit around the campfire, and Ask Questions. I say this as someone who has always liked his game and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but also as someone that is not interested in stirring a debate before ample evidence. As the Stars’ fifth, most-used blueliner, Pete DeBoer is doing everything he can to shelter him as is. We’ll see where this goes, but I understand the skepticism not just setting in for some, but actively starting to crystallize.

The Finnish Mafia

On a night in which four Finnish players got on the box score, Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen were nowhere to be found on the scoresheet. Maybe they had too much salmon soup, or maybe the Panthers are just a great team, and hockey is hard. Whatever the case, this is why I’m glad we got Lia and Robert’s stories this week. On the ice, it was a fairly forgettable game in terms of strict performance. But these players will remember this game for what it was off the ice, and while that may not be as important to some fans, it sure as hell is for them. Thankfully, they’ll get another crack at it tomorrow morning.

The fourth line

Further to the point about the line juggling, what’s funny is that the fourth line, like the Seguin line, doesn’t get touched either. However, Bourque with Sam Steel and Colin Blackwell persevered. They actually gave up a lot (as indicated by the maroon bars), but they also fought hard for what they did earn (as indicated by the dark green bars).

I’ll be doing some video review of Bourque specifically, because he had a lot of interesting shifts — some bad, but mostly good — prior to a goal that was mostly incidental, but I really like what I’m seeing. I think perspective also gets lost in it all too. Stars fans are so used to their rookies coming in, and knocking the doors down for a dramatic entrance that belies their age, it’s easy to forget what a normal rookie season looks like.

The Florida Perspective

Dallas finally played their best opponent, and frankly, I was impressed. However, it says a lot about the Panthers and how good they are that they came away with a win performing sloppily against an elite team in their own right. Florida hasn’t even had Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk for half the season, and their goaltending has been putrid, but still they manage. Their goaltending situation is the big story for them right now — both goalies are under a .900 save percentage — but the performance of youngins like Anton Lundell, and Sam Reinhart’s continued dominance is making all of that simply not matter. It’s way too early to talk about the Panthers as a potential repeat champ, but I’m also having a difficult time imagining anyone beating them if the goaltending DOES improve. At minimum, they’re no flash in the pan. Granted, that much is obvious given where they finished the year before they won the Cup, but still. I don’t think they get enough credit for just how good this team is.