Stray Observations (Game 58): Dallas subdues Seattle with relative ease in 4-1 win
The power of Pavs compels them!
Ahh. Real hockey1.
As we turn back to the Dallas Stars, there’s a lot going on. Mikko Rantanen and Radek Faksa are injured (one less serious, the other somewhat serious). Roope Hintz is dealing with an illness. Lian Bichsel is back. Arttu Hyry, who I always had a soft spot for, was recalled. And most dramatically, the trade deadline is here with the rosters officially unfrozen; a deadline for which Dallas may not have a lot but certainly has some cards they can deal to make something happen. Would one game versus Seattle immediately prompt questions about Dallas’ needs ahead of the deadline?
It turns out, no. Instead we’d get a modest blowout.
Of course, anyone following Seattle closely knows what a farce their numbers are. Sure, they made the Thanksgiving cutoff, but there’s always a team that drops out, and Seattle has the profile of a dropout (they’re 30th in shot share right now). I don’t bring that up to downplay Dallas’ win, but to get them to see that trading away Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen for pennies on the dollar to a Dallas team that could use them at an extreme discount is the right thing to do; certainly more than pretending they’re something they’re not.
Oh, the game. It was a lot more raucous than you’d expect. Maybe the geopolitical tensions rippled throughout the AAC too. Whatever got into the respective teams, everybody was kung fu fighting at one point.
None of this answers serious questions about the team moving forward. But insofar as Dallas needed a good game, they got it. As I’ve been thinking about the odd nature of this season more — specifically the odd nature of this Dallas team — Dimitri Filipovic really put it into words I couldn’t find until now: namely the nature of the condensed schedule, and how it’s inserted a volatile element into team performance that wouldn’t otherwise be there; something Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery co-signed.
It’s a great episode. And a lot of the discussion about offense reads like “how do we turn our offensive schemes into what Jason Robertson does on a shift to shift basis?” But it’s also something that put my mind at ease in thinking more about this team’s ability to ratchet things in the postseason2. And none of this is counting whoever gets added at the deadline. Tonight didn’t teach us much (Dallas > Seattle). But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to be encouraged about.
Nils Lundkvist
There are a lot of players worth highlighting tonight but I want to start with Nils Lundkvist. He’s a player that oscillates between growing on me and growing away from me. While his year has been good, to me the real gauge has always been whether he can be excellent; excellent is what a postseason needs from your top four blue liner. I wouldn’t say he’s there, but I won’t argue against anyone who would say he is. This pokecheck in particular was aces.
Lundkvist will likely be playing on the bottom pair next to Lian Bichsel once the playoffs start. It’s hard to imagine him somehow looking worse, which is a really good sign for Dallas if they can nab someone that is actually top four quality instead of someone we’re told is top four quality3.
Wyatt Johnston
With 19 power play goals, Johnston officially holds the single-season Dallas record. He’s three shy of the franchise record with 22 set by Dino Ciccarelli. However, his power play goal-pace is 26. If he did that, that would be the third-best mark of the last 20 years. Only Sam Reinhart (27) and Leon Draisaitl (32) scored more. It can’t be stressed enough just what he’s on track to accomplish. While a lot of credit goes to his shooting percentage (30 percent!), a lot of credit also goes to Neil Graham for really maximizing his presence on the man advantage.
Tales From The Clipped: How the Dallas Stars power play under Neil Graham has become the most lethal power play in the analytics era
As of this writing, the Dallas Stars still lead all 584 rosters in the analytics era in shot quality generated on the man advantage. That’s right. 11.67 expected goals per 60 leads all. I find that to be more impressive than their conversion rates because conversion can be subject to the ebbs and flows of the hot versus cold hand. Conversion can be goalied. However, consistency in shot quality speaks to your habits, your systems, and your tactics. If it’s there, chances are, it will
DJ Steel lives
It’s funny. Matt Duchene and Sam Steel scored tonight, but they did so away from the DJ Steel line. Regardless, I dug their shifts, and it would appear that their line will stick as long as it needs to.
Tales From The Clipped: Matt Duchene's revenge tour would make John Wick proud
‘Revenge’ is meant to be tongue in cheek here. Although how much I don’t know. Matt Duchene didn’t just get concussed from what should have an obvious and predatory hit in any normal sport where safety is a genuine or even minimum necessary concern — but when he came back, he looked bad, he played bad, and all of a sudden the idea that the Dallas Stars might be carrying $4.5 million in dead weight wasn’t crazy.
Meandering Strays
It was good to see Hyry in action. I always thought he deserved the shine coming out of training camp, and he never gained momentum in the AHL after getting injured during that scrap. Nonetheless, there’s a lot to like about his game. For a fourth liner, he has a lot of polish and lowkey handles.
Speaking of players that haven’t seen a ton of action, Bichsel was back and it was a relief to see a blue line that can actually survive a playoff round when fully healthy. It was a quiet game for him, all things considered.
Pretty good work between Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston as you’d expect, but I think it was more than just two elite players playing next to each other. I wonder if this is a road they go down in the future, mixing the duos down the stretch with Hintz getting more shifts with Rantanen when he returns.
Aside from Thomas Harley’s indecision on that interference call, he continues to prove the first half was only a bad patch and nothing more.
While I don’t believe Seattle will make it, their strength of schedule (which is weak down the stretch) will give them hope, which annoys me since it means a lot of their players will likely be off the table come the deadline.
Pretend I said this in the same tone as the brother in that infamous Folgers commercial.
This is something some have said they did last year, but I disagree. Jake Oettinger is a big reason why that Colorado series tilted in Dallas’ favor. Otherwise they were largely outplayed.
Trade deadlines now give me PTSD after the move for Ceci. Apologies.
Wyatt continues to astound as to how good he is in so many ways....I think the fighting down the stretch got everyone up and helped to prevent another third period letup/meltdown. It didn't feel like there was any letup this time....
"everybody was kung fu fighting". This was so funny and perfect description of events. Seattle's #43 delivered few good hits and last one to Miro got Erne's attention.
I loved the whole sequence. Great game by the Stars.