Stray Squirrels: Dallas Will be Fine as Long as Johnston and Stankoven Are
Yea nobody cares about the part about them losing to the Blues.
Let’s pretend like last night’s preseason game was a Mortal Kombat tournament in hockey form. And let’s pretend like all we need to learn about players was what we saw in one game. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not good analysis, but it’s more fun this way.
I hope you enjoyed my piece in D Magazine about Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, and Mavrik Bourque. I wasn’t f’ing around and neither are they so let’s start there.
Part of the value to “advanced stats” is that they can affect your relationship with what you see. I feel like I have a decent grasp of Stankoven’s game, but the fact that he grades so highly on zone entries allowed me to focus on his movement in the neutral. Sure enough, I’ve been missing some of that nuance. I likened him on Twitter to Barry Sanders in the way Stankoven seems to maneuver so swiftly from stride to stride. Skating is a complex talent. We think of “speed” as being synonymous with being fast, but the goal is to move the puck up ice as quickly as possible so that you end up scoring more than your opponent. Thus, some fast skaters can move the puck up ice quickly but not all fast skaters can move the puck up ice quickly.
You see this glitch in the matrix with someone like Denis Gurianov, who might be the fastest skater on the team, but really only excels in a straight line. First off, I love Gury. Second, being one dimensional or having a linear attack doesn’t mean you can’t have value. And third, he’s just a useful contrast to illustrate my point.
Stankoven isn’t mechanically fast, but his agility and capacity to shift gears makes him look faster than he is (and we’re not even getting into his ridiculous work ethic). He was arguably Dallas’ best player. Watching him play makes me want to listen to Clutch.
For me that’s the highest compliment.
If Stankoven is the muscle, Johnston was the brains last night. Johnston’s talents are a little more subtle, but no less vital. Part of the issue is that we tend to think of “playmaking” as an overt, creative process. How is this pass by Jason Spezza anything other than a work of art? We’re used to thinking of playmakers as geniuses instead of blue collar handsmiths. In that way, Johnston defies that stereotype but is no less effective as a result. He moves the puck up ice with patience, and vision, attacking through the defense as much as he attacks around it.
He’s not a bad shooter either, even though he got stonewalled over and over.
It was funny to hear Severyn talk about what an honor it was for Stankoven and Johnston to play with Jamie Benn. Surely I wasn’t the only one who immediately thought, “pretty sure the honor is all HIS.” (No disrespect to Benn. He’s simply not the player he once was, and he was far and away the weakest link on that line.)
Although this list is meant to be in order, I still want to talk about Bourque. He didn’t stand out much, but I think players like Bourque are the proverbial soft peach. You can’t just throw them on a line to see what sticks. You have to find all the right ingredients so he can cook just right. That’s especially true for playmakers who rely not just on their own skills, but on the skills of others (a lot of his teammates seemed to fumble tape to tape passes he threw them). There’s a lot to like. Not just because his underlying metrics are dropping all kinds of hints that he’s better than what he’s shown, but because Dallas could trade Bourque in a dream and they’d still have to wake up and apologize.
Ty Dellandrea is always gonna have it tough. He was drafted over Joel Farabee, and K’Andre Miller (I don’t mean to do this to you Stars fans but imagine Miller in a Stars uniform and thus not needing Ryan Suter). That’s not counting the players above him already carving out full time careers for themselves between Ty Smith, Rasmus Kupari, Isac Lundestrom, Rasmus Sandin, and Joe Veleno. Thus far, Dellandrea has struggled between being the player he is, and the player he thinks coaches want him to be. His NHL stints have been forgettable, his AHL tenure was mixed, and in the last several prospect tournaments, he failed to stand out. So color me surprised that Dellandrea made me forget all that last night. Not only was he hard on pucks, but he made good use of possession, not content to settle for low percentage plays like most bottom six forwards.
Matej Blumel and Marian Studenic could either be the next Janmarks, or the next Kivirantas. Or maybe something better, or maybe something worse. Blumel has been stellar all through camp. I’m not a huge fan of his puck control, but he’s got a good shot, and finds himself in the right place at the right time constantly. As for Studenic, the guy is on a mission. He jacked Colton Parayko of the puck to create a chance going the other way. My only criticism is that effort is one part of being an effective forward. If that effort doesn’t make an impact on the scoresheet, then it becomes hard to justify that presence. Especially since Studenic would - assuming he makes the cut - would be pushing players out who I think are more well rounded threats.
Players like Nils Lundkvist can be like Rorschach tests. People will see what they want to see. If you’re looking for a defensively questionable puck moving defender, you’ll find that. If you’re looking for a slick playmaker who can push the puck up ice, you’ll find that too. John Klingberg was a Calder and Norris nominee, and people would still shit on him. Players like Lundkvist are less about which role they excel at, and more about cost versus benefit. Does the cost of playing aggressively in all three zones outweigh the benefits of what that aggression yields? The jury’s still out but I liked what I saw, personally. His aggression got him hemmed in his own zone , but his aggression also allowed him to keep the play moving in the offensive zone (if we’re critiquing him for one game, we should critique Esa Lindell, who has yet to have a career outside of Klingberg’s shadow, and early returns don’t exactly look promising). Lundkvist also did a really good job of getting wide open on multiple occasions. Against a less bump and grind team like the Blues (and less stellar goaltending), he probably has at least a pair of goals. We don’t get to say that about a defenseman often, so keep that in mind. It’s easy to lump puck movers all in the same category, but Lundkvist’s game is much more dynamic than most. I don’t expect him to make the team (and frankly, I’m not sure where that expectation is coming from - he’s a 22 year old prospect with 25 games of NHL experience; a veteran NHL coach isn’t about to roll the red carpet out for him) but I do think we’ll see him develop into a larger role as the season wears on.
Speaking of PMD’s, let’s talk about Thomas Harley. I couldn’t tell if I was impressed or not by him. First thing I’ll point out is that even though he’s always been a good skater, his skating looked better. He looks just a little more fluid, and a little more agile out there. He’s been explicit about the fact that he knows nothing is given, so it makes sense that he’s still working on being better at everything that already makes him excel. Still, his puck management is something that looks a little wonky. Harley is more of a puck carrier than a puck passer, so it’s not something I necessarily expect, but it’ll be interesting to see how his development unfolds. Of course, I also don’t think he worked all that well with Jani Hakanpaa (who played the game last night like it WAS Mortal Kombat), and I think, like Bourque, games like this don’t allow the subtleties of his game to breathe. You’d be remiss if you forgot that Harley is actually younger than Lundkvist.
Mother of god Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrang are an absolute monster duo.
I’m calling it now. Seattle is gonna be the surprise team of the Pacific (mainly because their goaltending can’t be THAT bad for that much longer, and because of Beniers).
Artem Grushnikov reminds me of Jonas Seigenthaler and I love him for it.
I expected a little more from Riley Damiani, but he wasn’t bad either.
Jacob Peterson needs to respect the fact that his roster spot is not at all a given. Trust me. It pains me to say that. 12 goals as a rookie is no joke, but 17 points total is not setting the world on fire either (I forgot how few assists he had).
St. Louis will be an interesting watch. They’re an older team, now without David Perron, and have to contend with living with regular season Jordan Binnington. If there’s one Central team that could fall out of the playoff running, they’re the best bet IMO. (Nashville got better with McDonagh and Nino, and Minnesota has some really good prospects like Marco Rossi and Calen Addison to offset the loss of Kevin Fiala.)
Of course, similar things could be said about Dallas. Will they let their young horses ride?
Klingberg had always dropped subtle hints about his dissatisfaction with Rick Bowness hockey, but not today.