Tales From the Clipped: Dallas destroys LA at home, 5-1

Maybe Dallas' biggest win of the season.

I’ve been looking forward to this matchup. That’s why I wrote an evergreen preview of the Dallas vs. LA matchup. The Kings are still one of the league’s elite, and I’m sticking with that view even with their eight-game losing streak still fresh in everyone’s collective memory. So naturally, the Stars made them look like the San Jose Sharks.

This kind of win has eluded them all season. Yes, they beat some good teams by wide margins (New York and Tampa Bay being the most notable), but you’d be hard-pressed to describe any of them as dominant performances. LA’s offense has never been its strong suit, but they looked anemic. Defensively, the Stars had their way with them thanks Pete DeBoer’s line blender — which we’ll get to shortly — and Jake Oettinger played arguable his best game of the season.

It’s also a much-needed win. Colorado was having all kinds of trouble with Ottawa until they exploded with a four-goal third period to take the temporary top spot in the Central. As of this writing, Winnipeg got Kyle Connor back and beat the Islanders to take back control of the Central. In other words, the Stars can ill afford to drop points.

There are plenty of stories worth highlighting. This Thursday I’ll be writing about the problem with Dallas’ goaltending for D Magazine. And the trade deadline isn’t that far off, which will once again ignite every discussion about the blueline.

But tonight isn’t about all that. Tonight is about the clips; clips from Dallas’ best win of the season.

Cycle work from the new-look top line

I wasn’t a huge fan of Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz with Wyatt Johnston. It shifts Johnston to right wing, which yes, he’s used to doing as Jamie Benn tends to take a lot of faceoffs, but I’d rather see Dallas try to get all three of the top lines going instead of just two. But I can’t argue with what I saw.

This play, for example, was excellent cycle work.

One thing about Johnston is that despite his struggles, neither his skills nor his brain ever left him. He still has a fantastic understanding of spacing, so it makes sense that they would be able to work the puck along the corners. This play fizzles because LA defends well, eventually forcing the three into a funnel. But it’s easy to see how either a different bounce, or versus a lesser team how this work could have resulted in a real chance.

Of course, that sense of spacing and ability to triangulate the defense, worked just fine on the rush, which is how Dallas opened up the scoring.

One reason why I’m glad to see Johnston taken off that line with Benn and Dadonov is that they’ve really shackled his game. Neither Benn nor Dadonov have been able to generate much in transition, and they’re primarily one-zone players at this point in thier careers. Yes, it’s easy to look good next to two all-world forwards, but Johnston is no passenger.

I thought this was another highlight reel shift.

Johnston’s quick little backhand created something out of nothing. I’m not sure this is the answer moving forward, but I am sure they looked good together.

Is this the new top line?

I would argue yes. Emphatically so.

Nils Lundkvist showing defenders how a 2-on-1 is done

Everyone has opinions about how to defend the 2-on-1. I’m not gonna pretend to be an expert. I hear people say “defend the pass” which is true, but the real rule is to defend the middle. The reason why “defend the middle” is more accurate is because it’s really about taking away the optimal angle of the shooter. The subset of that is DON’T F’ING SLIDE!

Lundkvist, who inexplicably has experience defending on the penalty kill, did this in textbook fashion.

He even bites like he’s gonna attack Kopitar!

There’s no hard rule about defending a 2-on-1 though. If the shooter is Connor McDavid and the weakside threat is Radek Faksa, then the assignment writes itself. If there’s a hard rule, it’s not to take yourself out of the play by hitting the Point Break deck. Greg Revak has a really good piece on this.

Stop The Slide

Lundkvist doesn’t grade out well defensively, but this is not a player with broken fundamentals. It’s unfortunate that this is how he has to prove himself, but hey — good job Nils!

Lindell goes to IR for a pair of broken ankles

LA’s rebuild has not at all been a typical rebuild. Their top rookie is not their fifth overall pick in 2019 (Alex Turcotte) but their third rounder from 2020, Alex Laferriere. He’s not a household name, but he will be in Lindell’s home.

Laferriere has the unenviable task of trying to elevate Pierre Luc-Dubois. Dubois is a peculiar player, sometimes unfairly maligned, but sometimes maligned for all the right reasons. Tonight he looked like the defensive pylon that earned him the ire of John Tortorella.

It’ll be interesting to see where these two teams go from here. They’re both solid teams with multiple strengths in brutal divisions. As such, they find themselves sharing third place in their respective regions. This was a statement win for Dallas.

How long will they keep their word?