Tales From The Clipped: How Dallas has quieted hockey's most elite power play (in three acts).

Alain Nasreddine rocks.

I’m honestly shocked. Dallas’ penalty kill was good thanks to elite goaltending. Defense on the penalty kill, however, was only so-so (okay good, but not great). Ranked 14th in goals against per 60, it would always be an uphill battle, IMO, to neutralize Winnipeg’s power play, which was ranked #1 pretty much the entire year thanks to an absurd 28.9 conversion rate.

When the Stars penalty kill took Colorado and Nathan MacKinnon to the woodshed, they had my strict attention. While the Avalanche may have been tactical dumb-dumbs, dealing with MacKinnon and Cale Makar is still no easy task. The Stars made it look like child’s play — beating them so definitively that it got Colorado’s power play coach Ray Bennett fired.

Winnipeg’s power play was and is the complete opposite. What they lack in star power, they make up for in IQ. Mark Sheifele and Josh Morrissey won’t ever be mistaken for MacKinnon and Makar, but they play effectively as a five-man unit. Headed by assistant coach Davis Payne, the Jets work as hard as they work smart.

And that’s what makes today so special. The way Dallas’ penalty kill has unfolded versus Winnipeg’s power play has been a story within a story in real time: from Dallas being caught with an overhand right (Act I), to making adjustments to avoid getting caught again (Act II) — to, finally, being able to launch their own attack (Act III). This is not to get ahead of ourselves. A 3-1 series lead is just that; a 3-1 series lead. Until Winnipeg is eliminated, they’re still alive, which makes the story technically unfinished.

Nonetheless, I feel comfortable in saying that Dallas has a sustainable edge so far on the penalty kill, having allowed one goal to Winnipeg’s four on the PK. So what’s the story?

For nonpaid subscribers, I talked a little bit about this yesterday with Dimitri Filipovic and Robert Tiffin. Just in case you want the cliffsnotes version.