What We Saw, What It Felt Like: No Bichsel, No Problem (...For Toronto)

Dallas loses 5-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Traverse City.

(Hopefully Mike Piellucci, my mentor and editor, has no problem with me stealing his device. I promise to only use it this once.)

I know it’s often said that these tournaments “don’t matter.”

But tell that to Eddie Lack. Or Antoine Roussel. These rookie tournaments are a big deal for those that have the privilege of participating. Sure, they don’t affect the Dallas Stars winning a cup, and they may not even affect the pro roster, but I challenge you to name a single player who plays these games like an afterthought. Kids are beating the shit out of each other to make an impression. That’s precisely what makes them fun for viewers.

But there was very little fun to be had on Dallas’ end on Friday in a 5-1 loss to the Maple Leafs. It was an extremely sloppy first period, with forwards and defenders all turning the puck over against a Toronto squad that got trounced by Columbus. Basically, that was the long and short of it.

Sidebar: Columbus will be trouncing everyone, granted. Adam Fantilli, David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk, Jordan Dumais, Luca Del Bel Belluz, Stanislov Szozil…that roster is nuts. It almost feels criminal just having them play in this tournament.

What We Saw (A Team Without a Blueline)

With Lian Bichsel and Artem Grushnikov injured, Dallas’ blueline wasn’t exactly its best version of itself. They went with five defensemen, with Ben Zloty (who we’ll get to) drawing in. Safe to say, it made all the difference. Dallas was a shooting gallery, allowing breakaways galore, and turning the puck over in all three zones.

Instead of showing you the lowlights, just know that this play below happened what felt like every other shift.

Toronto would enter the zone, have all the time in the world, and Dallas would passively defend and hope their goaltending would bail them out. (Tristan Bertucci, #42, in particular had a rough night.)

As you’d expect, one man made a difference from shift to shift: Logan Stankoven. I didn’t think he looked bad on Thursday. In fact, I thought he looked exactly as advertised. Tonight was more of the same: Stankoven looking exactly as advertised, just more so. I’ll talk more about Stankoven next week (sorry: paid subscribers only on that one), but he’s so hilariously all-over-the-place that it’s impossible not to highlight him every shift, whether it’s good or bad. Offensively, there was nothing to write home about on Friday.

For one shift, Blumel (25)was the exception.

To be honest, Blumel hasn’t impressed me; not because he’s been bad, but because given his age, I’d expect far more.

The other player who is struggling this tournament is Christian Kyrou (38). At his best, he’s a highwire activator who will hunt down every inch of creative play.

At his worst, he’s this.

It’s worth remembering that this is one tournament. In addition, Kyrou is not expected to be anywhere close to NHL ready. However, given his age, you’d like to see the kind of confidence that allowed him to dominate stretches of the CHL. To me that’s what stands out about Kyrou is not that he’s making mistakes, but that he’s not playing like himself.

Zloty (52) on the other hand, for one night, was everything you’d expect from Kyrou, but channeled through a development camp invitee.

Fantastic control and patience at the blueline there, which you’d expect out of someone who pulled off the Michigan in the WHL last year.

Zloty was a lot of fun to watch throughout the tournament.

Nothing super special, but good clean fun for the whole family.

What It Felt Like (The Stankoven Train Gathering Seats)

The loss sucks (am I the only who hates losing to Toronto especially? Dallas never seems to put them away no matter the level), but nothing has changed about Dallas’ prospect pool. By any measure, Dallas has the better prospect pool. Without a big part of their blueline, and sans their top goalie, the end result wasn’t a surprise. The biggest takeaway was seeing Stankoven get comfortable, and settle into his sparkplug rhythm. Casual Dallas fans are gonna fall in love the human bowling ball.

However, as I said in my last recap, Dallas’ lightness at wing is really showing itself. They forward group will make plays, and create chances, but without somebody more single-minded, plowing through lanes, and only worrying about chambering the puck, they end up with a lot of blown plays and miscommunication. That was the more figurative highlight of the evening: feeling like Dallas’ system may be stung in the long run by the lack of chance punishers.

Except for Stankoven nobody has made an impression. Mavrik Bourque continues his struggle to find a rhythm. Antonio Stranges will wow you in a straight line for one shift, and then disappear the rest. Francesco Arcuri and Matthew Seminoff (two forwards whose production warranted a lot of attention before the tournament) have done nothing to distinguish themselves from Justin Ertel and Brad Gardiner (two forwards whose production did not).

Same goes for the blueline. Outside of Bichsel, who does Dallas have? On a sidenote, for those wondering why Aram Minnetian isn’t playing (a player I’m particularly high on), this is typically the case for college players. School has already started, and well, it’s complicated.

Don’t forget the Vimeo link is here. Dallas plays Columbus at 11:00am ET on Sunday.