Heading into last night’s game against the Boston Bruins, there was a storyline weighing heavily in the air. The Dallas Stars were in the middle of a vicious streak, one dating all the way back to January of 2018 that, despite multiple opportunities, they just could not seem to snap. But that all came to an end last night, as the Stars were finally able to do what no reasonable person would have ever thought possible entering the night:
They scored a goal on the Power Play.
I jest, of course — the “vicious” streak was in reference to the Stars having lost five consecutive games in Boston. And while it was certainly nice to take it to Tyler Seguin’s old team (with a goal from his truly!) on the road for once, that streak was ultimately little more than a fun trivia question, one that meant very little in the grand scheme of things given the two teams play in different conferences.
But the power play goal? That was very, very relevant to the Stars, who began the season 2-for-21 with the man advantage. It’s been bad enough that people much smarter than me have already started doing deep dives on their power play struggles. That piece by David was just yesterday, in fact, before the game. So, naturally, Dallas responded with scoring a goal twenty seconds into their second power play. And then scoring on their third. And then again on their fourth.
When all was said and done, Dallas went 3-for-5 on the power play, scoring more in a single night than they had the entire season prior. You could try and take it a step further and argue it was even more impressive given the first power play was only 40 seconds long, but that was only because Dallas took a penalty to end it early, which I think should punish the conversion rate accordingly.
And punished Dallas was — in the ensuing 4-on-4, a turnover by Matt Dumba led immediately to a goal by David Pastrnak. Which really just helps illustrate the main theme of last night’s game: special teams. Of the seven goals scored in the Stars’ 5-2 win, only a single one was scored at 5-on-5. That would have been Matt Duchene’s goal not even five minutes later to tie the game 1-1.
Although, given how thoroughly he undressed the Bruins’ defense, you would have been excused for thinking it was with the man advantage:
By the way, so long as we’re talking about early season trends, Matt Duchene currently leads the Stars in scoring with 9 points in 8 games. That includes 4 goals, which is in a 4-way (!!!) tie for the team lead along with Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, and Roope Hintz. Even crazier than that is that they were also tied for the lead heading into the game, which (spoilers) means they all found the back of the net last night.
For instance, here’s Robertson’s, the aforementioned “twenty seconds into the Power Play” goal:
Again, read David’s piece if you want an actually smart person to break down the Stars’ power play struggles to start the season, but one of their biggest issues has been not simply the lack of shots, but that the shots they do take are typically from the point. Far too often have we watched the Stars shuffle the puck around, trying to get Robertson, their best goal scorer, open on the outside so he can either blister one past the goalie via a screen or perhaps create a quality rebound. And the results have been, well, mostly non-existent.
Here, however, we see Robertson get into a high danger scoring area right up front, and as soon as he gets the puck he’s able to whip it past Jeremy Swayman for the go-ahead-goal. It’s almost a “blink and you missed it” exchange, and was reflective of how aggressive the Stars had been to start the game, battling for the puck and getting pressure on Swayman immediately rather than waiting for the “perfect shot.”
Case and point, here’s the Stars’ second power play goal, the only one not scored by one of the players mentioned above
Although Logan Stankoven is tied for second on the team in points (8), this was actually his first goal of the season. And while it’s a different sequence, it bears a lot of resemblance to Robertson’s tally: a dangerous scorer is able to cut to the front of the net, he gets the puck, and then he immediately converts on the high danger scoring chance.
Number three:
This one, admittedly, has less to do with what the Stars were doing right on the power play last night than it does with everything Boston was doing wrong. All four Bruins were a part of the back check, converging on Stankoven and Duchene. When the puck gets out to Mason Marchment, one remains with Stankoven while the other three move head right to cover Marchment and the flailing Duchene. Enter Seguin on their left, completely left alone, and he essentially has a free shot to beat Swayman, which he does.
I mean really, just watch that again! I’m not even sure you could consider this a power play goal considering Thomas Harley doesn’t even come into frame until the goal celebration, sort of like that one guy on the group project who gets an ‘A’ just for putting their name on the paper. The fact that Boston couldn’t help but take penalty after penalty was hard enough for Swayman as is — to keep leaving him out to dry on the penalty kill was a whole issue in of itself.
That three goal domination wasn’t to last forever, however — the Bruins got another power play of their own shortly afterwards, and after some very close calls and great saves by Casey DeSmith, they were able to put things back into reach with their second goal of the night. But that would be all they would get, as the game remained scoreless all the way until the end of the third, where Hintz kept that 4-way tie going with an empty netter.
This is usually where I would put a clip of the goal, but the Stars don’t share empty netters on social media, which is the right take. Again, like getting the ‘A’ for just putting your name on the paper.
• I continue to be impressed by Oskar Bäck, who had a good scoring chance short handed in his first game back from a healthy scratch. I think he’s filled in the Radek Faksa role of 4C and penalty killer admirably, which is bittersweet for those of us who had been calling on Dallas to trade Faksa and replace him with someone who take up a fourth as much cap space for years now. Ahh well, better late than never, I suppose.
Speaking of which, the Stars also wisely moved on from Ryan Suter this offseason, although given the way Matt Dumba turned the puck over on the 4-on-4, you would be excused for thinking that somehow, Palpatine returned. Given his early injury, it remains to be seen how smart (or dumb) of a pickup the new former Wild defenseman will fare in Victory Green, although I’m not exactly encouraged thus far.
On the bright side, Ilya Lyubushkin has looked decent to start the season, and Nils Lundkvist actually looks really good as well, Tyler confidently proclaimed before the inevitable defensive turnover that leads to him being exiled to the press box come postseason.
• After several games watching Stars hockey on Victory+, I find it overall to be a rather decent streaming experience, at least when doing so live. When watching it in the archives, however, it seems to be a little buggy for me — I’ve often had the commercials (which yes, still play when not watching live — have to pay for it somehow) freeze up on me when they finish, forcing me to refresh the page. Which would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that 1) the video then starts back at the beginning for me, and 2) there are no time stamps when hovering over the spot you want to jump to, only the time you’re currently at.
So every time I have to refresh, I find myself having to pick a mostly random spot on the timeline of where I think I’m at to keep watching. And if I pick wrong, I might end up triggering another commercial and… well, you get the idea.
Other than that, though, it’s rather decent, as I said, especially given how bad many other streaming services are. I’d appreciate the ability to fast forward with the arrow keys or playback at higher speeds, but I’ll take what I can get.