Once again, the Dallas Stars had a close, tightly contested game against the Vegas Golden Knights. And once again, they ended up losing in overtime. But the vibes were very different between last night’s contest and last month’s. In that game, the score might have been close, but it felt clear that Vegas “deserved” to win. That had Dallas emerged with a win (in regulation or in overtime), it would have been “stolen.”
Last night, however, the script was flipped: Dallas looked like the better team throughout all 60+ minutes. Even when they went down in the first period, Dallas seemed (to me, at least) to be playing better. Then they absolutely dominated the second period to the point that they honestly should have scored multiple goals. Even in a more tightly contested third, Dallas seemed to have the edge (at least till the end), and the same could apply to overtime.
So why did Dallas lose? It’s simple: Adin Hill was in Stanley Cup Champion form. The reason Dallas only scored once in the second period was because Hill was stopping almost everything that came his way, with no funny bounces to slip the puck past the “brick wall” he put up in between the pipes. If we were to say that Dallas was in the position to steal their previous game against Vegas, then it’s easy to say that Hill did steal this one.
And that’s not to discredit the Vegas roster. Make no mistake: they looked every part of the reigning Stanley Cup Champion who sits at the top of the Western Conference. Their stick work was incredible, breaking up many potential Stars’ scoring opportunities or zone entries, making Hill’s life easier and the Stars’ much harder. And yet, I still feel they were outplayed by Dallas.
That, to me, is why I leave last night’s game disappointed, but overall still rather pleased. There’s not much you can critique from Dallas’ game, and the fact you can say that when Vegas played like that is nothing but a good thing. People have been worried that Dallas hasn’t looked like a “true Cup contender” or that they need to be winning against good teams as well as the bad, but the look was there last night, even if the results necessarily weren’t.
Dallas is still 1st in the Central and is only 4 points back on Vegas with two games in hand for the Conference lead, and look every bit like a team that could knock them off in a playoff rematch. I’m not going to let a loss in 3-on-3 gimmick hockey spoil those vibes for me.
• Speaking of overtime, I see a lot of people decrying Jack Eichel’s overtime winner as “lucky” because he initially fanned on his shot. Which, yes, he did, but then not only did he fix his mistake, he turned around and created a higher danger shot out of it, which easily found net. If Roope Hintz did that, we would be singing his praises, how it was the mark of an elite scorer, but when Eichel does it it’s just “luck?” I’m not buying it.
• I don’t think you could blame Jake Oettinger for that goal against, nor the powerplay goal in the first period. Heck, he was the second best player on the ice last night. But I also understand any frustration that the best player was the other goaltender, Adin Hill, and that the Stars’ elite goaltender didn’t do the elite goaltender thing and secure the win for them. That being said, Hill definitely saw a much tougher workload than Oettinger did — had the tables flipped and it was Vegas putting on more consistent pressure on Oettinger, there’s a good chance he would have been the “better” goaltender on the ice last night. So again, no complaints from me.
• Jani Hakanpää is one of the Stars’ best penalty killers alongside Esa Lindell, and is a driving factor in why the Stars entered last night with the 3rd best penalty kill in the lead. He’s also the team’s second most penalized player behind Mason Marchment with 23 PIM in 18 games, earning two minors in last night’s loss. And it shouldn’t surprise you that the one power play he caused that wasn’t cut shot just so happened to be the power play where Vegas scored their lone regulation goal.
I’ve said this before about Hakanpää, but I don’t like the idea of putting someone on the ice just so they can be used on the penalty kill. The fact that he is a leading cause in putting Dallas on the PK to begin with (and thus can’t defend on it) just makes it even worse.
• The other thing that frustrated me about those penalties? When Nils Lundkvist took his second of the night, I immediately thought, “Oh, he’s going to get punished by the coaching staff.” And sure enough, if I’m not mistaken, Lundkvist was left off the ice in the final minutes of the game (the fact that Dallas struggled mightily on defense during that time, to the point that I was afraid they might lose in regulation, is not lost on me). I wouldn’t be surprised if Dallas even took him out of the lineup altogether against Calgary as a healthy scratch (although I wouldn’t necessarily count on it).
And yet that same type of energy doesn’t apply to Hakanpää. I guess that’s what happens when you are a young player that “needs to learn better” versus a veteran who apparently does, even when they prove otherwise.
• Finally, have a happy Thanksgiving, y’all. Sorry these don’t come out as often as I would like — thanks to the whole RSN hooplah, it’s rare I get to watch a full game within 24 hours or so, after which I feel attention has already shifted to the next game on the schedule. But I’ll continue to crank these out when I can.