For perhaps the first time this season, the Dallas Stars were in complete control of a hockey game for the full 60 minutes.
Dallas came out sizzling against the Florida Panthers, scoring less than four minutes in and absolutely peppering Sergei Bobrovsky for the first nine minutes. They later extended their lead to 3-0 in the second, and when they finally got scored on, it was from an odd “fly puck” on a powerplay that was more unfortunate than anything. The Panthers, as is expected of them, were taking penalties left and right, and yet Dallas never seemed to be rattled by their physical and aggressive approach to the game.
The top and third lines were buzzing, making Bobrovsky work for pretty much every save he was forced to make. Honestly, were it not for the former Vezina Trophy winner’s stellar goaltending, this game could have easily been 6-1. Heck, even the fourth line was getting in on the action with some quality scoring chances:
And then came the third period. As I already mentioned, Dallas remained in control of the game, only this time, it wasn’t a good thing. If the first 40 minutes were a masterclass on how to dictate the flow and outplay one of the best teams in the NHL, then the last 20 were a masterclass on how to let that same team skate all over you, allowing them to steal your lunch money and thank them for lightening the load on your pockets.
Because yes, the Florida Panthers are a good hockey team. But this wasn’t some epic story about how a team came back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3. This wasn’t an example of captain Aleksander Barkov putting the team on his back to score twice in three and a half minutes (with a Sam Bennett goal in between) to turn the tides. Heck, this wasn’t even a Herculean effort by Bobrovsky to hold the off the horde of attackers just long enough for the Panthers to squeeze in. One. More. Goal.
No, this was nothing more than a complete and utter collapse by the Stars. You can’t even call it turtling, because that would imply there was some sort of defensive effort put forth in lieu of offense. Simply put, the Stars beat the Panthers, but then decided they didn’t want the win and so decided to beat themselves.
There’s positives to take from the game, of course. Heck, if you’re Joe Pavelski, you can even put a put a “well now we won’t do that come playoff time” spin on it! Only, do players really need to be reminded that, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t absolutely fall apart of our own accord and blow a three goal lead — that seems bad!”
If I’m sounding particularly vitriolic today, it’s because I am. In my mind, this was the worst kind of loss, one that took you from feeling great about the performance to wishing that you had just been blown out by a better team. Because to quote Ted Lasso, “it’s the hope that kills you.”
• It was a penalty palooza last night, with a total of nine power plays. Or should I say “only” nine, because as much as I don’t want to sound like a stereotypical homer complaining about the referees, it honestly felt like there were a lot more penalties by the Panthers than the five that got called. And, well, when you’re the second most penalized team in the league, and said league tends to prioritize penalties being called “evenly” as opposed to “fairly…” well yeah, most teams probably do commit more penalties than actually get called.
Of course, it’s not as if the Stars were exactly disciplined themselves, and it was ultimately those penalties and subsequent penalty kill performances that sunk their night. Whereas the Panthers were aggressive while down a man and held the Stars to only one PPG on five attempts, the Stars gave up three PPG, two of which being the aforementioned Barkov goals.
Those two power plays were particularly noteworthy in that for the first, the penalty resulted from Jason Robertson… well, I’m not really sure what he was trying to do that whole sequence, and the second, while just a normal penalty from Chris Tanev, felt like the dagger. I mean, be honest — during that TV timeout, we all knew the Panthers were going to score immediately and take the lead, right?
• Given the Stars’ total team collapse, it’s hard to blame the loss on Jake Oettinger, especially when you consider that each of those last three goals came from deflections, the last one even coming from his own defenseman’s skate!
But at the same time… you kind of have to blame Oettinger, right? I mean, regardless of his performance this season, you’re still expecting him to be a top goaltender. And while he didn’t need to be better than his opposing goalie for Dallas to win this game, the fact was that Bobrovsky was able to step up and make the crazy saves when his defense collapsed behind him, and Oettinger didn’t.
Unfair? Maybe if we didn’t go around talking about how “wins are the stat that matters” when discussing the Stars’ goaltending (particularly when it comes to backup Scott Wedgewood’s performance this season). Dallas doesn’t blow the lead? No issue about Oettinger’s performance. Dallas blows it but ends up winning anyways? We grumble about his game, but probably let a couple of those goals slide. Dallas blows the lead and loses? Well like it or not, all eyes are going to be on the goaltender, regardless of how the team collapsed around him. That’s just how the world works.
• Finally, a dose of optimism: Dallas is still a good team, and will be a scary opponent come playoff time. I’m not sure any team feels good about their chances, even teams like the Colorado Avalanche or Vegas Golden Knights who have been undefeated against Dallas this season. This loss doesn’t change that, and honestly, I’m not even sure it changes how I feel about this team come playoff time.
Oh, and Hispanic Heritage Night was awesome. Love these types of appreciation nights from Dallas.
But yeah, that game sucked. Sorry — optimism can only go so far.