I don’t think last night’s game was particularly great, but who cares?
Okay, let me rephrase that: you should care that the Dallas Stars won the same night as the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets, holding their lead for the Central Division crown that is now all but clinched. You should care that Dallas has now won 50 games for the fifth time in franchise history. And you should care that Dallas made Buffalo Sabres fans sad, which is one of my personal favorite pastimes. Those things were all great and worthy of celebrating.
But what you shouldn’t worry too much about is how lost the Stars looked in their own zone at times, completely unable to transition out which led directly to the first and (overturned) third goals. Or that Jake Oettinger let in a softie for the Sabres’ second tally. Or that the Stars became the last team to earn a 10 minute misconduct this season because Miro Heiskanen got upset at the refs for a call after they spent the whole game completely ignoring obvious penalties by Buffalo that anyone no longer wearing their eclipse glasses could see if they were just paying-
Ahem, sorry about that. I forgot: who cares?
Sure, you would prefer to see Dallas lay the smack down on a bottom feeder like Buffalo, like how they did against actual Cup contenders in Colorado and the Edmonton Oilers. But in that same vein, Dallas doesn’t need to measure itself up to the likes of Buffalo anymore — all that mattered was that Dallas got the win and that no one got hurt in the process, which is an improvement over how their other recent trap game against the Chicago Blackhawks went. So mission accomplished.
Doesn’t make for a very good Afterwords though, does it? Well, you win some you lose some — not every game can be an electrifying show-stopper worthy of way too much rambling on my part. At least we’ll always have the bullet points:
• Something else I’m finding myself more and more apathetic to? The Stars’ first round playoff opponent. By losing to the Jets in overtime, the Nashville Predators clinched a guaranteed Wild Card spot, and it’s looking like all but a certainty that they’ll be the first and cross over into the Pacific. But there’s a chance they end up the second and face Dallas, as opposed to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who currently occupy that spot, or the Los Angeles Kings, who lost last night to the Anaheim Ducks and gave Vegas the inside track for the Pacific Division’s 3rd seed.
Now, if you ask any Stars fan, they’d probably tell you they prefer Los Angeles, followed closely by Nashville, and then view Vegas as a worse than worst-case scenario. But you’re probably also hoping that the Winnipeg beats Colorado in seven overtime games and is too exhausted to put up a fight in the second round, and that whoever you don’t play in Nashville or Los Angeles manages to win the Pacific and gets similarly outmatched by Dallas, and that then in the Stanley Cup Final, surprise, it’s one of the terrible East Wild Card teams waiting after somehow lucking into winning three rounds.
My point being, we can play the “ideal scenario” game all we want. That doesn’t change the fact that Dallas essentially can’t do anything about it at this point, as even trying to throw the 1st seed in the West to the Vancouver Canucks 1) may not work, and 2) could still lead them to playing Vegas anyways. And maybe this is just me chugging the Victory Green Kool-Aid, but if you stacked up Dallas against any team in the West (maybe even the league) and asked who wins a seven game series, I’d confidently pick Dallas to win every time.
So sure, facing Vegas would suck, and I’d prefer Dallas didn’t. But Dallas is going to have to beat a good team (most likely four) no matter what this postseason if they want to win the Cup. It’s not worth fretting about things you can’t control.
• Not breaking down the goals this time around, but I Jason Robertson’s tip-in for the Stars’ first was so sick that I had to double take to make sure it wasn’t Joe Pavelski. Of course, Pavelski later made an even sicker tip-in that couldn’t have been anyone else. It’s going to be a real sad day when Pavelski retires, even if he does get to lift Lord Stanley above his head first.
I also found it interesting that both teams had near-goals that were only narrowly saved by deflections off the goal post/crossbar, as well as a goal apiece that were both called back due to the puck being played with a high stick. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
• I also want to point out that despite the “who cares” mantra I advocated for, I specifically found the Stars’ inability to get out of the defensive zone frustrating specifically because they tended to do so when the likes of Alex Tuch, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Rasmus Dahlin were on the ice. Despite their struggles this season, Buffalo does have some really talented players, so when you give them all the time in the world to score… well, odds are they will.
• I don’t like complaining about refereeing (which I feel like I say every time I complain about refereeing), but last night felt particularly egregious. I know, I know, I’m the one who said “who cares,” but there were several instances where the Sabres made some blatant penalties that went uncalled — including one instance where Robertson’s helmet was ripped off and you could see the red mark it left on his forehead — as well at least one questionable call against Dallas (it sure looked like Thompson was holding and stole Craig Smith’s stick on that “hooking”).
Now, the fans are always going to think they’re getting ripped off. The American Airlines for sure let the refs have it, with frequent “Ref You Suck!” chants (including when the arena was playing the “Let’s Go Stars!” drum track over the speaker) and boos. Heck, the Whataburger Fan of the Game went to a pair of fans dressed up as refs, one with sunglasses on, who the cameras kept cutting to every time there was a controversial call (i.e. frequently).
But I think the most damning sign that this game might not have been called perfectly was the aforementioned Heiskanen misconduct. Not only was it the first of the Stars’ season, it was also very uncharacteristic of Heiskanen. He surely wasn’t upset about the penalty itself in a vacuum, as it was a very cut and dry cross check, but I imagine the frustration more so stemmed from how the calls seemed to be going against Dallas all night. A sort of, “Oh, so it’s only a penalty when we do it?” type complaint.
It is worth pointing out that the misconduct was not due to Heiskanen’s complaining, but rather because his glove made it’s way into the stands, which becomes an automatic misconduct. And, of course, it wouldn’t have happened had Heiskanen just kept his cool to begin with. But the point remains: if Heiskanen of all players is that upset about a totally legitimate call, it wasn’t just the fans who felt like Dallas was being screwed over.
• On a more positive note: it was a packed crowd last night in the AAC. Maybe Robertson’s bobblehead night had something to do with it, but still, this was a weekday game against an NHL bottom feeder in April. The fact that Stars fans still showed out in droves goes to show you how buzzing and excited the metroplex is right now for this Stars team.
• This will likely be the last Afterwords of the regular season. I apologize for the scarcity/infrequency of them throughout the year, but becoming a new dad meant watching games live pretty much never happened unless I attended in-person, and thanks to regional games only being available on one provider (that I don’t have), my only option for watching recorded would be two days after the fact, long after an Afterwords would be relevant/desired.
The good news is the latter issue goes away for the postseason, which means I plan (emphasis on plan) to get one up for every game, whether it’s 4 or 28 (please not either extreme). So expect some regular playoff content from us here at Defending Big D.