Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Dallas Stars were unable to score on Stuart Skinner in the Western Conference Final and got beat out on special teams, losing a game they should have been more than capable of winning.
It’s what happened last year, and what I was worried about happening again late in the second round against the Winnipeg Jets. But hey, Dallas managed to flip the script completely in Game 1, so things were going to be different this time around, right?
If only it were that simple.
I think what’s most frustrating about the game is that I don’t feel like Dallas played all that bad. Heck, for the most part, I might even argue they played better than the Edmonton Oilers. The key difference was, at the end of the night, the Oilers were able to convert when given high danger opportunities (and a bit of puck luck), while the Stars could not.
For example, on Edmonton’s first power play, Roope Hintz got a piece of Evan Bouchard’s shot, which unfortunately brought the puck just past Jake Oettinger’s pad, allowing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to tip it in for the goal. Meanwhile later in the game, when Skinner whiffs the puck behind his net and it goes straight to Jason Robertson, the puck ping-pongs around his feet and he’s unable to setup Roope Hintz for a potential first goal.
Or when Brett Kulak got a shot blocked by Mikko Rantanen, only for the puck to end up right back on his stick and he’s able to rip one past Oettinger. Yet when an actual goal-scorer in Wyatt Johnston gets a breakaway while short handed, he’s unable to convert and spark a comeback to kick start the first.
And of course there was the beautiful tip by Connor Brown to make it 3-0 just over a minute after Kulak’s goal. Compare that to late in the game during 4-on-4 when Esa Lindell shot at a wide open net and a player also got a stick on it. Problem was, the stick in question was Skinner’s, as he made an incredible save to preserve the shutout.
Three Oilers goals, scored by both high skill and (in at least two cases) a bit of puck luck. Three (potential) Stars’ scoring opportunities, and nothing. Zip. NadaOettinger played well, despite the three goals against. Skinner played a bit better, but it was far from a “stand on your head” performance (that save on Lindell aside). The true difference was the Stars’ inability to finish, which cost them big time.
On the bright side, all this means is that it’s now a tied series. And again, I think Dallas looked better more often than not, even if the results might not reflect that. On the dark side… well, we’ll get to that later.
• With this win, the Oilers have effectively stolen home ice advantage from the Stars, with three potential home games in what is now effectively a best of five series.
This might be just me, but I think I’ve talked about home ice way too much this postseason. So much so that earlier today, long before Game 2 started, I was wondering if I was overblowing the whole thing. I mean sure, stealing a single road game against Winnipeg ended up being huge given Dallas was perfect at home, but they also dropped Game 1 against Colorado and still managed to right the ship by taking Game 3 on the road.
So rather than focus on home ice, I’m going to make a bold statement: the Stars just need to focus on scoring more goals than Edmonton, and they’ll probably win the series regardless of who wins where. Crazy, right? But it might be crazy enough to work.
• A lot could be said about the special teams tonight, given that the Oilers a) won the battle, and b) the Stars took way too many penalties. But when you look at things as a whole, you effectively had the Oilers go 1-for-5 on the power play while Dallas went 0-for-2.
That’s… not bad? I mean, it’s technically not “winning” the special teams battle, but I’d argue Dallas ended up with the better showing. They key takeaway is point B, namely that the Stars need to ideally be more disciplined while drawing more calls themselves. Which, now that I mention it, was probably what Edmonton wanted to do after Game 1. And hey, it worked!
• After a slow start to the playoffs, Mikko Rantanen went supernova against his old team in the Colorado Avalanche. He then carried over that momentum against the Winnipeg Jets, before fading down the stretch. And now here he is again, just a single secondary point in two games against Edmonton (and only two assists in his last four games overall).
Now, Rantanen isn’t the only one to go cold — Wyatt Johnston has just one point since the first round (though he’s been tasked with defending some tough matchups), Matt Duchene’s goal in Game 1 was his only one of the postseason, Jason Robertson is still very clearly hurt and thus scoreless while playing fourth line minutes… you get the picture. But Rantanen was supposed to be an X factor for this series, the ace in the hole that Dallas didn’t have last year. If that’s not the case… I’ll just leave it like that.
• Not helping matters is that linemate Roope Hintz (tied for the second on the team in scoring) had to leave the game early after getting slashed by Darnell Nurse. He was reported as having left the AAC in a walking boot, which honestly makes me a little hopeful that he might not miss time — you might recall Chris Tanev also got forced into a walking boot during the Western Conference Final last year (due to a blocked shot), and yet he was back in the lineup the next game.
Of course, there’s a big difference between playing and playing your best (again, see: Robertson, Jason). If the Stars’ talented forwards were humming, they might be able to absorb Hintz missing time or getting knocked down a peg or two. But as things stand, with scoring being a big issue outside of a single period in Game 1? Oof.
• As far as the slash itself… I’ll be honest, I don’t have a problem with it being called a minor. That type of play happens all the time in hockey, postseason included, and we don’t see the book get thrown. I’m a big believer in call the penalty, not the result, in most circumstances, so I’m not gonna bang the drum for a major solely because it resulted in injury.
That being said, this take hinges on the idea that, as I said, we see this all the time without heavy punishment. Which is not how things should be, in my opinion — I’m a big proponent that if you want to prioritize player safety and clean up the game, then the NHL should be penalizing players hard and frequently for pointless penalties. Do it enough and they’ll adjust their game, whether it’s regular season or playoffs.
Of course, it’s been abundantly clear for ages now that the NHL doesn’t want to clean up the game. Just turn on any Florida Panthers game this postseason and that’ll make itself clear.
• Finally, to end on a more positive note: all five Finnish skaters were on the ice in Game 1 for Esa Lindell’s empty net goal. Pete DeBoer ran that combo back to start the game, as the five Finns — Hintz, Rantanen, Mikael Granlund, Lindell, and Miro Heiskanen — were in the starting lineup for tonight’s game, first time that’s happened in NHL history.
Lots has been said and joked about regarding the Finnish Mafia and Dallas, but I just think it’s so cool that the Stars were able to do that with literally any nationality that isn’t Canadian. Heck, I remember when I thought it was so cool they could ice a just USA-Finland lineup between the skaters and goalie back when Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson first teamed up on a line with Roope Hintz. And that was still only three per country!
So yeah, cool moment for the Stars, Finland, and hockey in general. Now we just need to see a Stars-Panthers matchup in the Stanley Cup Final to load up on even more Finns. Not necessarily because I want Florida to make the Cup Final again, but because if the Carolina Hurricanes manage to win just a single Eastern Conference Final game, the universe might implode.
See? It could always be worse — positive note!