Make that, I hate playing Toronto.
I hate Toronto.
I could probably end the Afterwords right there, just three words, and be fine. You all would read them, nod to yourselves, comment “Same,” and then we could all go on our merry ways, forgetting last night’s game ever happened. But I feel the need to write more than that, if anything because it should at least be four words: I hate playing Toronto.
After all, I don’t hold any grudge towards the franchise itself. I’m not a conspiracy theorist that thinks the league and refs are out to favor the Maple Leafs over less popular teams. Plus as a longtime victim of the Dallas Cowboys in their post Super Bowl era, I feel a strange sense of comradery with Leafs fans. And at the end of the day, their presence in the Eastern Conference and lack of ability to do anything come postseason time means for me, a Dallas Stars fan, they have no real impact on me outside of playing the Stars twice a year.
But man do those games suck. Every year, when drafting games with our season ticket holders group, my dad and I make a list of which games we want to see most. And every year, we rank Toronto somewhat highly because they are a good team with a lot of high end talent. And almost every year, we end up selecting them and feeling really good about it, until gameday rolls around and we remember just how bad Dallas is against them.
I mean, look at this snapshot of expected goals after the second period:
Now appease your inner sadist and look back at the score to remind you that it was 4-2 in favor of Toronto. I mean come on, what does Dallas have to do to get a break against this team?
It wasn’t just the score, mind you — it was how that score happened. The night started off great, with Sam Steel throwing his hat into the ring for “Stars Goal of the Year:”
There he is, leaping on the loose puck for the takeaway, out-skating one of the best players in the world in Auston Matthews, and then the moment Joseph Woll begins to drop down to cover his five-hole, he expertly sends the puck back to his forehand and elevates it for a top shelf goal.
It was exciting, it was adrenaline-pumping, it was… all for naught less than a minute later when Max Domi scored and tied the game back up 1-1.
But hey, you know, that’s the kind of voodoo magic you expect when Dallas plays Toronto. It was fine though, because Dallas continued to dominate the first period, and then Evgenii Dadonov casually shot one past Woll just 22 seconds into the second to reclaim the lead.
It was uplifting, it was electrifying, it was… all for naught less than five minutes later (an improvement!) when William Nylander scored and tied the game back up 2-2.
That one was admittedly bad defense (or rather miscommunication) rather than bad juju, but still, you could live with it. After all, the Stars were still playing like the better team… or at least they were, in theory, for another 16 seconds before Nick Robertson effortlessly scored a third goal, suddenly flipping things in favor of Toronto.
Look, I’m one of Jake Oettinger’s biggest supporters. And he’s been great this year. But last night was not his night. The first two goals, while unfortunate, I wouldn’t lay squarely on his shoulders. The third, however? 100% on him, as was the fourth that came less than five minutes later. Honestly, I was mildly surprised that they didn’t pull him after that one, although they eventually did to start the third.
It was that third goal, however, that was the more erogenous of the two, or at least the most important of the bunch. Because that goal just broke the Stars — one minute they were up 2-1, the next down 3-2, and they looked like a team just barely going through the motions for almost the rest of the entire night. In hindsight, I think the logic in not pulling Oettinger after goal No. 4 was that if Dallas clawed back, he still (in theory) represented their best chance to force overtime and/or possibly secure a win. But when the Stars continued to be lifeless heading into intermission, it really seemed like they gave up all hope for a comeback, hence the change.
So what started out as a promising game proved to be an absolute miserable one, as we probably should have expected all along against Toronto. And between the historic bad luck, faulty goaltending, at times questionable officiating (note: that’s not the same as the refs favoring the Leafs), and, of course, the flu that has been ravaging the locker room, it’s honestly one of those games you can excuse throwing your hands in the air, burning the tape, and just moving onto the next one.
Still, Dallas seemingly giving up mid-game like that was tough to watch. It was even tougher in hindsight when comparing it to the last four minutes, when the Stars pulled Casey DeSmith for the extra attacker. Because then, in those moments, the Stars had life. They were dangerous, more so than even at the beginning of the game, hounding Woll relentlessly. And it all paid off when Colin Blackwell was able to cut the lead in half:
It was uplifting, it was electrifying, it was… all for naught less than a minute later when Nylander put a cork in it with an empty netter. But hey, we already knew Dallas was going to lose — at least this time, it gave us something to cheer for and be excited about!
…and also something to make us wonder, “Where the hell was this the past thirty minutes?”
• The Stars are missing Thomas Harley something fierce. Not just because he’s the team’s second best defenseman and a bonafide top pairing guy, but because the Stars simply do not have the defensive depth to lose such a big minute eater.
Miro Heiskanen nearly played 30 minutes (again), whereas Esa Lindell was instead given a well deserved rest after the Washington Capitals game and played only twenty. Hell, Brendan Smith, the team’s seventh defenseman, was third on the blueline with nearly 16 minutes of ice time. And oh yeah, right behind him was your 20 year old rookie in Lian Bichsel, playing in just his fourth NHL game.
Yes, were Nils Lundkvist not also out with the flu and were Matt Dumba healthy, the load would have been a bit more manageable for the defense. But then again, if you’re having to rely on Lundkvist and Dumba, both players that Pete DeBoer doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of, in order to hold the fort if one of your top 3 defenders is out… well, that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
All of which is to say that I stand by what I wrote on Tuesday: if Bichsel is here to stay, Dallas might not have to prioritize a Top 4 defenseman at the deadline. But, uhh, they might still try and improve it all the same, and worry about who sits and the cap implications later.
• I’d again like to emphasize that the Stars looked great across the first 20-25 minutes and the last four. That’s close to half the game, even if the other half was absolutely dreadful and depressing beyond all belief. Morale victories aren’t really a thing, but given the circumstances and the low stakes of a non-conference game, I think this is one you’re not by any means happy with, but not one to get hung up on either.
• Nothing to do with the game directly, but the New York Rangers made headlines again with another trade, sending former No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken in return for Will Borgen, a 3rd, and a 6th. Pretty cheap for Seattle, but given Kakko’s struggles in his young NHL career, I’m not sure the Rangers could have managed much more than that.
Why bring it up? Because the Rangers are spiraling, and this plus the (equally understandable) Jacob Trouba trade might be the start of a fire sale as management hits the panic button. And, well, the Rangers might several names worth looking at that you would have never expected to be available heading into the season.
From a Stars perspective, I’ve always liked K’Andre Miller (currently on IR), but not sure Dallas needs another LHD. A reunion with Reilly Smith will be something Jim Nill looks hard at (David Castillo talked about him here), but he isn’t really a player that would get me too excited.
Someone who does perk my ears up, however, is Chris Kreider. He still has two years left after this one at $6.5M, but with the cap going up and the Stars having several contracts coming off the books this offseason, they could certainly make it work, especially if they were able to send some cap space back in the deal or shed it in the offseason (coughDumbacough). Kreider has struggled this year, but who hasn’t on the Rangers, and he still has 10 goals to his name in 28 games. He could provide quite the boost for Dallas, for both this postseason and beyond.
Of course, Dallas would rather have help on the right side than the left, and at 33, Kreider could be in danger of falling off (if he isn’t on that path already). So if Dallas really wanted to get bold, they could gun for Mika Zibanejad. Two years younger, two million more expensive, on the books for two more years… and probably too good to be true.
But hey, if you really want to go all in (the Vegas Golden Knights kind, not the Dallas Cowboys kind), you have to open your mind beyond the usual rental targets, especially given the weak crop this year among expected sellers.