One of the biggest complaints about the Dallas Stars this season is that they may not be as good as we expected them to be. Namely, they have often seemed to either fall short of top competition or not “take care of business” adequately enough against lesser opponents.
Now, we could spend a whole piece talking about whether or not this viewpoint is “fair” or not — I feel like the higher expectations are, the more critical fans are of shortcomings and the less acknowledging they are of successes — but, quite frankly, I don’t want to. Instead, let’s just take it at face value and accept that Stars fans haven’t been the happiest bunch as of late. And, considering they headed into last night’s game with a 5-5 record in their last ten, the most recent two games being a thumping by the league-worst Nashville Predators and a narrow overtime win over the also-not-very-good St. Louis Blues, I’m not sure you could blame them.
The point being that last night’s home matchup against the Washington Capitals was set up to be a rather important game for Dallas. Yes, it’s out of conference, and yes, the Stars’ flu bug would give them plenty of excuses for falling short against the best team in the league, both overall and on the road. But as fans wouldn’t hesitate to tell you, if you want to be considered as a genuine Cup Favorite, not just a Contender or Hopeful, then you need to be able to prove it against top competition.
For the first period plus, things didn’t look so hot for Dallas. While they got some quality chances themselves (and actually outshot Washington, to my surprise), it felt like the Capitals were the more dangerous team on the ice, having several near-misses and making Jake Oettinger scramble a few too many times. The Stars were also fond of putting Washington on the power play over and over again, giving them a 3-0 edge in opportunities throughout the first half of the game.
The Stars’ penalty kill, thankfully, was able to hold strong, but overall the team wasn’t able to keep the Capitals off the board. Dylan Strome took first blood with a few minutes to go into the first, executing a perfect tip off of a perfect shot by Jacob Chychrun. Both players, you may recall, could be considered “reclamation projects” by Washington, alongside Pierre-Luc Dubois who already has 21 points for the year. Throw in the ageless Alexander Ovechkin, whose current injury is perhaps the only thing keeping him from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record this year, and the Capitals are truly the Island of Misfit Toys in hockey form, and boy do they look dangerous.
All of which is to say that Strome’s goal felt like the dam was finally breaking for the Capitals, that it would be the first of many to come for the night. I could already start writing this Afterwords in my head, talking about how Dallas seemed once again to fall short of the bar they have set for themselves, and what it might mean for the team going forward.
That didn’t happen. In fact, Washington failed to score another goal the entire night, as the Stars slowly but surely wrestled control of the game away from the league’s top team. It all started with, believe it or not, a power play goal, courtesy of Roope Hintz:
(As an aside, I’m going to take this time to plead the Stars’ social media team to start posting on Blue Sky, which seems so far to be a much, much more pleasant experience than modern day Twitter).
The goal was a sigh of relief, proof that Dallas at least wouldn’t be going down without a fight. It was the next goal, though, that truly flipped the tables:
That one came courtesy of Stars’ rookie Lian Bichsel (whose name I’m still not 100% certain of the pronunciation of), his second in just three NHL games. More on him later, but suffice to say that, in a game where Dallas was already down Thomas Harley and would lose Nils Lundkvist as time went on, Bichsel stood out as he continues to make his case for a permanent residence in Dallas.
From that point forward, it was the Stars who were in the driver’s seat, with the Capitals trying everything they could to get back into things. Of course, even with the Stars’ lead, it was hard to tell who might actually come out on top as both teams traded chances back and forth. At least, not until the final goal of the evening:
Once again, it was Roope Hintz, putting the final nail in the coffin. Of course, the main legwork was done by Jason Robertson, who picked up his second primary assist of the night by collecting the turnover, corralling the puck, and setting up Hintz perfectly. Still, you have to finish for the goal to count, so full credit to the No. 1 center here.
The Capitals’ pulled their goalie to make it interesting, but it was all for naught. In the end, tt was a close, exciting, high event matchup with (surprisingly) lots of physicality, everything that a hockey fan would want in a game. And, more importantly for Stars fans, it was the kind of signature win that they have been craving. Here they were, playing high quality hockey against one of the best in the league, and they came out on top with a well deserved win.
It’s the type of performance you can build off of going forward, something to point towards as proof that the Stars are a Cup Favorite, even if the standings don’t necessarily reflect it. A sign that, despite all of their flaws, the Stars are not a team others will want to face come playoff team.
Rather than the normal bullet point ending I typically give here, I want to focus on one point in particular: Lian Bichsel.
Perhaps it’s too early to tell for certain, but I can’t help but agree with Sean Shapiro that Bichsel has played himself into a regular lineup spot in Dallas. Sure, the blue line is crowded as is thanks to Jim Nill’s tradition of blocking off young players from a lineup spot to sign depth veterans to fill those roles instead (you know who I’m referring to), but between Pete DeBoer’s apparent willingness to bench Matt Dumba and his historical distrust of Nils Lundkvist, it would be very easy to slot Bichsel in night after night.
If he does end up a lineup regular, it opens a lot of possibilities for Dallas when it comes to gearing up for a deep playoff run. Bichsel, like Thomas Harley a couple years ago, could be considered a mid-season addition by himself, which means adding a defenseman at the deadline would no longer be viewed as “necessary,” but rather just “nice to have.”
Instead, the Stars’ could focus on spending Tyler Seguin’s LTIR money on one of the top available forwards, which would setup Dallas to have one (if not the) deadliest Top 9 Forward groups in the league. Brock Nelson is the popular name at the moment, but there are several others available who could move the needle for Dallas. Alternatively, the Stars could spread the love by acquiring solid depth pieces up front and on the blue line, relying on their current talent to lead the way with high quality players to step up when needed.
So back to Bichsel: there will be a temptation for Nill to send him back to the AHL once the Stars’ blueline is healthy again, letting him play top minutes before calling him back up late season before the playoffs if need be. But with the rookie already proving that he can hang with the big kids, I think it’d be far better to keep him up the rest of the year, even if he starts to struggle. Not only would it give Dallas a clearer idea of what their trade deadline needs would be, I think playing against NHL players would be better for his development, and set him up for better success come playoff time.
Given the time to grow and earn the coach’s trust, we may be looking at Bichsel, genuine Top 4 defenseman, heading into the postseason, as opposed to Bichsel, highly touted third pairing rookie. I’ll let you decide which is more appealing.