Dallas Stars Daily Links: Breaking Down a Blowout by Vernon Fiddler, Brett Ritchie
How badly did the Stars beat the Wild? It was pretty bad. Also, Jagr is still pretty good, and David Perron scored a goal playing with Sidney Crosby. People do that, turns out.
How great was that game yesterday? It was a Very Great Game. Many players had points, and Tyler Seguin finally opened his bakery up for the first time since last year. That sounds weird.
I'm not sure if it was mentioned last night, but do you know who led the Stars in points yesterday? Go on, guess. Guess, I say!
No, it wasn't Brett Ritchie, who went 1-1=2, or Vernon Fiddler, who went 2-0=2. It was Jamie Oleksiak, of course. His lights-out performance of 0-3=3 led the team, although Jason Spezza probably should have had at least two goals of his own and an assist to Hemsky as well. But what can you say, sometimes the hockey luck dragon just shows up and says, "Jason Spezza, I am going to make you a neutral Corsi player tonight with no points. Then I am going to make sure Jamie Oleksiak gets three points, and Travis Moen (no, I said Moen) gets a +17 Corsi rating. Hey, are these all your Christmas presents here? I'm just going to take those, too. Tell your friends about the magical visit from Rudolph the Luck Dragon! Also, shoot the puck more." I hate it when the hockey luck dragon shows up.
Anyway, let's plant our digital hands on our digital hips and survey the detritus left by the Stars' recent bit of work. The Stars have scored 26 goals in their last six games for a 4.33/goals per game average. That's including the 4-0 loss against Toronto. Take that out (you can't actually do this, though; it's cheating) and the Stars have scored 5.2 goals per game in their last five wins.
Goal prevention is very important, and the Stars should keep doing it. But if they want to keep scoring a billion goals, that will also help.
Okay, the fun stuff. Last night's basic stats, from NHL.com:
Faceoffs: 38-31, Dallas
Takeaways: 10-3, Dallas
Shots on Goal: 35-22, Dallas
Penalty Minutes: Minnesota had 57, Dallas had 35 (thanks, Stu)
Shot Attempts, from War-on-Ice:
Finally, this isn't exactly related to the Wild, but it seems like a Fun Fact:
Brett Ritchie (@britch20) is 1st @DallasStars player to score a goal in each of his 1st two NHL games since Mike Modano (1989-90). #MINvsDAL
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 4, 2015 * * * * *
Remember, tonight's game is "nationally televised" on Outdoor Life Network/Versus/VS/NBC Sports Network, because the world needs to be reminded that the Blackhawks still exist. It's been almost three days since their Winter Classic appearance, after all.
Would you like to read a recap of that game yesterday? You would like to read a recap of that game yesterday. [Stars]
David Schlemko will help the Stars' young defensemen, says Mike Heika. [DMN]
Ed Sarno lays out his five reasons for the Stars' recent success. [The Hockey Writers]
In case you missed it, Jyrki Jokipakka has been assigned to the AHL (thanks, David Schlemko) and Shawn Horcoff assigned to the IR. [DMN]
If the Blackhawks are the Empire, Zemgus Girgensons is whatever the Latvian equivalent is for Luke Skywalker. Girgensons and five other Blackhawks were the top vote-getters for the NHL All-Star Game. [ESPN]
Kris Vertsteeg will miss a month with an injury related to blocking a shot in the Winter Classic. [NHL]
From the continuing files of Jaromir Jagr: Awesome Person, #68 scored a hat trick last night against the Philadelphia Flyers "Hockey Team." Jagr becomes the oldest player ever to record a hat trick. [Pro Hockey Talk]
David Perron scored a goal in his Penguins debut. You hear that, David Schlemko? All the cool Davids are scoring goals in their debuts. [NHL Video]
Sad news came down yesterday that CapGeek.com is ceasing operations due to the health of its founder, Matthew Wuest. In lieu of the wonderful UI of CapGeek, the next best site is probably NHL Numbers, but it's still a big loss. [NHLNumbers]
Finally, the Nashville Predators blew leads of 5-1 and 6-3 against Los Angeles in what I would call an embarrassing win for the Preds. Nashville gave up THREE goals in the final 2:01 of the third period to surrender the lead, but Roman Josi would promptly exhibit his disgust with the whole situation and put the OT winner past QuickMartin Jones right off the bat in the extra frame:
