There’s plenty to be happy about to kick the week off, as the Stars won two statement games against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and Winnipeg Jets yesterday. Oh, and Marchment continues his hot streak, highlighted by his spinning backhand goal in the third period yesterday that proved to be the game winner.
Happy Mush Monday, DBD! I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend. What may have been arguably nicer was Mason Marchment’s highlight reel goal yesterday that sealed the Stars’ victory over the Winnipeg Jets. D Magazine Contributor, Robert Tiffin, provided a recap of yesterday’s game, along with some post-game player/coach interviews. Summarizing what Tiffin writes early in his article, head coach Pete DeBoer called Wednesday’s loss to the Blackhawks a low point for the team, so by picking up two big wins against the Avalanche and Jets was the best way to hit the “reset” button as Tiffin called it. This win was not only important for the team, but for Stars’ goaltender Jake Oettinger who is trying to make his case to be named as one of two goalies for the Team USA roster for the Four Nations Faceoff in February:
“With the Four Nations Faceoff rosters about to be announced on Wednesday, this was a big statement game after Oettinger’s last appearance against the presumptive USA starter Connor Hellebuyck, when Oettinger was pulled after the Stars as a team failed to make a game of it in a bad loss. This time around, Oettinger let in the first goal he faced on a tricky deflection, then stopped everything else for the rest of the game en route to a big win.
“It would be one of the coolest things of my career to make that team,” said Oettinger of Team USA. “Hopefully I’ve done enough up to this point to do that, and I feel like I have, so we’ll see what happens.””
It wasn’t just Oettinger who played much better this time around compared to his last matchup with the Jets. The Stars as a whole played better. Stars’ defenseman Thomas Harley identified some keys to success in yesterday’s victory:
“We forechecked them better, we kind of slowed them up in the neutral zone a little bit better, and we defended better.
…Do those three things pretty well, you’re gonna have a good chance to win.”
Despite continued power play struggles (0 for 5 yesterday), the Stars were still able to come away with a win against not only one of the best teams in the NHL, but against one of, if not the best goaltender in the league.
You can read the rest of Tiffin’s article here.
Stars Stuff
Road warriors the rest of the week. First stop: Utah.
Not a bad way to start your Mystery Pick collection! I’m craving Whataburger now though…
It’s officially that time of year!
Around The Central
There are only three NHL games on the schedule today. Aside from the Stars and Utah Hockey Club facing off, the only other Central Division team playing today is the Chicago Blackhawks, who head north of the border to play the Toronto Maple Leafs who are one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now [ESPN].
The World of Chel
Too busy scooping up Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals and missed yesterday’s games? Not a problem; cash savings are more important, but this is what you missed:
Oh wow…🤯 . Vancouver better start warming up the Brinks truck!
No surprise here. The NHL future is bright for this kid:
Finally
Acts of kindness such as this always deserve recognition of their own. Class act, Otter! 🦦
