In my preview of the matchup between the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers, I remarked upon how both teams were desperate for a win and could use the points. I opined that with each team’s given tendencies to date this season, with both struggling to score most nights and also struggling to limit their goals against at times, this game could have been a 2-1 goalie dual or a wild wild west style 5-3 game.
The Stars and Oilers picked the wild wild west style today.
This game had everything. It started with Dallas jumping out to a two goal lead off of – wait for it – even strength scoring. There was secondary scoring by the Stars, with goals from Antoine Roussel, Devin Shore, and Radek Faksa in the game. The big players like Alexander Radulov, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and John Klingberg found their way on the scoresheet, as they should.
Then there was a two-goal lead blown by the Stars. A goalie change for the Stars after Kari Lehtonen let in the third goal against today. To top it off, there was plenty of special teams action with the Edmonton Oilers having a slight edge in that battle after scoring both a power play goal and a shorthanded goal in the contest. (Dallas only scored a power play goal, so point Edmonton on that score.)
But the biggest storyline in today’s game might have been the nasty edge both teams were playing with.
It felt reminiscent of the Oilers and Stars of the 90s a bit, when the teams were seemingly always meeting in the Western Conference playoffs. That physicality and dislike for each other may be a product of the underachievement so far this season of both hockey clubs. It’s almost felt like both teams decided to take out all those frustrations on one another.
Granted, it feels strange to say that a game in which the Stars allowed three goals against feels like a good game. But, this one did to me. The fight and compete I saw from the Stars today to continue getting those goals and not being pushed around on the puck was heartening.
They were trailing in the game less than one minute into the second period. One goal leads have felt nearly insurmountable by Dallas for most of the season, and they haven’t exactly given Stars fans many reasons to believe today would be any different. But they kept fighting for it. They managed to tie the game, and then they never looked back after they got the go-ahead goal.
Instead of going into a defensive shell in the third period like they have seemed to do in nearly every game in which they have led this season, the Stars continued to push on offense. They were rewarded with two more goals in the last frame to seal the win away and double-up the Oilers on offense.
When they weren’t busy scoring, the Stars were busy standing up for each other. They weren’t allowing Edmonton to come in and impose their physical will on the team. Greg Pateryn and Jamie Oleksiak both fought today, with Milan Lucic heavily involved in a lot of the extra-curricular shenanigans tonight from the other side. Antoine Roussel got a misconduct and an unsportsmanlike conduct minor. Even John Klingberg recorded a minor for roughing after Lucic interfered with Ben Bishop near the end of the game, something he and the Stars as a whole took a lot of exception to.
Maybe, just maybe, this kind of game has galvanized something within this team. They seemed to play a complete team game, even if the defense could have used some work at times. Dallas muddled through the tough parts of the game, and instead of buckling under the pressure and falling apart completely (something they’ve done in several games this season), they continued to fight for each other.
It wasn’t a pretty game, but they finally looked more like the Stars team most fans envisioned in the summer after all of the moves Dallas made to signal they were going to contend this season. Maybe, just maybe, this game was a step in the right direction – and the beginning of a good stretch of winning hockey in Big D.
We’ll have to wait and see.