3 Dallas Stars: Not perfect, Harley does it again in OT win vs Flyers

The Dallas Stars scored twice on three shots in the first period and withstood a comeback in a 3-2 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

I understand why you’re worried

I am not super worried about this team overall, but I do understand and feel some of the worries from fans right now — specifically in a couple of key areas.

Their offense has completely dried up. Dallas has not consistently scored as many goals. But more importantly to me, their shots on goal have been very low. Nearly every game, I look up and see somewhere in the range of 18-25 shots for Dallas (19 tonight). As I begin writing this section at second intermission, they have 10 shots.

That is a problem. Is it too much passing up chances? Is it simply not creating enough overall? Feels like a bit of both.

“I think it starts in our own end,” Matt Duchene said. “We talked about it yesterday, we’ve got to execute better coming out, not as many dirty pucks. I think we are too good of a team to just kind of muck it out. Against good teams, they kind of just turn and come back at you when you do that. So, I thought we did some better things tonight. I thought we were more connected and more supportive.”

The second area I worry about is intensity.

I am never, ever going to say a hockey player is not trying because it is more than likely just not true. But they can sometimes show up without a high enough level of intensity to play an NHL game. That has felt like the case too often lately, and it certainly seemed to continue today despite Stars coach Pete DeBoer trying to get their attention and no longer making excuses.

The result is not a lot of offense, passes off your back foot, and turning pucks over in your own end or the worst spots on the ice (offensive blue line being a big one).

But here’s the thing. I am not an NHL coach or player… far from it. And while I did not see much from this game today, the team and its coach did see it as a step forward.

I know it can be frustrating to watch and go down the rabbit hole of thinking they are doomed. But Duchene, Thomas Harley, Jamie Benn, and DeBoer all reiterated that it felt like a good first step to getting out of their funk.

Duchene said you don’t just flip a switch to get out of a funk. It takes time. Maybe this was step one.

Jake Oettinger

I know Jake Oettinger was not tested a lot (22 saves on 24 shots), but I do love to give goalies credit when it is due. Oettinger looked much more himself today. He was tracking the puck really well, looking through screens, and was beaten on two chances from wide-open shooters.

On the first goal, he forced Travis Konecny to hit the perfect spot, which he did. On the second, he was left out to dry and had to make a choice to either go for a poke check or sit back and try to make the save. A rolling puck helped Ryan Poehling elevate it in tight right under the bar. Not on Oettinger, either one.

Oettinger has been battling and dealing with the up and down lately, that is no secret. But he responded with great focus today and was big when his team needed him to be.

A great way to snap out of a funk is to have your goalie really step up or stand on his head. Well, usually it is. But DeSmith was incredible in the loss to Tampa Bay Thursday, and that certainly didn’t do it yet.

Where’s the fun?

It was kids day today at the AAC, which I love. But what did the kids get other than a free Thomas Harley shirt and some candy?

They got to watch a a fairly ugly hockey game with one team that is beaten to the pulp and well out of the playoffs and another that simply hasn’t looked itself consistently enough since the trade deadline.

I don’t mean that literally of course… there was plenty of fun to be had at the AAC today. But the fun level for fans has certainly taken a hit as of late.

I don’t have the answers. So we asked the captain.

“Something we can learn from,” Benn said. “Every game is different. It’s a long year, you’re going to go through your hot streaks and your dry spells. As long as we’re not giving up three or four goals we’ll be fine.”

DeBoer echoed this…

“Yeah, better. Better detail to our game, better compete,” DeBoer said. “It was a hard game out there. They defend well. They block a lot of shots, they don’t give you a lot of room, and they play hard, so we knew we were going to be in for that type of game and that sort of was… It wasn’t perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction after the last game.”

Quotable

Matt Duchene on his controversial non goal in the second period:

“Yeah, they’ve got to repaint those lines or something so we can actually see. I mean, it’s crazy to me that that’s (the goal line) the only thing that we have to tell whether the puck goes in or not, and it’s faint because it’s been Zambonied 400 times. I think it’s insane that we play in this league and we can’t tell where the line starts and ends because it’s not painted.”