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The Dallas Stars fell behind 2-0 but made another comeback in a 4-3 shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.
That can’t be ideal, right?
The Stars and Oilers have developed a theme. Unfortunately, Dallas has ended up on the wrong side of that theme far too often.
After an ugly and dramatic Game 5 ended the Stars 2024-25 season, the city wanted redemption. The Stars stole Edmonton’s power-play coach, both teams made a few changes, and the results were surely going to be different!
Well… about eight minutes into the first matchup, Edmonton is up 2-0 (where have we heard that before?) after a few crucial mistakes from Dallas.
First, Thomas Harley took a bad angle and got beat wide by Jack Roslovic. Ilya Lyubushkin considered Roslovic a threat, despite being on a pretty sharp angle, so he slid over and helped. Roslovic made a nice one-handed pass to a wide-open Vasily Podkolzin coming down the back side. Meanwhile, Harley and Lyubushkin were covering the same player, and Mavrik Bourque was in no man’s land, not helping out on Podkolzin.
It is hard to pick who is really at fault here, so I will say this is a good example of a chain reaction of errors.
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If Harley either plays that better or Lyubushkin trusts Casey DeSmith to make a save down low, there is no threat. Or, Bourque could have recognized that he is the only forward back and therefore, the only one who can cover the back door when Lyubushkin slides over.
None of that happened, and it was an ugly goal that put Edmonton up 1-0.
The second goal came after a fairly soft call on Esa Lindell for cross-checking Connor McDavid.
On the penalty kill, Harley had a chance with no pressure to get the puck out. He went off the glass right onto the stick of Evan Bouchard, and soon after, Leon Draisaitl blasted a one-timer from his spot at goal line extended to make it 2-0.
Harley has not had a very good season so far. There have been a few moments of glory, like his elite pass to Justin Hryckowian in Florida. But a lot of the year has been bobbled pucks, misread rushes, and turnovers. That has continued tonight with two tough plays on the Edmonton goals, plus a drop pass into a changing bench that resulted in a too-many-men minor and killed a Dallas power play.
It is not quite the 2-0 Western Conference Final Pete DeBoer drama, but it’s also not a good start… something that has also become a theme lately.
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“I do have a theory,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said about the early deficits. “I think there’s still part of us that’s tentative, and it’s coming out. It’s working its way out of the system. That’s really what I believe. I think we’ve got a great group of guys that want to do everything right, but what we’ve been talking about this last week is we need to just play hockey…
“We’ve got all these system changes and everything, we’ve got them now. But within all the structure, there’s got to be hockey players. I’m trying now, as a coach, to free them up to play. Half the game is random, and in that random part of the game, we need instinct and hockey guys. That’s where I’m trying to free them up. I think it’s going to get out of our system very soon, and when it does, sky’s the limit.”
Mr. 300+ and Mr. Bobblehead, Moose ears sold separately
It was Mikko Rantanen bobblehead night at the AAC! And from what I saw and heard, the team and arena did a much better job with the distribution this time around.
Sure, there are still many for sale on eBay and Facebook Marketplace, but it’s tough to do anything about that. There were approximately double the number of bobbleheads, and fans were able to quickly grab one as they entered the arena rather than waiting in yet another massive line.
Then, Rantanen scored his 300th career goal to celebrate the occasion and bring Dallas back within a goal.
The best part of the play was the slip pass by Tyler Seguin along the wall just before the goal. The pressure from the Edmonton PK gets on Seguin quick, but he is able to make a slip pass to Wyatt Johnston in between the two Oilers. Johnston finds Jason Robertson in the slot, who is robbed by Stuart Skinner and cannot buy a goal. Johnston hits the post on the rebound, and there is Rantanen to clean things up.
The Stars are within a goal after 40. And they have been the better team overall. The problem is that when they do make mistakes, they have been the big ones that end in a penalty or goal against. That’s been a consistent problem all season, and one I am not sure is easily solved with just a few healthy bodies back.
But it’s a one-goal game and another chance to steal some points. And I am not sure Mr. Rantanen is done yet…
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Comeback kids do it again and again
Does it matter that the Stars have allowed the first goal in eight of their last nine games? Does it matter that they constantly go down 2-0? Sure, it does.
But what if I told you they have found a way to not only come back and make those games tight, but also secure a point or win seven of them?!
Well, that’s what they have done.
Johnston said this team has developed that belief over the years because, well, they have had plenty of practice. Gulutzan joked that the Stars have had plenty of practice in their defensive zone because they have spent way too much time there. The same can be said for the comebacks. And they did it again.
I was so ready to be negative here, and I will still show you a good example of that overthinking or not simply making hockey reads coming back to bite them.
The poor reads and bad coverage on this play, in the end allowing a seam pass through the slot to the best player in the world, is perfect for that.
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But then it was Rantanen and co.
Rantanen quickly made it 3-2 on the next shift, then Miro Heiskanen tied the game after Robertson made a beautiful pass off the wall in the neutral zone to spring Rantanen and Johnston on the rush. Somehow, Johnston’s wrist shot deflects off the back of Rantanen’s leg, spins perfectly off the end boards, and comes back out in front for Heiskanen to slam into an open net.
Then, we got to watch Heiskanen 1-on-1 with McDavid in overtime. Rantanen and Gulutzan said Heiskanen is one of maybe three players who could skate with McDavid like that with all the open ice of 3-on-3 overtime. And he did it to perfection.
Robertson and Johnston scored in the shootout to complete the comeback.
Quotable
Mikko Rantanen on his bobblehead
“Yeah, I’ve got a big head anyways, so it fits me.”
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