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The Dallas Stars had a goal disallowed with under one second remaining in a 3-2 loss against the New York Islanders at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.
The Cap is Back!
Tyler Seguin was far too loud at morning skate for a normal night. But tonight was not a normal night, was it?
Jamie Benn is back, folks!
After exactly eight weeks away from game play due to a collapsed lung and surgery to repair it, Benn is on the ice to play his first game of the 2025-26 Dallas Stars season.
The words I keep hearing the past few days are “heart and soul” when talking about Benn and his meaning to this team.
Benn is the captain. That’s the obvious. He provides captain leadership on and off the ice. But Benn is also different than many captains. If you talk to him in the dressing room, especially if you add a camera or microphone to the mix, you would never know he was the captain. You may not even know if he is actually awake or micro-napping. It has become part of Stars lore, knowing that all you will get from Benn in an official interview is a few words, some side eye stares, and a whole bunch of sniffles.
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But when you ask others about Benn, that is where you start to understand the character underneath the No. 14 Victory Green sweater.
It’s Benn who stands up when his team is down. It’s Benn who is first to congratulate a teammate for a milestone, accomplishment, or even a nice play on the ice. It’s Benn who comes back to Texas early and invites teammates to his house for some extra training. It’s Benn who backs up his teammates on the ice, sometimes even going a bit too far to protect his buddies and set a tone.
And on the flip side, you get the most out of Benn when asking him about other players.
That is often the case with hockey players in general, I know. But it is so much the case with Benn that it needs to be said anyway. I can remember asking Benn about Tyler Seguin, or Wyatt Johnston, or a teammate who had recently become a Dad, and the list goes on. He still hides it under all of his traditional “speaking to media” activities, but you can see the pride and excitement for his friends… You just have to look really closely.
Benn is nearing a whole bunch of milestones, too.
Somehow, he is still sitting on 399 career goals. I asked Lian Bichsel about this, but he gave me a dirty look and walked away. Did I miss something?? (Joking, by the way). Benn can score his 400th tonight. That would be neat. But he is also eight games away from 1,200 and just 44 points away from 1,000, which Josh Clark shared earlier today. Follow Josh if you don’t; he is a stat machine.
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Benn is also coming off seasons with 21 and 16 goals, respectively. So, he was missed on the ice for real hockey reasons, too.
It’s good to have you back, Cap.
In a week full of celebration, the Stars also honored Daryl “Razor” Reaugh for his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
While we’re at it, it was Roope Hintz’ birthday yesterday, the seven-year anniversary of his first goal is today, and I got some popcorn out of my teeth that had been there for a week.
Plus, I learned how to spell the word “separate.” So… Who really shines brightest around here?
Tight checking hockey, QueBäck, & Robo again
The second period was as cliché “tight checking hockey” as it gets. Really, a lot of this game has been that way.
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Each team tallied five shots. And it felt that way. Outside of Jason Robertson nailing the crossbar on a backdoor pass with the net wide open, there were not many chances for either team.
Speaking of Robertson, though, let’s start with his goal because why not?
Robertson jumps all over this puck along the wall after Miro Heiskanen swipes it away. Somehow, Tony DeAngelo not only doesn’t get the puck or man (a big no-no), but he also allows Robertson to easily chip it one-handed by him and rush the other way on a 3-on-1. Robertson plays catch back and forth with Seguin before depositing the tying goal.
The goal itself should also probably not go in, despite the passing from Dallas. But David Rittich makes a mess of it, beginning to pop up from his butterfly while the shot is on its way.
It was not a good play from the Islanders. It was a pretty good play by Dallas. And it resulted in a goal.
Robertson has TEN goals this season (now 11…). That may not sound super crazy in 20 games. But it would put him in the top 20 of NHL goal scorers, and keep in mind, he scored just two goals through his first 16 games. He has seven (eight) in his last four. And the game tonight isn’t even over yet.
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Okay, now I want to talk about the line of Oskar Bäck, Justin Hryckowian, and Mavrik Bourque. Otherwise known as the “QueBäck” line (thanks to madi). That is a brilliant nickname. Not only does it make sense and have a clever twist. But when you say it out loud, it just sounds like Quebec, which is funny. Well done, madi.
That line had been so good early on, spending every shift with possession in the offensive end. I was so ready to brag about their recent success and growing chemistry. Then Bourque couldn’t get a puck out, the Islanders scored, and the trio ate another minus on the early third-period goal that put New York up again.
So… instead, let’s all just remember how good the nickname is!
TWO crazy sequences put the game away
I am going to try to explain this step by step.
After a wonky goal put the Islanders ahead, Dallas was showing very few signs of life. But then Bäck did one of the things he does best: get hit in the face.
Bäck is already sporting a gnarly scar on his nose from a hit in Nashville, where he was simultaneously hit by the opponent’s helmet and bent backward over the boards in an unnatural way. When Bäck was hit in the face by Bo Horvat’s stick at center ice tonight, it, or the force of the play scraped off the existing scab from his nose.
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As you all probably already know, when a scab comes off prematurely, it bleeds.
As you also probably know, when an NHL player bleeds from an opponent’s high stick, it results in a four-minute power play. That’s what happened here. Well, that and Horvat getting a 10-minute misconduct for arguing that eventually ended his night early.
So Dallas went up a man for four minutes. Perfect! They can tie the game and even take the lead with the hottest power play in the league! Or… the Stars can turn the puck over at the attacking blue line, and Kyle Palmieri can come down and put the Isles up 3-1 shorthanded. And then Benn can take a penalty and end the rest of the power play.
That works too!
But later one, the chaos really took place.
With Dallas trailing 3-1, Robertson scored his 11th and second of the night after drawing the high stick minor himself. Hope was starting to return, as the Stars still had just under two minutes to tie the game and somehow steal a point.
Then Mikko Rantanen crashed into Alexander Romanov, who went violently into the end boards and stayed down writhing in pain. Rantanen was swarmed by Islanders and given a major penalty and game misconduct. But after the physical stuff quieted down, it looked like Rantanen said something to Isles defenseman Scott Mayfield. Mayfield lost it and tried to attack Rantanen, and the two jawed at each other for a bit as they were guided off the ice.
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Before we get into the rest, here is what Stars coach Glen Gulutzan had to say about the hit.
“Everybody’s going to have their own take. But if you watch the play, I think it’s Mayfield, the defenseman, who actually holds up [Rantanen], and they actually clip skates,” Gulutzan said. “So, [Rantanen] is off balance going in there, too. And if you played the game, and you’re off balance heading in, you usually put your hands out. I’ve seen [Rantanen] play enough over the last ten years that it’s just one of those hockey plays that happen. I hope Romanov is okay… It’s a dangerous play for everybody.”
I bring that up because I wonder if Rantanen said something like that to Mayfield. And while your teammate is laying in pain on the ice because of a hit into the boards, I can see why Mayfield lost his mind.
If you look at the replay, it is clear that they do clip skates and Rantanen certainly looks to be falling into Romanov rather than hitting him. But we will see what the league things in terms of further discipline.
Romanov did not need to go to the hospital; that was the only update after the game.
This play made the AAC fall silent. Then, as Rantanen is skating off the ice between the benches, Islanders coach Patrick Roy is bright red and screaming toward the Dallas bench. He then screams and gestures at Rantanen, who is standing between the benches waiting to see if he is kicked out of the game. Roy and Stars assistant coach Alain Nasreddine started going at it, and all hell broke loose.
If you have ever watched Roy play or coach, you know he has this in him. I am just now curious to find out what he was saying. And if it was in french or english.
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But despite all that going on… Gulutzan had his team huddled at the other end of the bench, planning what they would do to get a 6-on-5 and try to tie the game in the final seconds. He said he wanted to get his forwards to blow the zone so they could dump the puck into the New York end and get the goalie out and the right personnel on. Well, it worked. And I give him and the team a lot of credit because they did find a way to score and tie the game… With 0.1 remaining on the clock.
Only problem was, according to the situation room in Toronto, the goal was not a legal one. After calling it a goal on the ice, they overturned it, stating that Robertson interfered with Rittich before the goal. As Seguin said after… Dallas thought Robertson was pushed in, and New York thought he went in on his own, so the contact after didn’t matter.
Robertson said it best when asked what he saw on the play…
“I don’t know, I was on my butt.”
It’s a loss, and a wild one after a sleepy, sleepy first 40ish minutes. But I think the fact that Dallas found a way, AGAIN, to come back and overcome all of the craziness and adversity to focus and find a way… That’s a great trait to have, and it was really impressive.
Quotable
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan on Jamie Benn’s return
“Close to 10 minutes was probably where he needs to be after a couple of months… I can still see there’s some polish there… I just thought it was a good first game for him to be back. He’s physical, you can still see that. He has that element for us, gives us size and puck play along the wall. We’ll build him up as we go here…
“To be honest with you, the guys were waiting for him to come back. It’s good for our group… He’s certainly an asset for our group moving forward.”
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