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The Dallas Stars scored three goals in 2:22 to push out to a big lead in a 5-4 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.
Young guns… also Mikko Rantanen is good
The first period of the first game felt like an adrenaline rush. After two hours of pregame and player intros, the Stars and Jets came out hot.
The first goal of the game was scored by Mikko Rantanen, who, by the way, looks like he is going to score 110 points this year. The way he can create space for himself and his vision when passing the puck is just ridiculous to watch. I almost forgot how good he was. Sam Steel made a couple of nice plays along the wall before making a great pass to Roope Hintz to create the goal.
And here’s a fun clip of Rantanen showing how much stronger he is than average players. I like it.
But I want to focus on two key players from two key “young” players.
Just before the second goal, Mavrik Bourque made a great defensive play as a Winnipeg power play was expiring. Bourque then controlled the puck, spun, and fired a puck up the ice to Hintz out of the box. Glen Gulutan opted to load up the top line with Rantanen, Hintz, and Jason Robertson following the successful penalty kill. Sounds a lot like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, eh?
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Maybe Gulutzan knows something about the Oilers. Just a thought.
After some zone time, Rantanen controlled the puck on his forehand along the wall and made an elite pass back into the high slot. There was Nils Lundkvist, who took his time and placed a perfect shot behind the shot block attempt of Tanner Pearson and past Connor Hellebuyck.
One period into this huge opportunity for Lundkvist and Bourque… So far, so good.
Gulutzan also shuffled the forward lines toward the end of the period:
- Robertson – Hintz – Rantanen
- Seguin – Duchene – Johnston
- Blackwell – Faksa – Bourque
- Hryckowian – Steel – Bastian
Connor Hellebuyck-buyck-penalty
Reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck has been the story of this game so far. Well, that and penalties.
Hellebuyck was outstanding in the first two periods, but really stood on his head as Dallas got going side to side in the second. Hellebuyck had to be quick and efficient to get over and rob Robertson, Heiskanen, Rantanen, and the list goes on. If he is not that good, the game is probably 3-1 or 4-1 Dallas.
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Here is one of those saves after a hilarious passing sequence between Esa Lindell and Heiskanen:
The penalties really racked up, taking away from the flow of the game and forcing Gulutzan to completely shuffle his forward lines all period. The only thing I didn’t like from all of that, other than Dallas not converting on any of the power plays, was Heiskanen over Harley on PP1 during a 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 power play.
Look, I have nothing against Heiskanen on the power play. He is an elite passer and a great player. But Harley is more dynamic and a dual threat. When you have all that open ice and want to creep in closer and closer, wouldn’t you want that guy up top quarterbacking the group? Instead, Heiskanen and co. overpassed the puck into the ice and created far fewer actual scoring chances than they should have.
I know I harped on this last year, but I really hope No. 55 gets his reps on the top power play because I think he is almost always the better option.
As expected, we had non-stop chaos, lots of penalties, mistakes, bench minors, and some fun. Hockey is back.
Let’s go to Denver, boys
Well, if there was any doubt about who was controlling this game through two periods, the first three and a half minutes put that to bed.
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Robertson scored a power-play goal — assisted by Rantanen again — just over one minute into the period.
Then, Matt Duchene went full Tony Hawk with the 360 in the slot before putting a perfect pass on the tape of Tyler Seguin on the backpost. Two minutes and 22 seconds is all it took to change a 2-1 game, which Winnipeg would’ve felt good about, into a 5-1 domination for Dallas.
Winnipeg made it very dicey, but the Stars lead was (just) too large.
I have to say, I knew we would see some more skilled plays from this team. Gulutzan and his staff have been preaching creativity and using hockey IQ.
But I had no clue we would see something like this. I know it’s only the first game. A long way to go. But Dallas heavily outshot Winnipeg after the first period, and a ton of their chances came off extremely high-skilled plays. I mean, look at this from Duchene…
If this is any sort of preview of what’s to come this year, I am all for it. Let the skill flow.
Also, despite not playing very well, Jake Oettinger made history…
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