The Dallas Stars opened their 2025-26 preseason with a 2-1 shootout win against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Chuckin’ knucks & eatin’ Ritz

First of all, welcome back Stars fans!

It’s the first period of the first preseason game, and all through the house, a Justin Hryckowian is looking for trouble and stirring about. Okay, I am done with the rhyming.

But just over four minutes into the opening period, Hryckowian dropped the gloves with Nathan Walker, a decently proven NHL fighter, and he held his own before pulling the sweater over Walker’s head.

Hryckowian is the most interesting player for me during camp.

Will he make the team on opening night? No, there’s no room with the depth signings this summer. But the battle to be the first call-up is very real, and Hryckowian is leading that, in my opinion. The 2024-25 AHL rookie of the year plays above his “level”. He has excellent hockey IQ, underrated skill, and is very good at making the right play in tight spaces.

Hryckowian had a chance to win the game after taking a penalty in the third. Coming out of the box, he beat his man to the net and took a beautiful backhand pass from Adam Erne on the backdoor… but couldn’t elevate enough to get it over the pad of Colten Ellis in net.

Jordan Binnington played the first 40 minutes for St. Louis and allowed just one goal on 20 Dallas shots… as he usually does.

Mavrik is feelin’ dangerous & some defensive tweaks

All of the regulation goal scoring came in the second period of this one. After the Blues took a 1-0 lead on a funky hook shot five-hole from the left circle, Dallas tilted the ice.

Before we get to the tying goal, I want to talk about defense and adjustments.

One issue we saw under Pete DeBoer was the lack of in-game adjustments. Or at least, ones that work. Tonight, Dallas looked out of sorts and allowed St. Louis to create some chances. But that changed in the second…

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Now, as a coach, you pick apart things, and there’s some work we’ve got to do in our D-zone, and we made a little adjustment there. It’s going to take us some time to get really good, but obviously, that’s the goal.”

Preseason game one, and Gulutzan has already shown that he can put a team on the ice that’s physical, defends well, can adjust in-game, and can find a way to win. Good stuff.

Now, to Mavrik Bourque.

We all know the importance of this preseason for Bourque. He has a real shot at earning an upgraded role, and a good camp, preseason, and start to the 82 can go a long way. I thought he was good tonight. Maybe he tried too much here and there, but he created offense, got plenty of experience on the power play and in the 3v3 overtime, and he drove hard to the net and tied the game on a rebound in tight.

“Just creating plays, creating offense,” Bourque said about what he wants to work on during training camp. “I think I have a good defensive game overall, and obviously, you want to be battling hard. But I think for me, the main point is just creating as much offense as I can, and it’s just going to build my confidence and be ready to go for game one in Winnipeg.”

Preseason overtime? … A PRESEASON SHOOTOUT?? In what world?

This is going to be short and sweet. WHO ALLOWS PRESEASON GAMES TO GO TO OVERTIME??? And then a shootout?!

Get out of town. Take a hike. Go to the parking lot and have a sandwich, as my Dad likes to say.

I think it’s very dumb and silly. And the overtime being pretty dull didn’t help. But Sam Steel scored a nifty backhand five-hole shootout goal, and the Stars got the win.

Quotable

Justin Hryckowian when asked if he is a fighter:

“I’m just a hockey player.”

I also wanted to include this because it is good to see Radek Faksa back in Victory Green.