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The Dallas Stars blew a 2-0 lead in a wild and ugly 7-5 loss against the Anaheim Ducks at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
I heard this Wyatt kid is pretty good
I don’t really want to know what this team’s offense looks like without Mikko Rantanen. But that’s obvious, right?
How about this 22-year-old Wyatt Johnston kid? I heard he’s pretty good, too. So good, in fact, that he is — as I write this — just one goal from the league lead.
Johnston didn’t wait too long to add to his total, scoring a power-play goal in the first six minutes of the game. And was it ever a beauty?
With the full top power-play unit back in place, now that Roope Hintz has returned, the Stars had the Ducks spinning on the pond with a tic-tac-toe passing play that eventually went from Rantanen to Johnston and into the back of the net.
Look how fast this puck is off Rantanen’s stick on the pass. Then look how quickly Johnston gets the shot off from the bumper position. It’s easy to see why Lukáš Dostál was well behind the shot to his blocker side. And PP1 was not done yet.
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On their next power-play chance, the Stars went full lather, rinse, repeat to go up 2-0. This time, Hintz won the faceoff back to Heiskanen. After a quick back and forth with Jason Robertson, Heiskanen saw Johnston absolutely wide open and alone on top of the crease.
Johnston was calling for a shot to deflect right off the draw, as you can see his stick straight in front of him, giving both Robertson and Heiskanen a target. Heiskanen put the puck there, and Johnston channeled his former landlord, Joe Pavelski, with a perfect deflection off the shaft and behind his back.
Thing of beauty.
In case you missed it, I talked to Tyler Seguin and Stars coach Glen Gulutzan about Johnston the other day.
Mental mistakes and quite the monkey off Seguin’s back
When the Stars have made mistakes this year, they have made the big ones. And it usually costs them. Tonight, in the second period specifically, that was certainly the case.
On the Ducks first goal, Oskar Bäck led the shorthanded rush up the ice with Miro Heiskanen and eventually Colin Blackwell. Bäck opted not to pass, held onto the puck, then dumped a pass to Heiskanen in the corner. Heiskanen let the puck go through, then went off to change.
The problem is that nobody covered for him rushing up the ice. AND everybody else changed. So by the time Heiskanen tried to go to the bench and realized he couldn’t, he was too out of position, and a stretch pass sent Chris Kreider in alone down the left side.
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Yes, Jake Oettinger can make this save. But the chance should never even happen.
The second Ducks goal had similar mistakes.
Robertson turned the puck over at the Anaheim blue line… a BIG no-no… and all three Stars forwards changed… also a BIG no-no when you turn it over and the opponent rushes the other way. But the worst part of the play was Lian Bichsel’s defending. To be honest, I have no idea what he was doing on this rush. He must have just never seen Ian Moore coming down the back side because he floated around in the high slot, turned the wrong way, and didn’t cover him or anyone.
Congratulations to Moore on his first NHL goal.
Alright, Sam, stop being so negative. I gotchu!
After 1,003 career games, Tyler Seguin finally scored a goal against the Anaheim Ducks.
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97 shots are a lot.
Now, he has not yet technically scored against all 32 NHL franchises because Arizona is no longer a team, and Utah has branded itself a new organization. But this was a funny stat and story for a long time, and tonight, it finally came to an end.
The goal itself was nice, too. Seguin did a great job finding the soft spot between two Ducks defenders at the blue line. Sam Steel found him with a good pass, and Seguin dashed in and scored over the pad and under the glove of Dostál.
Back to negative. After dominating the first period and getting another goal in the second, the Stars are somehow trailing 4-3 after 40.
Dissapointing second “buries” Dallas
Instead of talking about what happened in the third period, which was A LOT, I am going to look at this game through the eyes of Stars coach Glen Gulutzan.
Gulutzan really liked the Stars first period. Their main game plan was to limit the rush chances against. That’s Anaheim’s game. They have always played that way, with a ton of skill and speed. If you allow them to go up and down the ice, they will make you pay. That’s why they have already scored seven goals four times early this season.
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Tonight, Dallas did absolutely everything to give them those opportunities.
As soon as that first Ducks goal went in, Dallas began forcing plays, turning pucks over in bad areas, making poor changes, and losing coverage off the rush. Gulutzan specifically didn’t like that after the first goal, the Stars were unable to reel it in. After that point, it was an Anaheim Ducks-type of game that Dallas was second-best at.
“We didn’t give them anything, and then they got the early goal off a penalty kill that was going good, and then it kind of ignited them,” Gulutzan said. “And we made some mistakes… Our game plan against a very good rush team was to limit the amount of rushes, and then we started extending our shifts and turning pucks over after one goal.”
For a veteran team like Dallas, it’s a bit surprising to see an unraveling like we saw tonight. Now, I know all teams have off nights. But the Stars pride themselves on being a structured defensive team. And they have done that throughout most of the early season. But to see them allow one goal and then spiral was a bit surprising.
I asked Gulutzan how they can put a stop to the tide turning like that and steal back momentum. Or at the very least, move the needle closer to the median.
“What I didn’t like is that one-goal mentality and not being able to get it back right away… But you’ve got to stop the momentum a little quicker than we did,” Gulutzan said. “Really simplifying [the game]. We turn a puck over at the blue line and they go down and score on a rush, make it 2-2. That puck just needs to go in behind, we’re late in a shift. It’s just little things.”
Maybe Dallas needed this slap in the face after finding a way to earn points in seven straight games. Maybe they will get back to work tomorrow and tighten up some areas that need tightening up. Hopefully, that is the case, and this becomes a one-off wild game we look back on and laugh.
Quotable
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan
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“Our second [period] buried us is really what happened.”
Random note
I saw Nils Lundkvist after the game, walking on crutches and sporting a boot on his foot. It is the first time I’ve seen him since he was injured and eventually went on LTIR. Good to see him around the rink, at least.
If you missed any of the fun chaos from mullet hair night on PNC Plaza, make sure to check out all of our content!
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