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The Dallas Stars needed a wonky lob shot from Jason Robertson late in a 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena (dumb name, go back to Staples Center, fools) on Monday.
Stars lines
- Steel – Johnston – Rantanen
- Robertson – Hintz – Bourque
- Hryckowian – Duchene – Benn
- Bäck – Faksa – Bastian
- Lindell – Heiskanen
- Harley – Petrovic
- Capobianco – Lundkvist
- Oettinger
- DeSmith
Scratches: Ilya Lyubushkin, Adam Erne, Colin Blackwell
I like the idea of scratching Lyubushkin… I even wrote about it today.
But I do not like the continued effort of making Sam Steel work on the top line.
I just don’t think it has at all. Steel has seven goals despite playing over 16 minutes per game with two of the most skilled forwards in the NHL. Meanwhile, Justin Hryckowian has seven goals in the bottom six, playing 12 minutes. Tyler Seguin also has seven goals and has played nearly 20 fewer games. Either way, there will be upgrades to the forward group by March.
Top story
Jamie Benn is back from his broken nose… And in style!
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Benn, for the first time since 2017, is sporting a visor tonight. Benn rocked a visor for his rookie season in 2009-10, but stopped after that and has been grandfathered in to the new rules that require all players to wear one.
Only Benn, Ryan Reaves, Zach Bogosian, and Ryan O’Reilly remain visorless in the league. Benn has a chance to be the last one to do so in NHL history. Benn last wore a visor when a high stick broke his nose in January 2017.
Live game notebook
Period 1
- Adrian Kempe made an absolutely awful backhand pass through the middle of the ice at the Dallas blue line. That’s a big no-no, and it did NOT work. Esa Lindell picked it off, moved the puck up quickly, and Steel found Wyatt Johnston in the slot. Darcy Kuemper continues to not see the puck well in front of him.
- Dallas has controlled play, but refuses to shoot the puck even with space and time to do it.
- Victory+ is showing a graphic right now about Mavrik Bourque. I knew Bourque had been better, but I didn’t realize he had three goals and five points in his last 10 games. That’s great, and this team needs it.
- Stars have done a much better job defending in their own end. Not allowing LA to get anything interior and forcing them to make mistakes and turn pucks over. So much better than previous games, so far.
- Jason Robertson wore a USC hockey jersey, arriving at the rink today in his old stomping grounds. Fun fact, we once played USC hockey — which is club, but very, very high-level club — and we lost 16-2. I think I scored, though, so that’s cool, right? We also played Arizona State the year before they went NCAA and when they already had their D1 recruits… That was even less fun.
- Low-event hockey in period one, but Dallas is fine with that, leading on the road against a stingy Kings team.
Stars 1, Kings 0
Period 2
- Corey Perry, who always seems to score against the Stars, just missed a wide-open net on a rebound. He shot it behind Jake Oettinger and out. But the issue before that was two turnovers by Dallas. First, the exchange between Oettinger and Miro Heiskanen was bumpy, but Heiskanen made a nice move to turn away from pressure along the wall. However, he then made the wrong decision, moving the puck on his backhand up to an empty wing. LA jumped on it and eventually won the battle and kept the puck in to create the chance.
- The game has opened up, but unfortunately, LA has far better chances and looks. Oettinger has made a couple of saves, and the Kings have missed the net. I am not sure there has been a whistle yet in the second period… They have played seven minutes.
- Now we got one.
- Oettinger made another good save on a breakaway by Warren Foegele. The Kings have completely taken this game over. Stars are starting to chase around their own end, which has plagued them lately.
- Shots are 10-2 in the period for Los Angeles. Dallas is still stuck on five shots. They do this a lot, but somehow still manage to score a lot of goals. Usually.
- Mikko Rantanen tried to sell interference on Drew Doughty. There wasn’t much there, and I think both are going to get called — Doughty for interference, and Rantanen for embellishment. It’s a clear embellishment, in my opinion. Rantanen is good at seeing light contact coming, initiating, grabbing hold of the stick or an arm, and then going down with his feet up. He loves drawing penalties. He may love taking them more…
- LA has done a great job keeping Dallas out of the important areas. The Stars are getting shots blocked and are unable to get bodies inside the defense. As of now, they are okay with a 1-0 lead. But with only nine shots, they are taking on water and are just one LA goal away from having to really scrap for some more offense.
Stars 1, Kings 0
Period 3
- Brandt Clarke is flying to start the third. He had two chances, first collecting a puck one-handed at the bottom of the left circle and dancing Kyle Capobianco out of the corner. Then, he jumped up in the rush, made a nice drop pass, and forced Oettinger to make a sprawling glove save from a sharp angle.
- Clarke again… This time, he gives LA the first power play, forcing Benn to trip him as he picked off a high flip and pushed the rush again.
- Oettinger made a perfectly timed poke check to break up a wide-open backdoor pass after Clarke once again created a chance with a nice pass down low.
- Good kill for Dallas. Oettinger had the poke check, but the rest was up to the PK in front of him.
- Just after the penalty expired, Nils Lundkvist got beaten to a loose puck behind the net and took an unnecessary tripping penalty. Taking penalties has been a problem lately for Dallas. But stacking them on top of one another has made things even worse over the recent span. Now, they have to kill again in quick succession.
- After Dallas cannot clear the puck, a partially blocked shot rolls its way to Perry in front, and he makes a nifty no-look pass to Quinton Byfield on the backdoor. It’s the 500th career assist for Perry, and the Kings have found that tying goal. Ruh-roh.
- Puck luck has somewhat evened itself out, as Radek Faksa now missed a wide-open net on a wraparound on the same side of the ice that Perry did.
- Rantanen is high-event hockey. Rantanen carried the puck down the right wall, created a good chance for Oskar Bäck, then the wraparound for Faksa, then collected a rolling puck and hammered it past Darcy Kuemper on the glove side. But… LA is challenging for offside, and the goal has been overturned. Still 1-1.
- If you ever wonder why I/we get annoyed with the lack of shots from Dallas… here is why: You never know what’s going to happen when you get pucks to/toward the net. It can create chaos, draw penalties, deflect off bodies, and produce rebounds, no matter how tough the shot. Need an example? How about Jason Robertson’s backhand LOB from deep to put Dallas up 2-1 late? When you simply choose not to shoot until you have the perfect play, you struggle to score. Well, Dallas doesn’t because their shooting percentage is absurd. But in normal hockey, you do. And things like this don’t get to happen…
- Steel made all Stars fans hearts drop when he drilled the post on an empty net from the blue line, but Matt Duchene hit the yawning cage the next time up the ice to put the game away.
Final: Stars 3, Kings 1
That was so, so ugly. But it was also a big win for a Stars team that needed just that. Now onto the second night of the back-to-back in Anaheim on Tuesday.
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