The Dallas Stars took a big lead and never let it go in a much-needed blowout 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

The Stars healthiest game of the year

The Stars entered the game against Anaheim tonight with 14 healthy forwards and seven defensemen. You heard that right… 21 healthy skaters! That’s unheard of.

Some of us joked last week that Stars coach Glen Gulutzan wouldn’t know how to run a practice with so many bodies. It’s a joke, but behind it is some truth. Dallas has been plastered with injuries this season.

Now, they have gotten Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Thomas Harley, Nils Lundkvist, and Adam Erne back in the lineup after long absences. The Stars are now so healthy and deep, in fact, that they had to waive a solid 24-year-old defenseman. And so healthy that Nathan Bastian has been scratched seven straight games. Now Colin Blackwell is sitting with him in Anaheim because of the return of Erne.

Erne missed 18 games after knee surgery after making the team on a PTO out of training camp. He was also coming off the same hip surgery as Tyler Seguin, done by the same doctor… On the same day. Erne played in only 14 games before the injury, so we really don’t know what his ceiling is.

Against the Ducks, Erne played 10:57 and even scored his third goal of the season when he found a loose puck in front. Erne now has more goals than Blackwell, Harley, and Radek Faksa, and is just one behind Sam Steel and Mavrik Bourque. I don’t know what his future is with this organization, but Erne has made a nice case as a big body who can play hard and add a few goals — What Steel and Bourque have struggled to do.

Only Seguin and Lian Bichsel are left on the injured list. Seguin had surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn ACL and is likely done for the season, although not officially yet. Bichsel’s timeline says he could return before or just after the Olympics.

Progress.

Everything is happening backward

Dallas was outshot early. They were outshot in the first period. They were outshot in the second period. They were outshot in the game. They took three penalties and only drew one until a double minor midway through the third when the game was out of hand. They started the night often in the wrong spots and wrong side of the puck, opening the ice for a back-and-forth game, which heavily favors the Ducks’ style and skill.

But then you looked up at the scoreboard toward the end of the first period and saw the Stars up 4-1. And up 7-1 after 40.

Anaheim had opportunities to create offense with some open ice. Instead, they turned the puck over repeatedly and gave Dallas the time and space to find its game. And they did, as the Stars really started outskating Anaheim and continued to do so.

Dallas scored on its only power play through two periods and killed off all three opportunities for the Ducks. Anaheim struggled to even get shots off when up a man. And because the Ducks are at the top of the league in short-handed goals, of course, Dallas scored down a man in the first period.

Nothing made sense.

Oh, and Lukáš Dostál helped the cause for the Stars with a whopping .333 save percentage and four goals against before getting pulled early in the game.

Jason Robertson’s night was the perfect example of how backward this game was. I was ready to write and talk about Robertson really struggling tonight. He had not recorded a point in three straight, and he started the game with a tripping penalty when he stopped his feet behind the Anaheim net. It was unnecessary and lazy, and it looked like he was going to have a tough game. He added another minor in a nearly identical situation in the second period.

Then, he scored two consecutive highlight-reel goals in the second period, including on the power play. And all was well.

I had to double-check that the NHL’s Christmas break didn’t start tomorrow because this felt like a “going into break” type of game.

You get a goal, you get a goal

This was a point night for the Dallas Stars. But not the usual kind, as we mentioned before, Dallas was outshot for the entire game. They shot 50% to bust out to an 8-2 lead. 50 percent! Petr Mrázek didn’t do much to change the momentum, allowing five goals on the first nine shots he faced.

If you need to know just how offensive and wild this game was for Dallas, I can tell you that Ilya Lyubushkin not only scored, but sniped one top corner over the shoulder of Mrázek from the right circle. Does that lay things out pretty nicely for ya?

Dallas finished the night with eight goals. Robertson was the only one to double-dip, as Erne, Lyubushkin, Steel, Harley, Roope Hintz, and Oskar Bäck added goals. Steel scored a beauty on the rush just before being nearly decapitated by the post. Harley scored his second of the season with a beautiful shot down the right wing and finished the game plus-5.

The only Stars skaters not to record a point were Alex Petrovic (makes sense), Nils Lundkvist (yup), Matt Duchene (okay), and Wyatt Johnston (what?). Robertson led all skaters with three points.

Robert Tiffin and I had this exact conversation this afternoon…

The great part about this blowout is that it allowed Dallas to roll four lines and three D pairs. I will never stop being worried about this team running out of gas late in the spring. They have done exactly that in three consecutive Western Conference Finals. That’s why I talk about getting Bastian back in, using extra defensemen, and playing Casey DeSmith as much as possible.

The schedule and fatigue are only going to get worse as many key players head to Milan for the Winter Olympics. The Stars have a good enough team to use their entire lineup. And in games like this, they can get away with Miro Heiskanen only playing 22:05 and not at all in the final 5:38, and Mikko Rantanen finishing with 16:03 time on ice.

Gulutzan made a conscious decision to let his big players sit down the stretch, not the first time he has done that.

That’s important and part of why Dallas could really use a few more lopsided wins.

With the win, Dallas moved to a franchise record 12-game point streak in the second game of back-to-backs. Most teams are just trying to be near 50 percent in those games. That’s wild.