The Dallas Stars started slow and couldn’t beat Joel Hofer in a 4-0 loss against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center on Friday.

Stars lines

• Hryckowian – Johnston – Rantanen
• Robertson – Hintz – Seguin
• Steel – Hyry – Benn
• Bäck – Faksa – Kiviranta

• Harley – Heiskanen
• Lindell – Lundkvist
• Bichsel – Myers  

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Blackwell, Capobianco, Duchene (injured)

It’s the first game of the season, but EW

The first period of the season was ugly, especially for Dallas.

St. Louis did an excellent job exploiting the Stars in their own end. When Dallas tried to push the puck up the wall, the Blues pinched and closed it off. When they tried to move it up the middle, St. Louis locked it down. And when they tried to hit the long stretch pass, it wasn’t available.

Then there were mistakes like Thomas Harley trying a pass through a forechecker in the middle of the slot. That’s not tactics, that’s just poor decision-making. Hoping that isn’t a theme here for Harley.

As Glen Gulutzan said this morning, Blues coach Jim Montgomery is such a smart tactician behind the bench. He knows the Stars system well and adjusts accordingly. Gulutzan said he was taking notes on Montgomery’s adjustments during the preseason.

So far, Monty has the leg up after one period. Let’s see how Gulutzan can respond.

Once the Blues took back control of the puck in the Dallas end, they didn’t so much attack right away or even cycle. Instead, we saw a lot of stopping, setting up in an umbrella, and looking for direct passes. With the Stars crashing down to the posts and matching up with forwards around Jake Oettinger, the trailing forward or defenseman was open a few times on the backside with passes through the slot.

The only goal of the period came off an unlucky Robertson shot hitting Harley in the back of the leg and some miscommunication and poor handling of an odd-man rush by Dallas. Neither Rantanen nor Wyatt Johnston located the Blues on the backside, and a bouncing puck eventually found its way in off the stick of Mason McTavish.

“Just got to start playing a simple game, not try to go East and West at the blue line,” Hintz said of how to overcome slow starts. “Try to just get pucks to the net and try to hold the puck a little bit longer in the O-zone… Starts with little things.”

Offensively, Dallas created a few nice chances.

Jason Robertson nearly surprised Blues goalie Joel Hofer with a short-side shot off the rush on the power play. Hofer barely recovered after his sweeping bank pass behind his own net came back out to Joel Kiviranta on the back post. Roope Hintz missed high after a nice pass by Mikko Rantanen from behind the net. And Tyler Seguin (YES, he’s back) had a nice redirection in the slot, once again set up by Rantanen on the power play.

The Stars kept Rantanen out for both power-play units, but replaced the other four skaters. I imagine that Robertson will also stay out there when he has the energy, meaning PP2 will be Harley, Robertson, Rantanen, Benn, and Seguin.

That’s two good units with varying tactics. PP1 moving the puck around more and attacking from the walls, while PP2 is likely to get shots through from the point and allow Benn and Seguin to tip and pick up rebounds. Tough to defend. No reason this PP shouldn’t be top five in the league again this year.

Watch out for that skate

Well, the adjustments worked. Dallas looked so much better in period two.

The Stars came out fast, put far more pressure on the Blues, and created some good chances. Really, it was a complete role reversal from the first. St. Louis struggled to get control of the puck, Hofer was adventurous as ever out of his crease, and the Stars looked more in control all over the ice.

Unfortunately, it was the Blues who once again scored the only goal of the period. But really, it was all Dallas that led to it.

Oettinger came out to play a puck rimmed behind his net, but had a funky in-between handoff with Nils Lundkvist that allowed St. Louis to get a stick in and gain control in the left circle. Just as that happened, Hintz came sweeping through the top of the crease and clicked his skates with Oettinger, who was facing the other direction.

Oettinger took a tumble and ended up lying down well out of position. Dalibor Dvorsky took advantage and cashed in on the wide-open net while Oettinger looked like when you accidentally take control of the goalie in an NHL video game and immediately stack the pads and hit all the buttons.

Oof. 2-0 Blues despite a solid period for Dallas and not much offensively for St. Louis.

A fun little moment in the period came when Arttu Hyry hit Jake Neighbours into the boards from behind, which I cannot believe wasn’t called a penalty. Probably could’ve even been a major.

After Hyry shook off Jimmy Snuggerud’s half-assed attempt of a scrum, he was jumped by Neighbours and sort of fought. Hyry did not look comfortable, Neighbours maybe landed one punch while Hyry was on his knees, and Dallas got a power play out of it.

Hyry already had some sort of bandage on his chin early in the game and had blood on his chin and sweater after the tilt. I can imagine the Blues were not happy about the no-call on the boarding hit AND the extra minor to go with it.

Remember, while it is important to win games early in the season, the priority is to get your game together and shake off the rust, especially for Dallas after a loooooong summer. They got much better after the first period and still have 20 minutes to find two or more goals and get something out of the season opener.

Everybody hold your breath

Okay, we’re good.

Hintz was injured and down on the ice after a knee-on-knee collision with Brandon Carlo. Carlo was attacked by Harley and given a major penalty and game misconduct. It looked scary, but Hintz was back on the Dallas bench soon after.

“Feeling fine,” Hintz said after the game. “I think I got a little lucky there. At first I thought something happened really bad. But I got back there pretty quick.”

“Not great to see. It’s a dirty hit, and you don’t want to see that happen,” Miro Heiskanen said. “Hopefully, he’s good and not bigger issues or anything. But it was great to see him back pretty quickly after that.”

Unfortunately, Harley was given a minor for cross-checking, the Stars power play created nothing once they got through the 4-on-4, and Tyler Seguin took a double minor for high-sticking that flipped the momentum completely.

This game was wacky. Multiple injured players for the Blues, one for Dallas (Hintz), a fight (kinda), funky goals, one of which was reversed, and some overall sloppiness. First game of the season, alright.

On to Nashville tomorrow.

Quotable

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan

“I thought that they got to their game quicker than we did. We were a little sloppy, kind of fed their attack. Then when they got the goal, it was a little bit of a bounce there that they got. Two of our players collided, and that gave them energy, and we kept feeding it a little bit. At the end of the day, they got to their game quicker than we did, and they stayed with it the whole way. We need to be a little bit sharper, certainly in our start.”

Random notes

• Dylan Hryckowian tied the game for Texas with 21 seconds left, and the Stars beat the Iowa Wild in the shootout.
• This game had quite a bit of “first-game-of-the-season-itis” for both teams.
• The crowd was AWESOME, as expected, for the season and home opener. I especially loved the ovation for Gulutzan and Seguin during player intros.
• Gulutzan rolled out Robertson-Johnston-Rantanen a bunch in the third period. Makes sense trailing 2-0. Hyrckowian slid down to the second line with Hintz and Seguin. Also saw some shuffling back to Lindell-Heiskanen and Harley-Lundkvist on the blue line.
• Gulutzan said he was “quite concerned” seeing Hintz go down the way he did. Dallas said they didn’t like the “dirty” hit. Also liked how his team responds to moments like that or opponents running their goalie. He has liked the way they respond since coming to Dallas last year.
• Dallas has scored zero goals this season.
• We are back.