VANCOUVER — Before the game, Stars coach Pete DeBoer was asked about the surging power play and how it turned the tide after a period of struggles.
“You were ready to throw it out, and you weren’t alone,” DeBoer said, laughing. “You weren’t alone there. Thankfully we didn’t panic and change everything. Good players. Just like our first line, good players with a long history of producing. You want to stick with that and give that every chance you can for them to work their way out of it.”
Advertisement
DeBoer’s patience — while plenty on the outside were hitting the panic button — has certainly been rewarded. The Stars’ power play is back to elite form and feeding the team the offense and positive momentum it needs. But two words from DeBoer’s answer kept showing up during the Stars’ 5-2 loss to the Canucks on Tuesday.
“Good players.”
The Stars are now without two good players. Tyler Seguin left the game last week in Buffalo after getting cut by a skate. Mason Marchment left the game in Seattle on Monday after a knee-to-knee collision.
As we reported Monday, although Seguin avoided a catastrophe, he still required approximately 30 stitches to seal the wound, plus some more inside his leg. DeBoer put Seguin’s timeline at a couple of weeks. Though that’s possible given Seguin’s pain tolerance and desire to return as soon as possible, it could be a generous timeline. Seguin is not currently around the team.
Marchment flew back to Dallas for further examination of his knee. It would be irresponsible to jump to conclusions about his availability before the results come out, but at least for the immediate future, it’s not good news for the Stars.
Just as DeBoer didn’t panic when the power play was stuck in the mud for a while, it’s not time to panic about the Stars’ lineup. Stars general manager Jim Nill added a couple of forwards at the trade deadline, and Evgenii Dadonov and Max Domi have produced positive results early on.
“We miss them, right?” DeBoer said. “All of a sudden you go from all kinds of scoring depth to not much. Tonight was a night where I knew we’d be a little fatigued, and you want someone else to step up, another line to step up and grab it and make a difference tonight. I didn’t think we got that.”
The result of Tuesday’s game was not concerning. The Stars played their fourth game in six nights, all on the road, and were playing the second night of a back-to-back. Their inexperienced backup rookie goaltender was in net and played poorly in front. They allowed two goals in the first six minutes and gave the Canucks three power plays in the first 13 minutes. These uncharacteristic woes likely result from fatigue and having to adjust the lineup on the fly, not to mention they came against a hot Canucks team that has now won five games in a row.
Advertisement
Scoreboard aside, the thing that raised some eyebrows is how the Stars are going to fill out their lineup while Seguin and Marchment are out. One of those absences is much easier to manage, but both at the same time will be a tough puzzle to solve.
Looking at the Wyatt Johnston line over the past two games is a good example of how the lineup expectations and impact will be felt. In Monday’s win, the Johnston, Jamie Benn and Dadonov line accounted for three goals and seven points. A team receiving that from its third line is passing with flying colors. In Tuesday’s loss to the Canucks, that line provided two goals and three points, with one of those goals coming on the power play. Still, that sort of production from those three should be good enough for the Stars. Because of Benn’s resurgence and Johnston’s emergence, the middle six has been pretty interchangeable all season in terms of the second line versus the third.
Without Seguin and Marchment, though, no other line has proved to fit in the middle six, though they haven’t had much time to accumulate a sample size. They probably will in the coming days, if not weeks, and Tuesday provided a glimpse of what the team is up against.
Having Domi’s skill and versatility is an asset, so he’s a good starting point for a line. But the Stars began the game in Vancouver with Joel Kiviranta and Ty Dellandrea flanking Domi. Both wings were on the Stars’ fourth line a week ago. As the game progressed, DeBoer chose to put Kiviranta back with the fourth line and elevate Radek Faksa after Faksa showed some energy in sticking up for Luke Glendening in the first period. Faksa has also had a good offensive season by his standards.
“He’s a double-digit goal scorer this year for us,” DeBoer said. “So, out of that whole group of guys, he’s putting more pucks in the net than anyone else down there.”
Advertisement
Faksa began the game centering the fourth line. You can see a common theme here: Fourth-liners are being elevated to play above their capabilities. Injuries have forced DeBoer’s hand so there’s not much he can do, but this is the tough reality the Stars are facing, at least in the immediate future. They have an elite top line and a solid middle-six line. They also have one true middle-six forward and a collection of fourth-liners.
The Stars have searched all season for a capable second-line forward to accompany Seguin and Marchment. At the trade deadline, they finally found one in Domi. For the time being, Seguin and Marchment won’t be around to reap the benefits.
Situation in net
The Stars have mostly avoided the injury bug all season, but the list of key injuries is catching up. In addition to Seguin and Marchment, Scott Wedgewood has been shelved after he came back too soon from a minor tweak that led to a setback. Wedgewood should be ready to return fairly soon, but his absence thrust rookie Matt Murray into the net Tuesday.
The Canucks scored two quick goals on Murray and four total before the game was basically iced and Vancouver got a fifth consecutive win. Murray wasn’t the primary issue for the Stars in Vancouver. Shoddy defense and gifting the Canucks some power plays early didn’t help the young netminder. Murray made some big saves in the second half of the third period to keep the game within striking distance, but the Stars weren’t able to find the offense to support his efforts.
“I thought he was great,” Benn said. “I don’t think we helped him, by any means. He made a lot of big saves. It could have been a lot worse.”
Murray’s parents were in the building and got to watch their son play in an NHL game for the first time. Though it wasn’t the best outing for Murray, he served his purpose. After the Canucks scored two goals early, the worst-case scenario would have been if DeBoer felt compelled to pull Murray and burn Jake Oettinger’s much-needed day off. Murray held down the fort enough to not only give the Stars a chance to win but also to keep Oettinger on the bench.
In case you missed it, I watched Monday night’s win over the Kraken with Logan Stankoven in Kamloops. Our discussions ranged from his affinity for the Mooterus logo to discussing his future in Dallas and his relationship with Johnston.
Advertisement
Scoring lineup
Robertson — Hintz — Pavelski
Kiviranta — Domi — Dellandrea
1G1A (Benn) — 1G (Johnston) — Dadonov
Olofsson — Faksa — Glendening
2A (Heiskanen) — Miller
Lindell — Hakanpää
Suter — Lindell
.737 save percentage (Murray)
Three plays
These three non-scoring plays stood out:
Johnston for Vezina
The Canucks nearly scored coming down on Murray, but the puck took a Stars bounce to stay out of the cage. Johnston, who scored another goal Tuesday, made a good play to clear the puck from harm’s way.
Miro’s stick
A two-on-one against Miro Heiskanen is never easy for the opposition. Heiskanen knows how to play the gap and how to use his stick.
Murray’s big save
Murray had a key save when the Canucks got a rush opportunity on the Stars’ power play midway through the third period, but a few minutes later, he made another good save by tracking the puck and preventing damage on a Vancouver rush.
(Photo of Jamie Benn and Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko: Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press via Associated Press)
