Dallas Stars

[The Comish]

The book on how to beat the Stars has three chapters...

Chapter 1: Forecheck
Chapter 2: Forecheck
Chapter 3: Yeah....you see the pattern here.

Minnesota has read it cover to cover and comprehended well. Dallas just can't seem to figure out how to beat an aggressive forecheck.

Not sure I follow you here, so you are saying that to beat Dallas, you need to forecheck aggressively? lol

[NoWayOut]

I swear the Stars lead the league in over-skating pucks, falling down with the puck on their sticks, and so far Hemsky has been the poster boy for blowing tires while winding up to shoot. They've done all the above so far tonight.

On the plus side, Eakin was just out there with Benn and Sequin prior to this power play. Eaves is all wrong for the top line job.

[NoWayOut]

Not sure I follow you here, so you are saying that to beat Dallas, you need to forecheck aggressively? lol

Something like that....haha

[NoWayOut]

The last few minutes have been....headscratching. Demers has a beautiful look on the crossing pass and instead of one-timing it he passes.

Klingberg proving that he is human after all. Got caught having to chase back on the Granlund goal and there's been a couple of other missteps. Nothing to panic about brethren, stuff like this was bound to happen unless we were watching the greatest defenseman in the history of the game. He's still been the best D out there for Dallas by miles.

[NoWayOut]

I'm obviously drunk and hallucinating. I could swear I just saw Hemsky score a goal.....nah....can't be.

I'll be damned they're saying he did.... you don't think Sequin switched sweaters and took that shift do you?

[NoWayOut]

Ok Lindy, how much more of Benn-Eakin-Seguin do you need to see to know this is the way forward?

[NoWayOut]

Goli joins Hemmer with his own first goal of the season. We're rolling now! Just have to finish it off.

[PrairieDog]

Come on Klinger!

[NoWayOut]

Trevor Daley folks....key player on the tying and winning goals. On the tying goal he doesn't stand in the shooting lane, instead he screens Kari and gives Vanek a clear look at the net. And then watches the pass to Scandella go right through his skates.

[NoWayOut]

Good display of heart to come back from down 3-0 but still this team can't find enough to finish a game off. The timing of that run to get back even was in a way the worst thing for a mentally fragile bunch like this. The perfect analogy would be boxing, where a fighter has his opponent on the ropes just raining blows on him, he hits the mat, and as the ref gets to 8 on the count the bell rings. If that happens in the third, or even towards the middle of the second the ending is likely different. The Wild were collapsing, the Stars had their foot on the gas, and it was all headed in the right direction. And then the period ends and the Wild regroup and this one ended as so many other games. The Stars are still learning how to win.

3-1-1 on the home stand wasn't bad, but the two losses were soul-crushers. Losing to a Canes team they should have dominated and tonight. They still don't have a win inside the division which is probably the worst of all. Too good a division to be giving away ground like that.

- Well John Klingberg is human after all. It was a rough night for him, but those nights happen to everybody, and he'll be just fine. In a way it might just be a good thing. The hoopla, both real world and fantasy hockey, was getting insane. Kind of helps reset things and put them back into perspective and on a more even keel.

- I said it a few posts back and I'll say it again. Lindy, are you finally a believer in the Benn-Eakin-Seguin connection? That line looked far better once they got Eaves the heck outta there. Eaves may yet be a contributor for the Stars, but it won't be in the top six. The third line with Roussel and Garbutt, when he returns, will be in capable hands with Fiddler centering them. Yeah Fidds isn't as good as Eakin, but I think the Stars are better off with Eakin up on the top line. Sure you want balanced lines and scoring, but right now this team goes as Benn and Sequin go and that's balls out with Eakin.

- A few firsts tonight. Goli and Hemmer with their first goals of the season, and Jokipakka picked up his first two points.

[Pengwin7]

I should have made you a wager on Eakin, Pengwin. Projected lines for tonight....

Benn - Seguin - Eaves

Post-game... I would've insisted I won the bet.
Benn - Eakin - Seguin played the 2nd & 3rd period together, starting the 2nd down 2-0.
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreport...5/PL020343.HTM
And, like I alluded, Eakin's Pitbull Line was used to mark the Parise line.
It just turned out that Ruff used that line to open the game, so it was part of his game strategy (64-29-11 of MIN was countered by 20-22-21 for DAL, in the first).

I think you'll continue to see more of the same for DAL.
Eakin is going to eat BIG minutes for Dallas as he is continued to be used both as the best 3rd piece for offense and as the key center for line matching.

It'll be interesting to see how Ruff employs it on the road where it is simply much more difficult to match opponent lines.

Great summaries on the games.
For me, Eakin is slowly emerging as a player I'm intrigued by, as I've always seen him as Bozak-ish... enough offense to be a fantasy value... and he's finally getting the shot.

[NoWayOut]

Post-game... I would've insisted I won the bet.
Benn - Eakin - Seguin played the 2nd & 3rd period together, starting the 2nd down 2-0.
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreport...5/PL020343.HTM
And, like I alluded, Eakin's Pitbull Line was used to mark the Parise line.
It just turned out that Ruff used that line to open the game, so it was part of his game strategy (64-29-11 of MIN was countered by 20-22-21 for DAL, in the first).

I think you'll continue to see more of the same for DAL.
Eakin is going to eat BIG minutes for Dallas as he is continued to be used both as the best 3rd piece for offense and as the key center for line matching.

It'll be interesting to see how Ruff employs it on the road where it is simply much more difficult to match opponent lines.

Great summaries on the games.
For me, Eakin is slowly emerging as a player I'm intrigued by, as I've always seen him as Bozak-ish... enough offense to be a fantasy value... and he's finally getting the shot.

I think you hit it, Eakin is going to be used in a more multi-faceted role. As you said previously, mark the top line to open the game and then when offense is needed he'll jump up to the dynamic duo. It is what is working right now. Other than Spezza, nobody else has been able to get the top line rolling like Eakin. The Stars really don't have a good complimentary winger to put on the right side of that line right now. Nichushkin's injury is haunting them in that respect more than I think any of us thought it would, not that it wasn't a blow.

Ruff had an interesting quote post-game about how they fix this. Here it is via Mike Heika....

“I look around and there’s times where we’re caught between playing too defensively, which I thought we were in the first period, and really going after it – which we did after that. After tying it, I walked into the room and said we’re going to play the exact same way. It’s hard to play that way because there’s no “safe” in our game when we’re playing like that, pressing with two guys all the time and have our “D” involved. You’ve got to have a big save at a timely moment because when you’re playing like that there’s a mistake that’s going to happen. There’s nothing safe about the way we played in the last forty minutes.”

There is a nugget of truth in there. When the Stars seem the shakiest is when they try to play 'safe', when they get conservative. They are at their best when they have their collective foot on the gas. You could liken it to walking the high wire without a net, no margin for error, do or die. It means Kari has to be on his game at all times, a lot to ask of any goalie. But when they get conservative, they get tentative and start over-thinking plays, second-guessing themselves and they allow opponents to get up ice on the forecheck and get right in their grill. That leads to all sorts of issues, namely the turnovers which have killed them. They still came out hard in the third last night but they lifted just a bit near the end. Well that and Trevor Daley proving he's every bit the defensive liability Jordie Benn is.

Right now the Stars way to win isn't playing for the 2-1, 3-1, 3-2. They have to just let it fly and if that means you win 4-3, 5-4, 6-4, something like that, then so be it. You just have to hope and believe that Kari will give you that big save when it's needed.

[NoWayOut]

On to tonight's game. First off it looks like Lindback is the man in net, and on the hot seat. Mike Heika's piece leading up to tonight's game sets the picture...

Jussi Rynnas is playing better in the AHL since recovering from an illness (4-1-4 with a 2.53 GAA and .915 save percentage), and is expected to play tonight for Texas against the Iowa Wild. Both of the goalies are on one-way contracts, so there is a thought that if this doesn’t work out for Lindback tonight, Rynnas could get his chance in the NHL.

“We’ve talked about it, but Rynnas missed about 10 days with illness,” Ruff said. “We really had a plan in place, and it didn’t come to fruition for us because of the illness.”

That's pretty definitive, do or die Mr. Lindback, do or die.

If you have read that piece before you get to this sentence you'll already know Trevor Daley has been put on notice, politely. Those final two goals land directly at Daley's feet. He blew the coverage on both. The game-winner as I replay it in my mind kind of says a lot about the book on him. Daley was right in the passing lane between Scandella and Parise. Parise had an open look on Kari, but instead confidently threw the pass right through Daley to Scandella. He left so damn much room between his skates it was like a neon sign saying be my guest. Close your feet or put your stick there. Duh! I've never played the game personally and it seems quite logical to me that you make yourself into a door, a closed one at that, not an open window. Not to mention screening Kari on the game tying goal while simultaneously leaving the shooting lane open.

Yes Daley is likely struggling with the switch from the right, where he's played almost his entire career, to the left but he wasn't any better over there defensively. It is time for the Stars to admit he's not a top 4 defenseman and shouldn't be used as such but then again they aren't rife with top 4 defenseman at the moment.

Jordie Benn draws back in but apparently not at Daley's expense. The guess from Heika at this point is Jokipakka is the one to sit, though that could change and we won't know for sure until closer to puck drop. Here are the projected lines from Mike....

Benn - Eakin - Sequin <--Love it. As I said as goes Benn and Sequin so go the Stars.
Cole - Spezza - Sceviour
Roussel - Fiddler - Eaves
Moen - Horcoff - Hemsky <--Very puzzling. Hemsky is not a fit on a checking line. If he's not with Spezza, then with Fidds and Roussel makes more sense than this.

Goligoski - Klingberg
Daley - Demers
Benn - Oleksiak

Lindback

Tonight is going to be revelatory for at least one Stars' future. Rynnas could be the man behind Kari as early as tomorrow. No pressure Anders.

[larrylintz]

Hey No Way, crappy news for my team, Letang injured. Would you mind keeping on eye on Barrie as well as Klingberg and then tell me at end of nite which D would you rather have up next week given they both have very similar sleds, 1 home and two road? Are they both still on PP#1, playing aggressively, etc.

[NoWayOut]

Hey No Way, crappy news for my team, Letang injured. Would you mind keeping on eye on Barrie as well as Klingberg and then tell me at end of nite which D would you rather have up next week given they both have very similar sleds, 1 home and two road? Are they both still on PP#1, playing aggressively, etc.

Oh heck that's easy, Klingberg.

Seriously though, I don't see a problem with doing that.