Last Night in Texas Hockey: The Dallas Stars Outlast the Canucks

Last Night in Texas Hockey: The Dallas Stars Outlast the Canucks. An hour before the game J.T. Miller was scratched for the Canucks and traded to the New York Rangers putting a pause on the drama in Vancouver…for now. With this being the first game of Miro Heiskanen’s absence due to Mark Stone’s play on him in Vegas earlier in the week, the Miller trade couldn’t have come at a better time.

First Period Thoughts

The first period got off to a subpar start as many games have started that way for the Dallas Stars this season. Vancouver had control of the puck in their offensive zone for a hot minute and the Stars didn’t record a shot on goal for what seemed like seven to eight minutes. Not ideal!

The fourth line has been so important for the Stars this season, much like many Cup contending teams. Last night in Texas Hockey the fourth line consisted of Brendan Smith, Colin Blackwell, and Oskar Bäck. With just under 11 minutes left in the first period, the fourth line went to work.

Dallas was in their offensive zone and Brendan Smith became a pest for Vancouver. Forechecking on the left side, chasing the puck to continue the forecheck on the right side, and the puck went behind the net. Enter Collin Blackwell.

Blackwell lays a MASSIVE hit to get the puck behind the net, circled around and go the puck to Bäck and he got just enough on it to get it over Thatcher Demko’s shoulders for a top shelf goal to open up the scoring Friday night.

Fourth line goals typically set the tone for the rest of the team, and the Stars started to get more chances towards the end of the period. Overall, you can’t complain with the result when they didn’t control the puck for the most part, and they headed to the locker room with a 1-0 lead.

Second Period Thoughts

Well the second period was a huge dud for the most part. Vancouver was in the offensive zone for a majority of the period, and Kyle Capobianco (the Stars called the defenseman up since Heiskanen is now on IR) took two penalties seemingly back to back. Not ideal!

Luckily Vancouver only had a couple of good looks on those two power plays, and Dallas went on the power play a few minutes later.

At that point, the Stars had played nearly 16 minutes of the second period and only had one shot on goal. The power play at home has been one of the worst in the NHL this season, but has been picking up steam in the last month or so.

Thomas Harley is now QB1 on the first power play unit and his aggressiveness is something I’ve wanted to see out of Heiskanen on the first unit. 45 seconds or so had run off the clock without a real chance or a shot on goal during the power play, but patience pays off.

Jason Robertson has been on a heater since the beginning of December and netted his 18th goal of the season. The crowd at American Airlines center loved it, and so did I.

The Dallas Stars ended the second period with a 2-1 lead, but only three shots on goal. Last night in Texas hockey was slow, but having the lead headed to the last period of the game was crucial for the Stars.

Third Period Thoughts

What a turn of events in the third period. It finally looked like the Dallas Stars had their legs under them and understood what type of game to play.

If you missed this goal in real time, that’s a real shame. The Stars recovered the puck in their own end and Jason Robertson sent one of the nicer passes I’ve seen in the last month to the Flying Finn, Roope Hintz.

Hintz glided down the ice, protected the puck and kept the back checker on his back, then sent the puck five hole on Demko. Disgusting sequence that ended in a beautiful goal for Roope.

Later in the period, Roope gets another as he flipped the puck into the empty net with two Canucks on him in the defensive zone. Robo added his second tally of the game with another empty netter and the Stars fans went home happy.

Hell of a game considering all of the lines and D pairings shuffling due to injuries over the last month. Obviously Vancouver wasn’t at full strength after trading J.T. Miller pregame, but nonetheless, a great, gritty win was had by the Dallas Stars last night in Texas hockey.

Extra Thoughts

This team repeatedly told us after the game how important Miro Heiskanen is to this team. He’s Esa Lindell’s best friend, Roope Hintz called him the best player on the team, and Head Coach Pete DeBoer emphasized it’s a hole in the team that cannot be filled by just one or two guys.

I thought the defense was fairly solid last night in Texas hockey. Obviously it wasn’t perfect because they Canucks did score three goals (two of which came in the last three minutes, the last one coming with three seconds left on the clock). However, the pairings were getting mixed up throughout the game, which DeBoer does even when fully healthy. I thought that showed he had confidence in every one of the six D men last night.

Sure, the Canucks didn’t have J.T. Miller last night, but Quinn Hughes still exists. My favorite part of the game last night was that Logan Stankoven pestered Hughes relentlessly whenever he had the puck. Hughes is a Norris Trophy guy, and one of the quicker players in the NHL. Stank was all over him and was able to knock the puck away from him in the offensive zone on multiple occasions. Stankoven is a DUDE, and I believe he’s going to get hot in the scoring department very soon.

Last Night in Texas Hockey: The Dallas Stars Outlast the Canucks.