GDB Game Notes: Dallas Stars @ Edmonton Oilers
By Cam Lewis
4 years agoAfter a commanding win over the @Colorado Avalanche, the Oilers will look to keep the good times rolling against a surging Dallas Stars team. Here are your game day notes.
1. It’s been a tale of two seasons early on for the Stars. Dallas won only one of their first nine games to kick off the season, and that came in the form of an overtime win against the Washington Capitals. They didn’t pick up their first regulation win until Oct. 19 when they beat the Flyers 4-1 in Philadelphia. Since, then, the Stars have been on fire, completely erasing their horrible start. Dallas is currently riding a 9-1-1 streak that began with that aforementioned first regulation win.
2. The Stars had big expectations heading into this season. General manager Jim Nill was active yet again in free agency, adding veterans @Corey Perry, @Andrej Sekera, and @Joe Pavelski to a team that was just one goal away from advancing to the Western Conference Finals last spring.
3. The goal last summer for Nill was to add some scoring depth to a team that had a very one-dimensional offence last season. The Stars finished 2018-19 29th in the league in goals for, as Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Alex Radulov did virtually all of the team’s heavy lifting, scoring 33, 29, and 27 goals respectively. Radek Faksa also chipped in with 15 goals, but, after him, the next highest scoring forward was Roope Hintz with nine goals.
4. How have these additions panned out thus far? Dallas is still having a hard time scoring goals. They rank 25th in the league with 50 goals scored in 20 games and none of their big guns are performing to expectations. Hintz leads the team with a shocking nine goals, and beyond him, only Radulov is currently on pace to eclipse the 20-goal plateau. Radulov was six goals, Pavelski has five, Seguin has four, Perry has two, and Benn has just one.
5. While the offence is starting to come around a little bit, the Stars’ key players certainly need to score more. Last year, Seguin and Benn got called out by Stars CEO Jim Lites for the team’s mediocre play…
“If 14 (Benn) and 91 (Seguin) don’t lead we will not be successful,” Lites said. “I think this is the most talented and deep team we’ve had in years here. Certainly this is the best team that we’ve put together from a talent perspective since Tom Gaglardi’s owned the franchise.“Tom has allowed us to do everything we needed to do to be successful. Whatever it’s taken, he’s done. And I am tired of getting emails from him saying ‘What the hell is going on with our best players?'”
That came on Dec. 29 when the Stars had a 19-16-3 record. They responded that night with a 5-1 thumping of the @Detroit Red Wings and went 24-16-4 the rest of the way. Oddly enough, Lites made that comment when Seguin and Benn were first and second on the team in points.
6. This year, head coach Jim Montgomery was the one to call out Seguin and Benn for not getting the job done.
“I don’t think they’re driving pucks too often,” [Jim] Montgomery said. “In general, our team, not driving pucks to hard areas enough… You need your No. 1 center, you need your No. 1 left winger to step up and do more.”
That comment came after an overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets that snapped a four-game winning streak. Since then, the Stars have won back-to-back games on their Western Canadian road trip, taking down the Flames 3-1 and the Canucks 4-1. Benn and Seguin combined for one goal in those two games.
7. If the Stars can figure things out and become even just an average offensive team, they’ll be very successful. They’re arguably the best defensive team in hockey, as they have an expected goals against per 60 rating of 1.86 at even strength, which is the best in the league. This suggests that their 48 goals against, which is second-best in the league, and their .926 team save percentage is far from a fluke.
8. The Stars currently have a fairly long list of injuries. Martin Hanzal is still out after undergoing spinal surgery last season, Andrew Cogliano missed the Stars’ last game due to a lower-body injury (which is something very uncommon for the iron man who didn’t miss a game due to injury for his first 11 seasons in the league), and @Roope Hintz and @John Klingberg are on the Injured Reserve with lower-body injuries. With Klingberg out, the Stars are having to lean hard on 20-year-old @Miro Heiskanen to be the team’s top puck-moving option from the blueline.
9. Here’s a fun little stat to illustrate just how bad the Stars’ best players have been and just how good @Leon Draisaitl has been. Dallas’ four most expensive players, Seguin, Benn, Pavelski, and Radulov have a combined cap hit of $32,600,000 this year. The four of them have combined for 43 points. Draisaitl, on his own, has 41 points, just two fewer than Dallas’ top four players.
10. This will be an important game for the Oilers because immediately afterwards they’ll hit the road for their most difficult test of the season thus far. The Oilers will go on a five-game Western road trip through San Jose, Los Angeles, Vegas, Arizona, and Colorado before finishing up with a home-and-home against the Canucks. This stretch will really put the Oilers to the test.
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