The Dallas Stars overcame a 2-0 deficit in a 3-2 overtime win against the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center on Saturday.
Robertson – Johnston – Bourque
Steel – Duchene – Benn
Erne – Hryckowian – Blackwell
Bäck – Hyry – Bastian
Harley – Lundkvist
Bichsel – Lyubushkin
Scratches: Alex Petrovic , Kyle Capobianco , Roope Hintz (illness)
Bastian quickly became one of my favorite players to talk to after he joined the DLLS show to talk about signing in Dallas this summer. He's an easy guy to root for. But he has not had it easy this season.
Bastian hadn't scored a goal since he had two against the Oilers the day after American Thanksgiving. Since then, he had only played nine games, serving as a pretty consistent healthy scratch. But he kept his head down, worked hard, supported his teammates, and waited for his shot.
Now, with a handful of injuries, he got it, and he made it count.
With those injuries, comes an elevated responsibility for others. You need your other superstars to step up, of course. But you also need contributions from the bottom of the lineup.
That can be a big blocked shot, a fight, or some offense. For Bastian, it was a beautiful goal to tie the game in the third period and send the AAC into full eruption.
"Yeah, big goal, isn't it? Big goal," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "And it's important. It helps build a team too because all guys feel a part of it… [Nashville] did a good job muddying the waters and muddying the track, and we couldn't get some clean looks. Went to the front of the net, made a nice little play on a goalie who steals low ice pretty well. Got it up."
I asked Bastian if he was surprised how much room he had in front of Juuse Saros after deflecting Thomas Harley 's point shot.
"Yeah. I think if that was the other way around, 'Gully' would not be happy with that," Bastian said.
You know there is a Nathan Bastian article coming your way soon, don't you worry.
Bastian may not have known which was the front of the cowboy hat, but he rocked it pretty well.
Jason Robertson had two dangles on the first shift. First, he pulled a loose puck through his legs streaking down the left wing after Wyatt Johnston drew a slashing penalty on Roman Josi . Then, on the delayed penalty, Robertson pulled off a long and slick toe drag and created a scoring chance.
There was another scrap! And without even looking at the ice, I knew exactly who was involved… It was, once again, No. 49 Justin Hryckowian . The fight wasn't much, but Hryckowian landed on top and proceeded to pump up the crowd on his way to the box.
Mavrik Bourque
is feeling himself. Bourque, who is still getting an opportunity with the top-end skill, now with Robertson and Wyatt Johnston because of Roope Hintz' illness, has had some extra pop on a consistent basis for the past couple of months. Tonight, Bourque made an unbelievably beautiful knee-high saucer pass that landed flat on the blade of Johnston streaking down the right wing. Somehow, Johnston handled it and pulled it to the backhand to tesy Saros, who made a great save sprawling to his right.
– Bourque told me today that he took almost the entire break off of skating and working out. Outside of doing some light Zone 2 cardio, both on the bike in Cabo and back at home, he took the break to rest and reset. Since his first year in the AHL, Bourque has tried to balance when to go the extra mile, skating in optionals and working hard during breaks, and when to use down time to actually rest and recover. He said he used to always go so hard during that time and often felt tired or overwhelmed when games resumed. When he has used rest time to rest, he feels great and confident. When he does take the time off, he likes to walk Katy Trail, hang by the pool, and go shopping.
Unfortunately, after an excellent penalty kill spent largely in the Nashville zone. Michael Bunting was at the end of a nice three-way passing play and easily tucked home a wrister into a wide-open net.
Seconds later, Jamie Benn turned the puck over just outside the Dallas blue line, and that does not usually end well. It didn't this time, as Steven Stamkos was able to walk down the slot and beat Jake Oettinger to quickly make it 2-0.
Saros has been good, but Dallas has not tested him enough, with only six shots through 20 minutes. The game got a bit sloppy as the period went on.
I never thought I would include a TikTok video on one of my articles, but every time I see Ryan O'Reilly's stick blade curve, I just have to share it. Here is him explaining the ugly thing.
Predators 2, Stars 0
I think it is hysterical when players get pissed at other players for going down too easily to draw a call. Especially when it's clearly a penalty and the player just laughs. This time. Filip Forsberg , and his mustache, were all over Sam Steel for falling and drawing an interference minor. Forsberg said "That's a F***ing joke", and Steel laughed and replied with a nice, "F**k you" as he skated away.
The Stars power play looked bad. They look out of sorts and are not seeing the ice nearly as well. However, Matt Duchene saw the ice pretty well with a beautiful seam pass down low to Benn. Unfortunately, Benn was on his strong side — To the right of Saros with the puck on his forehand facing back up the ice. Instead of turning and shooting from a dangerous spot, he tried to get a second pass across to Robertson to no avail. This play would work, though, later in the period.
Now, Duchene screamed "F**k of" as he skated to the box after what he thought was more of a dive than a tripping penalty.
Colin Blackwell is feeding off of his linemates, Hryckowian and Adam Erne tonight. Blackwell went after Bunting with a big hit on the boards and tried to make him drop the gloves the whole skate back to the bench. Bunting had plenty to say, but wanted nothing to do with a fight. This game has begun to feel like the Central Division rivalry it once was.
After finding ways to put more pucks on net and limit shots against over the past month or so, Dallas has not been able to do the former tonight. The Stars, despite having two power plays, are stuck on 10 shots with under four minutes to play in the second.
But hey, when you have Johnston and the Dallas power play, who cares about shots? What's in a name anyway? After finally winning a faceoff on the power play, the Stars worked the puck down low, and Benn fired a pass across to Johnston on a 2-on-1 in front of Saros. Benn probably "should've" shot the puck, but he ripped the pass right on the tape, so it didn't matter. That was Johnston's 20th power-play goal of the season. He is now two away from tying the franchise record and tied Robertson for the team lead with 32 goals… For now. That's a lot of miles!
Predators 2, Stars 1
Bastian ended morning skate today with a goal in what I like to call, "The giant scrum drill that goalies probably hate." Luds calls it the 'Horseshoe.' Maybe it was that that gave him the confidence to deflect Harley's point shot enough to keep Saros from being able to catch it. Maybe it was the reason he calmly collected the rebound in front, pulled it backhand to forehand around Saros, and tucked it upstairs to tie the game 2-2. Or maybe, he was just a fan of the song that DJ Shippy accidentally put on while the play was still going on, believing it was an icing. Whatever the reason, the game is tied after Dallas had a whole bunch of nothing going on early in the game. And there was much rejoicing.
The assist also gave Harley a career-high five-game point streak.
Bastian is all over the ice now, and since Dallas scored to make it 2-1, they have clearly been the better team. Nashville looks like they are trying to do everything they can to overpass and not score goals. Bold strategy.
Another scrum, and somehow, Hryckowian is the only player on the ice not involved. Blasphemy.
I have really loved the way Bourque has been playing lately. Just looks like a completely different, consistent, player.
"He's got a lot of opportunity, right? He's getting a big chance right here, especially with a couple of guys out," Robertson said. "He's been playing well even when they've been in. He's playing with the confidence, that jam, swagger that he's had. I'm sure when he was in junior and the minors… So, you don't just lose that skill and that type of hockey… He's working hard too. That's what he needs to do."
Two Stars players have skated to the bench with only one glove on in the third period. Hockey is fun.
Stars 2, Predators 2
Duchene won two face-offs in a row against O'Reilly. Gulutzan said he opted to start with Duchene because he was their strongest left-handed center in the game.
Duchene, Bourque, and Harley were stuck out on defense after a minute long shift. Duchene made the right read, changing quickly when Nashville brought the puck near the Dallas bench. But Duchene and Bourque failed to communicate, and Nashville rang it off the post on a 2-on-1. At least I thought he made the right read. It turns out, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan had a simpler answer to this mistake…
"The reality is you probably can't change there as much as you're out of gas," Gulutzan said. "You're going to give up zone time and get it back in your zone. It was just two guys that were tired. They were looking at the bench, you could see them looking at it. But it's tough to do it."
All hell broke loose on the winning goal. That's not just me saying it, Robertson said it himself. Press ran into each other, Miro Heiskanen de-sticked O'Reilly, Robertson battled Erik Haula
to the side of the net, and the eventual shot was a flub that actually chipped up over the shoulder of Saros and into the far corner. It was hilarious, and it sealed a franchise-tying eight-game winning streak.
Haula proceeded to break his stick twice and chuck it in the direction of the linesman. Could be something from that…
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan on Jake Oettinger's play
"If you recall early in the season, it was one of these, he stopped everything at two, and he got that going again. Especially he hasn't played for a while, right? I thought… There was a few where they got looks on us, and he looked big, and they had nothing to shoot at."
