GLASS HALF FULL DESPITE LOSS TO LEAFS
Two nights after defeating the defending Stanley Cup champions despite being widely outshot and outchanced, the Dallas Stars had the tables turned against them by the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Stars staged a furious assault on the Toronto net and outshot the Leafs by a 50-24 margin but Jonathan Bernier was a brick wall in net as Toronto captured a 3-2 overtime win at the Air Canada Centre.
Despite settling for one point for the third time in the last four games, this game was a glass half-full kind of night for the Stars. Dallas battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits and was the better team for the majority of the game. The Stars now have gained points in 11 of their last 14 games, and continue to play well on the road.
In the bigger picture, it was also heartening to see Tyler Seguin return to the lineup after missing two games with concussion-like symptoms. He did not get on the scoresheet but played well and generated eight shots on goal.
Seguin's regular linemate, team captain Jamie Benn, seems to be right on the brink of breaking out from a eight-game goal drought and a stretch of one point in the last four games. He came close a few times last night in putting eight shots on Bernier's net.
While the top line is trying to get back on the regular scoring track, the supporting cast has continued to chip in with timely goals. Last night, it was veterans Erik Cole and Shawn Horcoff who found ways to twice re-tie the score after Toronto forged ahead.
Ultimately, Trevor Smith's goal in the final minute of overtime lifted the Leafs to their first win in six games. For Dallas, it stung a bit to skate off with one point. To me, overtime losses are more genuine defeats than the shootout variety (which is essentially a tie with a bonus point for the skills competition victor). Even so, when all the components are added up, there were more positives than negatives from this game.
As a matter of fact, more than the final score on this night, the biggest concern that emerged from this game was a potentially serious injury to defenseman Trevor Daley. The Stars' most mobile defenseman had to be helped off the ice with a lower-body injury. With veteran blueline leader Stephane Robidas already lost for the season, the last thing the Stars needed was another reliable blueliner to go down.
Brenden Dillon is a rock solid young player on the blueline, even without partner Robidas. Since being separated as a pairing, Alex Goligoski and Sergei Gonchar have played better. There's no denying the promise of Jamie Oleksiak, but he's still young and growing pains are to be expected. With Daley taken out of the mix and with his minutes having to be absorbed by some combination of the healthy veteran regulars plus Kevin Connauton, Jordie Benn and Aaron Rome, the pairing management options are not a pretty picture.
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FLYERS ON TAP IN SATURDAY MATINEE
Next up for the Stars is a Saturday afternoon game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Weather permitting, I will cover tomorrow's game live from the American Airlines Center.
Here are some things to watch for tomorrow from a Dallas standpoint in terms of what works and does not work in playing Philadelphia.
Attacking Mason: Dallas watchers have grown used to seeing Kari Lehtonen regularly steal games for the Stars and at least keep his team close and competitive in most games. Steve Mason has been doing the same for the Flyers this season (and, really, ever since coming over from Columbus at the trade deadline last year).
Opposing teams have had a tough time finding vulnerabilities on the righthanded-catching Mason. He has one of the best glovehands in the NHL and is also arguably one of the top three (after Martin Brodeur and Mike Smith) puckhandling goaltenders in the league. He's also been using his legs and feet very well this season, with excellent lateral movement and greatly improved rebound control.
More and more in one-on-one shooting situations, attackers are trying to go high to the blocker side on Mason and staying away from his glove and five-hole attempts. If a shooter can hit the small area over his left shoulder and under the crossbar, they've got themselves a goal. One or two goals have also squeezed in through Mason's left armpit this season, but not very many.
Mason has moved back in his crease a bit since coming to Philly and his angles have generally been impeccable. As with any goaltender in the world, screens, deflections and unpreventable rebounds are the best bet for scoring on Mason.
Improved Team D, but ongoing puck movement issues: The Flyers have played greatly improved team defense since Craig Berube took over as head coach for the more offensive atttack-minded Peter Laviolette. Philly now routinely keeps a third forward higher in the offensive zone and has improved its backchecking. That has significantly cut back on the frequency of odd-man rushes the Flyers yield.
Philly has some mobility problems on the back end. The most mobile defenseman is actually one of the biggest-framed guys: Braydon Coburn. Additionally, the club frequently has trouble breaking out of their own zone and creating speed through the neutral zone. This is partially due to the blueline mix still being a bit heavier on stay-at-home types with average-at-best passing skills and partially due to forwards prone to being too stationary.
When the Flyers keep their feet moving, they become a much, much tougher team to attack and defend. When they don't move their feet, they are ripe for the picking.
Four-time NHL All-Star Kimmo Timonen has lost a step to age and wear-and-tear but still has plenty of two-way savvy and guile. Timonen got off to a very poor start this season but has since largely rebounded to something resembling his accustomed form. In terms of leadership and on-ice duties, Timonen is basically a slightly better version of a healthy Stephane Robidas.
Coburn has quietly strung together a strong overall season thus far, especially since being reunited with longtime partner Timonen. He'll make some coverage mistakes and turnovers when he tries to do too much, but overall Coburn has been a steady presence this season.
Stars followers should be very familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of Nicklas Grossmann's game. He's big and strong, so he's hard to knock off the puck. He is very good along the walls and down low around the net. He's generally in good position. He blocks a ton of shots. On the downside, he lacks mobility and, while an adequate short-range passer, is a subpar breakout passer from 20-plus feet away. Many of his attempted breakout passes end up going for icings.
The Flyers acquired veteran offensive Mark Streit in the offseason to bolster breakouts and add a heavy point shot element to the attack. He hasn't been atrocious defensively, but that will never be the strong suit of his game. His main contributions have to come via point production and he really hasn't done enough of it.
These four defensemen -- the Timonen-Coburn and Grossmann-Streit pairings -- tend to play in the vicinity of 20 minutes per game, with Coburn getting the most ice time. The Flyers have struggled on their third pairing this season.
Luke Schenn was a healthy scratch for a few games this season and his ice time is down considerably from last year. Apart from being vulnerable to over-committing and getting beaten off the rush due to suspect mobility, he's also had issues with his overall decision making. Things improved noticeably for a stretch of five or six games, but he's had a few subpar games again of late.
Neither high-priced veteran Andrej Meszaros nor young defenseman Erik Gustafsson have been able to stake down the sixth spot this season. Each has had lengthy stretches as a healthy scratch due to indecisive and/or passive play.
The Flyers carry veteran Hal Gill as an eighth defenseman. He held his own in the three games he dressed -- he still blocks a lot of shots and knows how to clog up the shooting and passing lanes -- but has otherwise been a healthy scratch all year because his on-ice role is basically redundant to the much younger Grossmann's.
Philly scoring issues Goal scoring has been a problem for the Flyers this season, with the exception of their performance during a 6-0-1 surge in November. However, the Flyers are coming off a game in which they exploded for five unanswered goals from the late second period to the end of the third period in a 6-3 win in Detroit.
Teams that consistently take away the center of the ice and keep plays along the perimeter often give the Flyers fits. That is not really the way the Stars play defense much of the time, but that's what works against Philly. However, the Stars top line and energy line could have some success at keeping the Flyers hemmed in their own end of the ice.
I will say it again: If the Stars can the Flyers to go into their stand-still mode, Philly will have trouble carrying in pucks or getting them in deep to retrieve on the forecheck. The Flyers are not often very good at winning those fight-for-every-foot-of-ice style games. On the flip side, if Dallas' own gap-control and puck-management is lacking, Philly has plenty of players that can make Ruff's team pay.
Something else to watch: Apart from the latter game explosion in Detroit, the Flyers have generally done much of their offensive damage in the first periods of games. More recently, slow starts have begun to creep in with the team getting better as the game progresses.
Inconsistent Flyers first line, surging third line: The Flyers top line of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Scott Hartnell has an overall disappointing season thus far. All three players got off to very slow starts. Things picked up in November but their performance has been generally spotty of late at even strength.
Of late, the Flyers' best line has been the third line unit of Sean Couturier flanked by wingers Matt Read and Steve Downie. The Couturier line had been playing strong defense all year -- the center is one of the top young shutdown forwards in the NHL and the speedy Read is also a fine two-way player -- but the addition of Downie's grit has helped the line become a regular offensive threat of late. Couturier is coming off the first regular season four-point game (two goals, two assists) of his NHL career.
In the meantime, second line anchor Vincent Lecavalier has been ailing of late. He's missed the last two games with back spasms, and is out for tomorrow as well.
Discipline lapses: The Flyers are the most penalized team in the NHL, and many of the penalties they take are of the needless variety. To varying degrees, Hartnell, second line winger Wayne Simmonds, Downie, Zac Rinaldo (the Philadelphia version of Dallas' Antoine Roussel) and Luke Schenn are all prone to taking more than their share of unneeded penalties.
There is no real current rivalry between the Flyers and Stars. They don't see much of each other as inter-Conference teams and didn't play at all last season due to the revised post-lockout schedule. Nevertheless, I think there's a pretty good chance that tomorrow's game could get a bit chippy. With players like Rinaldo and Downie on the Philly side and Roussel and Ryan Garbutt on the Dallas end, there will be a lot of agitating going on between (and possibly after) the whistles.
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