DALLAS — Miro Heiskanen likely plays tonight for the Dallas Stars, which means Mikko Rantanen will play even more. Neither development is good for the Winnipeg Jets.
Dallas coach Peter DeBoer told reporters he expects Heiskanen, the No. 1 defenceman who hasn’t played since January due to knee surgery, to return to the Stars lineup for Game 4 of his team’s second-round National Hockey League playoff series against the Jets.
Dallas leads Winnipeg 2-1.
“Miro’s going to skate this morning, and then we’ll see how it goes,” DeBoer said. “I anticipate he’ll play tonight if that goes well.”
To ease Heiskanen’s transition, DeBoer indicated he may use a lineup of seven defencemen and 11 forwards as the Stars try to move within one game of eliminating the regular-season-champion Jets from the Stanley Cup tournament.
“The 11-seven thing is no big deal,” DeBoer said of the less conventional lineup mix. “It gives Mikko Rantanen some more ice time, so that’s an easy one.”
Involved in two blockbuster trades this winter, Rantanen has been driving the Stars since exploding halfway through Dallas’ first-round series win against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Finnish winger, a countryman of Heiskanen, has nine goals and 17 points in the last six games and either scored or set up 14 of the Stars’ last 16 goals. But on a deep Dallas team, Rantanen has crested 20 regulation-time minutes just once in the playoffs.
Trying to end an eight-game road losing streak in the playoffs, spanning four rounds over three seasons, the Jets will probably have to contend with a couple more minutes of Rantanen and about 20 of Heiskanen.
“It takes some pressure off of the other guys, especially on their back end,” Jets shutdown centre Adam Lowry said. “All-Star, world-class defenceman, unbelievable puck-mover, great defensively. Impacts the game in so many different areas. It’s going to be important that we get on him (and) we get on the forecheck, especially early on. He’s been out for quite some time; maybe the timing won’t be there. But I expect him to jump in and be a big-time player for them.”
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But if the Jets are overly aggressive targeting Heiskanen, like the Stars have been at times after Winnipeg defenceman Josh Morrissey returned from a two-game injury absence, Dallas’ top blue-liner is capable of burning the Jets with his world-class skating.
“It’s just being in control,” Lowry explained. “You still have to try and get a piece of him, you still have to make him stop and start. But like I said earlier, it’s knowing where he is coming up the ice. He’s so good in transition, he’s such a great skater, that he becomes that fourth wave — kind of like (Dallas’ Thomas) Harley in that sense. As F-3 and, you know, the fourth and fifth forwards coming back, it’s not taking a breath thinking you have time (because) he’ll go by you, and he’s a guy you can’t catch when he’s past you. I think it’s important that you take away his time, you take away his space, make him make plays under duress, make him make decisions and reads quicker than he wants to. That’s how you have to play those elite players.”
Even if Heiskanen’s timing is off after a 3½ -month layoff, his return should still help the Stars.
“Yeah, understatement of the year,” goalie Jake Oettinger said as he spoke casually with reporters in the Dallas dressing room after the optional morning skate. “Best defenceman in the NHL, in my opinion. Whenever you can insert a guy like that, it’s obviously a huge boost. As a goalie especially, I’m just happy to have him back. The guys that have filled in for him have done an unreal job getting us to this point. So just the fact that you can play that well and then add a guy like that is pretty great.”
The Jets need to find a way to defend Rantanen. Getting elite goaltending from struggling starter Connor Hellebuyck would help immensely.
The Hart Trophy finalist embodies the Jets’ problems away from home.
Hellebuyck’s road save percentage in the playoffs is a ghastly .772, although he was less culpable in Sunday’s 5-2 loss in Game 3 than he was during three lopsided, opening-round defeats in St. Louis, where Hellebuyck was hooked in all three games.
Hellebuyck did not speak to the media here Sunday, Monday or this morning.
“He has his routine, off days, game days, and he just kind of zones himself in,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “He’s such a student of the game. Yesterday (he was) looking at all his shot opportunities against (from Game 3) and just looking at all those things. He just prepares himself extremely well for us. That’s part of those, you know, elite players. They have a way of getting their minds and their bodies ready to go.”
The Jets need Hellebuyck’s game to go, too.
