Sometimes it seems like the Dallas Stars can slip through the cracks of the Western Conference contenders conversation. And, to be fair, there are often more obvious reasons to talk about other squads.
It’s not a huge surprise to see Dallas where it is at the top of the conference like Vancouver or Winnipeg. The Stars obviously have great players, but they’re not a recent champ with a bonafide MVP candidate like the Avs with Nathan MacKinnon. They also haven’t had an extended amazing stretch like the Oilers’ 16-game run or, for that matter, an elongated skid like Los Angeles.
But Dallas does just keep winning games, as it did on the weekend when the Stars recovered from giving up two late goals to the Washington Capitals to claim a 5-4 overtime victory on Thomas Harley’s winner.
Harley is probably as good a place as any to start on this club as he’s turning into an offensive stud of a D-man at age 22. Harley potted two goals versus the Caps and with 12 on the year, the only defenceman with more in the NHL is Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin. Harley has contributed two points in each of his past three outings — all Stars wins — and has 12 points in his past dozen games.
Right now, he’s paired with Miro Heiskanen, who just returned from a lower-body injury. Heiskanen broke out offensively in the back half of last season and it looks like Harley is following the same trajectory.
And that’s the thing with Dallas; no matter what avenue you’re talking about for acquiring players, it just doesn’t miss.
The draft success is astonishing, with the club’s top two scorers — Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz — both being second-rounders. In 2021, Dallas used the 47th-overall pick on Logan Stankoven and he’s currently leading the AHL in scoring as a rookie pro. No. 2 on the AHL scoring charts is second-year pro Mavrik Bourque, who was the third-last pick of the first round in 2020.
Last year, Wyatt Johnston was a regular contributor as a 19-year-old and he’s built on that success this year, tracking close to a 55-point season at age 20. This season, Harley is showing what he can do and both those guys were taken in the back half of the first round. In fact, Heiskanen is the only top-5 selection the Stars have made since they moved to Dallas 30 years ago and, of course, they nailed it taking him at No. 3 in 2017.
Like free agents?
Joe Pavelski signed as a UFA in the summer of 2019 and he’s putting together one of the best runs we’ve ever seen from a guy from age 35 to 40. Matt Duchene is nearly a point-per-game player this year, making the one-year, $3-million contract he inked last summer look like the severe bargain we all kinda assumed it would be. Even Mason Marchment, who struggled mightily in Year 1 of a big new deal with Dallas last season, has rounded into form. He’s on a three-game point streak after going 1-1-2 versus Washington and has 31 points in his past 33 outings.
Throw in a resurgence from Tyler Seguin — acquired in a fantastic trade by GM Jim Nill that is now somehow a decade old — and it’s almost like Dallas is a tasty Texas sandwich, with the old guys (Pavelski, Duchene, Seguin) being the top bun, the really young guys (Johnston, Harley) being the bottom bun and the in-their-prime Stars (Heiskanen, Robertson, Hintz) being the centrepiece of it all as the delicious BBQ meat in the middle.
In the past, you’d definitely throw Jake Oettinger (another late first-round find) in with the primetime players, but the 25-year-old has been dinged up this year and struggled to find top form.
If ‘Otter’ gets his sea legs, that will likely end all chance of this team flying under anybody’s radar much longer.
Other Takeaways
• As noted, we’ve likely spent more time speaking about the Kings than the Stars this season, but — increasingly — that is not a good thing for Los Angeles. This skid is getting way out of hand, as L.A. was pumped 5-1 by the Avalanche on Friday and lost 4-3 in overtime to the Blues 48 hours later. A team that once seemed home and cooled to finish in the top three in the Pacific is now bumped down to a wild card spot thanks to the fact the Kings have somehow managed just six wins in their past 24 outings. Since Dec. 9, L.A. ranks 30th in goals per game (2.42), 16th in goals-against (3.08) and has the 31st-ranked five-on-five save percentage at .898.
In other words, there’s a lot of blame to go around.
Still, the most obvious solution might be biting down and seeing if there’s a deal to be made with Montreal for Jake Allen. Having another pro in the crease to pair with Cam Talbot seems like it would be a solid first step for a team that could soon find itself on the outside of the post-season cutoff.
• The Blues, meanwhile, skipped into a wild card spot with that win over L.A. and hold a game in hand on their two closest pursuers, Nashville and Seattle. St. Louis has been under the guidance of interim coach Drew Bannister for six weeks now and it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride as the club initially went 5-0-1 with him behind the bench, then won just three of nine leading into this current stretch where St. Louis has ripped off five consecutive victories, with the past three coming in extra time. Pavel Buchnevich was a beast on the weekend, netting five points including the OT game-winner in a critical tilt in Seattle on Friday.
Weekend Warrior
Picking up the “We probably don’t talk enough about X” theme we led off with, let’s just take a minute to appreciate the incredible career of Mark Recchi. The Hall-of-Famer was inducted into the Philadelphia Flyers team Hall on the weekend and, boy, does he ever deserve it.
Recchi played 602 games with Philly, but also 389 with its Pennsylvania rivals, the Penguins. He had the good fortune to win a Cup at the very beginning of his career (with Pittsburgh) in the late middle (with Carolina) and in the very last game he played at age 43 (with Boston). For all he did during two terms with the Flyers (he also had two with Pittsburgh), Recchi’s biggest contribution to Philly may have been that the team was able to trade him to Montreal as the centrepiece that landed the Black and Orange John LeClair and Eric Desjardins.
And even if you kind of forget Recchi played for the Habs at all, that’s actually the team he played his third-most games for. All in all, what a run for a guy who succeeded as under undersized player in the suffocating Dead Puck Era and finished with more games (1,652) than all but seven guys in the history of the league.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Vancouver Canucks (33-11-5) With their 5-4 overtime win versus Columbus on Saturday night, the Canucks finished a five-game homestand 4-0-1. After their ASG break, Vancouver begins a five-game roadie.
2. Edmonton Oilers (29-15-1) Hard pause now, as we wait to see if Edmonton can tie Mario Lemieux’s 1992-93 Penguins with a 17-game winning streak. The Oilers are back at it Feb. 6 in Vegas. They were 13-15-1 when this 16-game streak began. Edmonton is allowing 1.5 goals against per game during the run and scoring 3.8.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (25-14-8) We haven’t seen a 70-goal season since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny both popped 76 in 1992-93. Auston Matthews — who scored for the third straight game in Saturday’s 4-2 win in Winnipeg — is tracking that number with 40 in 46.
4. Winnipeg Jets (30-12-5) Suddenly scoring goals is an issue. The Jets have only been able to scratch out 1.6 goals per game in their past seven outings, granted top-line centre Mark Scheifele has been out since Jan. 11.
5. Montreal Canadiens (20-21-8) Sean Monahan — whose game is about so much more than points — has 11 points in his past seven outings after picking up an assist in Saturday’s 3-2 OT loss in Pittsburgh. It will be fascinating to see if a team steps up to land the UFA-to-be ahead of the deadline.
6. Calgary Flames (22-22-5) Getting a 1-0 win versus the Hawks was a nice way to close the pre-all-star portion of the schedule. But even with that win, Calgary enters its break having gone 2-4-0 on a six-game homestand and comes out of the hiatus with a tough four-game roadie. That’s not a recipe for getting back in the playoff chase.
7. Ottawa Senators (18-25-2) Four shots, four goals given up by Joonas Korpisalo to start the second period in a 7-2 loss to the Rangers on Saturday. Just when you think this team is getting it together, it invariably produces a dispiriting loss.
The Week Ahead
• Most of the league is on an extended ASG break now, as we have just six games total between now and Thursday, when the stars will descend on Toronto.
That night brings the All-Star Player Draft and the PWHL three-on-three showcase. Friday features the All-Star Skills before the three-on-three tourney between Team Matthews, Team MacKinnon, Team (Quinn and Jack) Hughes and Team McDavid kicks off Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET.
