The Dallas Stars defeated the Nashville Predators 5-1 on Thursday night, in what was anything but a blowout heading into the third period. There’s more to take away from the demolition of a bad team than you might think, both on the negative side and the positive.
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On the one hand, Jake Oettinger was phenomenal between the pipes. On the other hand, he shouldn’t have to be as good as he was in the first period. On the one hand, the Stars’ offense came alive in the final 30 seconds of the second period and into the third. On the other hand, they essentially no-showed for the first 39:30. The one solid thing that doesn’t have an ‘on the other hand’ is the consistency that this offense is beginning to show. Once they finally woke up, the floodgates opened.
Let’s dive in.
Goaltending Continues to Show Out for Dallas
Oettinger had another great night, and his team needed it. Especially early. The Stars were outshot 17-5 in the first 20 minutes and entered the intermission tied 0-0. The Stars outshot the Predators 10-9 in the second period, but Dallas’ defensive zone felt like the busier of the two, regardless of what the stat sheet says.
In this seven-game winning streak, the Stars have scored five goals three times, four goals once, and at least three goals in all of them. So, on the surface, it’s hard to ignore the job Oettinger has been doing. In the five games he’s played during this streak, he is 5-0-0, with a .958 save percentage (SV%) and a 1.40 goals-against average (GAA). There are a few games in there, like Thursday night, where he needed to be terrific until his team caught life.
Just to give him his flowers, Casey DeSmith has been fantastic in his two starts during this streak as well. He is 2-0-0, with a .964 SV% and a 1.50 GAA.
Slow Starts Cannot Keep Happening for the Stars
7-0-0 in their last seven games and 8-0-2 in their last 10 is pretty darn good, but there are still little things like this that pop up their ugly head and give slight concern for the Stars heading into the postseason. If you didn’t watch the game, take my word for it. It wasn’t pretty. In and of itself, these things happen. But at this time of the year, especially against bad teams, these slow starts should be cleaned up by now.
Even in games where the Stars score in the first or put up a decent amount of shots themselves, they are allowing double-digit shots on goal considerably more nowadays than we have seen throughout the season. In the last five games, they’ve allowed 17, 11, 12, 13, and 14 shots in the first period. They keep finding ways to win, so it hasn’t bitten them yet. However, pull this stuff in the playoffs, and you might not be so lucky.
Mikko Rantanen Is Finding His Place in Dallas
Listen, we could wax poetic about a few different players and their offensive acumen as of late. Wyatt Johnston has scored in six straight games, and Jason Robertson caught fire in January, and that fire hasn’t been put out since. However, since joining the Stars, Mikko Rantanen’s place in this Dallas offense has become somewhat underrated.
In 13 games with the Stars, Rantanen has four goals and 13 points, with three points coming on the power play. Sure, there have been some games, especially early in his Dallas tenure, where you could tell he was still finding his way with his new team. Yet, as time has gone on, the offense has started to flow through him, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.
On the last goal of the game, Lian Bichsel took a brilliant saucer pass from Rantanen that showed the vision that this guy has. The puck might not always end up in the back of the net, but he makes plays like this every night.
Rantanen can definitely score goals. He’s scored 30-plus in five straight seasons, including 42 last season and 55 the season before. The first of those five seasons was in a COVID-shortened season, in which he played only 52 games. However, some people might forget that threading the needle and creating plays like that one is really what he does best. In the last eight seasons, including this one, he has had 50-plus assists in six of them. The two he didn’t were both, again, shortened due to COVID. So, Stars fans, buckle up. You’re going to see a lot more of this over the next eight seasons.
High Expectations Come With Petty Critiques
It feels weird to pick a part little things like slow starts when the Stars win 5-1, seven in a row, eight of their last 10, and have the most wins in the NHL since Jan. 1. However, this team has one expectation and one alone: to win the Stanley Cup. They have been two wins away from the final series of the postseason two years in a row, and this time, they want to get there and get the job done. Starting slow and being outshot 17-5 in the first period is going to yield much worse consequences against the cream of the crop than it will against the Predators. No offense, Nashville.
