DALLAS — A little less three years ago, when the pandemic brought live sports to a halt, many sports fans gathered weekly around their television to watch “The Last Dance.” It was a 10-part docuseries about Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. Even if you didn’t watch the docuseries, you’ve likely seen the Jordan clip circulating on the internet where he says, “It became personal with me.”
Jake Oettinger tonight pic.twitter.com/0UzljctE7p
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) March 24, 2023
In Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Penguins, Stars netminder Jake Oettinger personified that vibe from Jordan.
“I feel like I’m one of the best goalies in the world and I haven’t shown that,” Oettinger said. “A lot of people have been saying they think I’m exhausted. No one knows how I feel except for me. I feel great, and no one can say that (exhaustion dialogue) about tonight.”
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From puck drop to the final buzzer, the Stars once again left their franchise goaltender out to dry far too often. The game began with the Stars camping out in their own zone for too long and it ended with Jani Hakanpää taking a penalty with 1:08 left in regulation and the Stars clinging to a 3-2 lead. The Penguins pulled the only goaltender they had available for the game and went six-on-four to try and get the tying goal.
“You just know it’s going to be a s— show,” Oettinger said. “It’s going to take that one clear or that one block or that one save. I think we got all three of those. It’s fun when you can get the job done like that.”
As coaches often say, the goaltender has to be the best penalty killer when a team is playing short-handed. With a two-man advantage, that notion is magnified. Given the game Oettinger had all night, it was fitting that it came down to a moment that would require him to provide the exclamation mark.
And Oettinger delivered.
First, he had a two-piece by stonewalling Kris Letang’s shot and deflecting away Rickard Rakell’s rebound opportunity.
After the Stars took a timeout with 20 seconds left, Sidney Crosby won the faceoff against Jamie Benn. The puck quickly worked its way up top to Evgeni Malkin, who put a shot on net that Oettinger stopped. Crosby came in for a rebound, which Oettinger gloved.
“He’s just elite,” Tyler Seguin said. “There’s no reason for him to call himself out after last game. Even though he did, he definitely responded tonight, if you want to call it that. I think he’s great every night. He’s got a heavy workload right now, but he’s the backbone.”
Coach Peter DeBoer: “His response tonight tells you what he’s about. We weren’t going to lose that game. He made sure of it. He was our best player, by far.”
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This is the luxury of having an elite goaltender to turn to. The Stars were not the better team Thursday. Natural Stat Trick had the Penguins 4.54-3.24 in expected goals while MoneyPuck had it virtually even at 3.43-3.40 Stars.
“The special ones have a special mental toughness to them,” DeBoer said about Oettinger. “I think you saw what he’s gone through here the last week or 10 days. I wish our group would have helped a little bit more tonight and not left him with as many big saves as he had to make.”
The big saves from Oettinger came early and often. The Stars have developed a troubling habit of turning two-on-ones loose on Oettinger. That happened in the first period. With Ryan Suter the lone Stars player back, Oettinger stayed composed and prevented any damage on the shot.
In the second period, Pittsburgh got in on the doorstep. Oettinger showed his savvy poise, using his stick to try and pokecheck but staying in position and kicking the puck out of harm’s way when the stick didn’t work.
The highlight of the night came early in the third period. With Crosby coming in at him with the puck and Bryan Rust in position down low, Oettinger calmly stayed in and kept the puck out of the net.
The third period was better for the Stars than the first two periods. DeBoer put it in plain terms as to why that was the case.
“We stopped f—— around with the puck,” DeBoer said.
The Stars were outperformed, or even at best, but they had Oettinger in net while the other team didn’t. That was the difference because with Oettinger patrolling the crease, the Stars always have a chance.
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Jason Robertson
The past three media sessions with DeBoer have held an interesting pattern regarding Robertson. We’ll take this chronologically, so let’s begin with Tuesday night’s postgame press conference after the Stars lost in overtime to the Kraken. DeBoer was asked about the overtime strategy of three forwards that has produced mixed results.
“This time we did exactly what we wanted to do but we overstayed our shift,” DeBoer said. “Robo overstayed his shift. It’s piecing together. You’ve got to do everything right, though. You’ve got to wear them out, you’ve got to keep them on the ice tired and then you have to out-change them. And if someone decides not to out-change them, then that’s what happens.”
Thursday morning, with Robertson set to play in his 200th game, DeBoer was asked to share something underrated about Robertson.
“He’s a student of the game,” DeBoer said. “How hard he works at the game. He’s in looking at analytics on his own all the time. He’s staying after practice, after pregame skate working on his own game. It’s always the offensive part of the game; I’d like him to spend a little bit more time on the other end, from a coaching perspective, but you know, he’s better defensively than I give him credit, a lot of people give him credit, too.”
In the first period against the Penguins, Robertson made another mesmerizing play with a touch pass to spring Roope Hintz for the Stars’ first goal.
After the game, DeBoer was asked about Robertson’s passing.
“That’s a big-time goal and a big-time play,” DeBoer said. “We’ve talked endlessly and given Robo all kinds of accolades all year. If you want to be honest about his game, I think he can play better than he did tonight or last game. That’s my honest assessment. I love the guy and I’m the first one to stand up here and tell you guys how great he is, but he’s got to be better than he was the last two games.”
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Coaches view players through a more holistic lens than outsiders, though it wasn’t hard to see that Robertson was not at his best Thursday. But Robertson is the team’s best goal scorer, a true superstar and one of the best players in the league. With all of those labels come higher expectations. Robertson is graded on a different rubric than most and by his standards, he needs to be better as part of the Stars’ team game getting back to where they want.
Quick hitters
• Seguin returned to the lineup against the Penguins. DeBoer said if you had asked him a few days ago, no one expected Seguin to play Thursday night. Seguin pushed for it and wanted to be in the lineup. Afterward, Seguin talked about how his first game back in two weeks felt.
“It felt OK,” Seguin said with a shrug. “Mentally, it didn’t feel that great. Missing time and then that first game back is tough but good to see a win.”
For Seguin to return to the lineup, take hits, block shots and just race up and down the ice was a good personal win for him and for the Stars. His laceration required about 30 stitches so there was fear about how would respond to high intensity. It appears to have held up well.
• Nils Lundkvist returned to the lineup as well after being a healthy scratch in five of the last six games. He looked solid in his 11:25 on the ice, which was lowest amongst the defenseman but an upgrade over his three minutes his last time out.
• Radek Faksa was a late scratch due to illness.
• The Stars are clearly evaluating things on the second power-play unit. During one power play, the first unit played the bulk of the two minutes. On another power play, Miro Heiskanen stayed on for the full two minutes, quarterbacking both units. Heiskanen played his usual game-high 26:01.
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With the assist on the second goal, Heiskanen extended his points streak to 12 consecutive games, setting the record for the lengthiest point streak by a defenseman in franchise history. It’s the longest active points streak in the NHL.
• DeBoer’s late-game deployment was interesting. In the final 1:08, with the Stars trying to kill an aggressive six-on-four Penguins power play, Heiskanen did not see the ice. The Stars even took a timeout with 20 seconds left, with the Penguins taking an offensive zone draw. Benn, Hintz, Esa Lindell and Suter were the players on the ice for Dallas.
DeBoer said using Heiskanen in that situation was a consideration but ultimately decided not to use him there.
“I think it was the right call based on the fact that they got the job done,” DeBoer said.
(Photo: Jerome Miron / USA Today)