The Dallas Stars put together their highest-scoring game in more than a month and defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1, on Saturday.
Alexander Radulov scored twice for the Stars, while Blake Comeau, Tyler Pitlick and Jason Spezza also struck as Dallas extended a two-game win streak.
1. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin were challenged in a very public manner Friday when Stars CEO Jim Lites ripped the two players in a surprising and vulgar manner in an interview with The Athletic.
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Benn and Seguin gave professional, smart responses to the media after morning skate Saturday.
After the game some of their teammates came to their defense in postgame interviews.
“It’s not a good feeling for sure,” Comeau said. “Those two guys were the names that were said, but to be honest with you if you asked every guy in this locker room I don’t think anyone is satisfied with where we are in the standings. I think we’re a better team than our record has shown and I thought it was a good response by us tonight.”
“I think we all feel responsible, I think we want to be a better team and it’s not just those guys that need to be better, we all need to be better,” Spezza said. “As teammates, we need to respond and be a good club and try to win some games here in the homestretch.”
“We are a team and we don’t leave the guys by themselves,” Radulov said. “That’s how we responded and they say whatever they want … it’s time to change. We did a small step today.”
2. While the Stars won the first game after Lites’ comments, the timing of the comments and the upcoming opponent were rather convenient to make it look like the words inspired action.
The truth is the Stars were playing a bad Detroit team that has struggled mightily recently and the Stars have been rather successful at home. This was a game the Stars were supposed to win, what happened outside the locker room really shouldn’t have had an impact on whether they won or lost today.
In fact it was a similar game to the other night against Nashville, just the opponent was easier and the scoreline looked more impressive.
3. As for Benn and Seguin’s performance in the game, it wasn’t bad and it certainly wasn’t to the level that Lites described the other day, but they were rather invisible in the victory.
If you look at plus/minus, and please don’t skewer me in the comments for using this stat, Benn and Seguin were two of three players not to register a positive plus/minus. When looking at advanced metrics, Benn had a 44.83 CF% at even strength, while Seguin had a 52.78 CF% showing.
4. Stars coach Jim Montgomery has been forced into a bit of damage control in the past 24 hours after Lites’ comments.
When asked about Benn and Seguin, he gave a diplomatic answer about their performance.
“I thought they helped us win,” Montgomery said.
5. Ice time is a better indication of how the coach thought Benn and Seguin played.
Benn’s minutes were dialed back to 15:07, Seguin played 17:59.
Benn has been averaging 18:47 this season, while Seguin was averaging 21:03.
6. Radulov wasn’t the player dragged in public comments this week, but the Stars have talked about all of their top players — Radulov and John Klingberg included — stepping up as top performers.
Radulov has delivered on that mandate most of this season and was one of the Stars’ best players against the Red Wings.
After going back-to-back games without a point, Radulov scored twice and had a team-high eight shot attempts.
7. The two goals were encapsulations of Radulov at his best.
Radulov’s first goal made it 2-0 and came on a sharp pass by Mattias Janmark before he wired a wrist shot over Jonathan Bernier’s glove from the left circle.
Score and celly big. pic.twitter.com/3MT1MRkJE1
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) December 30, 2018
The second goal was an effort play in which Radulov hunted a puck down on the power play, lunged for a rebound, and created his own luck as Dallas took a 3-0 lead.
8. Earlier, the Stars broke through on this beauty of a pass from Radek Faksa to Comeau.
Great feed by Radek Faksa to open the scoring. #GoStars pic.twitter.com/3sWiumYPdC
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 30, 2018
The Radulov goal and the Comeau goal came on passes across the center of the ice where the Stars forced Bernier to move from left to right.
9. Pitlick made it 4-0 early in the third period on a wrist shot and extended his scoring streak to three games after getting a healthy scratch against the Minnesota Wild a week ago.
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“He’s a proud guy, he works extremely hard,” Comeau said of Pitlick. “And when he was taken out of the lineup he took it personal, and one thing with Pitter, you can always count on him to be working hard and get rewarded and hopefully he keeps building on his last couple games.”
Overall, the Pitlick-Faksa-Comeau line was the Stars’ best unit and they earned high praise from Montgomery, who said the Stars might not have won the past two games without them.
“These last two games if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know if we win the games,” Montgomery said. “That’s how good they’ve been playing.”
10. Spezza’s goal that made it 5-0 was a bit of a throwback to the Spezza of old when he teed up a slap shot and picked the top corner.
The goal started with a bad giveaway by Detroit, setting up Spezza for a chance from prime scoring area in the slot without much of an attempt to defend him by the Red Wings.
11. Ben Bishop had another strong night and stopped 33 of 34 shots.
He didn’t have to make any spectacular saves, but he kept things in control and limited second-chance opportunities.
12. The Stars started with this lineup:
Jamie Benn – Roope Hintz – Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore – Tyler Seguin – Denis Gurianov
Tyler Pitlick – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Julius Honka – Taylor Fedun
13. Hintz was recalled from the AHL on Friday and centered a line between Benn and Radulov.
“Good, utilized his speed. I thought very noticeable he put the other team on their heels on the forecheck,” Montgomery said. “And carrying the puck with speed through the neutral zone.”
14. Honka was back in the lineup after sitting the past five as a healthy scratch. When asked about Honka’s performance, Montgomery didn’t seem too thrilled and simply said, “I thought with the minutes he played he was fine.”
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Honka was in because Connor Carrick still isn’t ready to go, according to Montgomery.
Carrick was close to playing Saturday, but the Stars opted to give him a couple more days and he could be back in the lineup Monday against the Montreal Canadiens.
15. In other injury news, Jason Dickinson is expected to miss three to four weeks with a back injury.
16. Detroit twice put the puck in the net and didn’t get anything on the scoreboard.
On the first situation the Red Wings scored, but it came after the whistle had been blown because the official lost sight of the puck.
The second one was a challenge by the Stars on a goal that would have made it 5-2. After a review, it was revealed the Red Wings had interfered with Bishop.
17. Montgomery said the Stars were likely going to challenge the goal either way because there was nothing to lose, but they felt pretty confident in the challenge after getting word from video coach Kelly Forbes.
“He’s excellent and he’s like, ‘We should challenge that,'” Montgomery said. “Kelly Forbes is invaluable to us. He’s got a great eye and he’s got a great hockey mind.”
18. The Stars’ penalties were a bit of an issue in the third period and they took four penalties, including a trio of stick fouls.
“Not happy with it,” Montgomery said. “I think it took away the momentum in the third period. When you are playing with a 5-0 or 5-1 lead you know that penalties might come against you, it’s just human nature, and you can’t give refs the opportunity by taking your stick off the ice and defend with your stick on the ice and skate to the defensive side.”
19. Trevor Daley recently played his 1,000th career NHL game and was acknowledged on the video board during the first period.
Daley played 756 games with the Stars between 2003 and 2015.
20. Here is how the Stars did in the various elements of Montgomery’s Process:
Win 56 percent of faceoffs: Passed. They won exactly 56 percent.
Zero undisciplined penalties: Failed.
Three or fewer odd-man rushes: Passed.
Win net-front battle: Passed.
Win special teams: Failed. It was a win until they took too many penalties in the third period and conceded a goal.
(Photo: Glenn James / Getty Images)
