Rantanen Is Back
The Stars are a different team when he plays
One thing I don’t understand: why teams fire their coaches so late in a season when they’re headed to the playoffs.
Last week the Vegas Golden Knights, with eight games left in the season, fired their Stanley Cup winning coach Bruce Cassidy.
This weekend the New York Islanders did the same thing, firing head coach Patrick Roy with four games left in the regular season.
I would understand if both of these teams were in the middle of terrible seasons, but Vegas is in third in the Pacific and the Islanders are one point outside of the second wild card spot in the East.
The guys that were hired to replace their coaches are known winners in John Tortorella and Pete DeBoer, respectively.
But at this stage in the season, it feels like there is too little time to make substantial adjustments while still trying to figure out where to park in the garage and what places to eat in town. Good coaches deserve an offseason and training camp to make all of the adjustments needed to impact a franchise.
Which leads me to the Dallas Stars coach. Glen Gulutzan was going to have a hard job no matter what. The expectation has been all season that for this to be a successful year, the Stars need to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals- one step further than DeBoer could take them.
I do believe that is still an expectation.
But what Gulutzan has done this season, without knowing how the playoffs will unfold, should squash the doubters.
The Stars have been one of the most injury-plagued teams in the league. Jamie Benn, Mikko Rantanen, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Lian Bischel, Nils Lundquist and Thomas Harley have all missed significant time this season. Tyler Seguin played only 27 games. This team has and continues to deal with injury problems.
And yet they were the second team to reach 100 points on the season. They set a new franchise record for consecutive wins, and tied a record for consecutive points streak with the ‘98-’99 Stanley Cup team.
This team is a wagon to play against. They have their struggles as we will talk about later, but they are a team to fear come playoff time.
Gulutzan has proven so far that he can steer this team through the storms of the season.
Stars with and without Mikko Rantanen
The last couple of weeks have been hard for the Stars. Coming off their point streak, the Stars lost eight of their last eleven including four straight entering last Saturday.
While the Stars had continued their winning streak without Mikko Rantanen post-Olympic break, in the last couple of weeks the wheels were beginning to fall off.
Against the Devils, a team that is going nowhere fast, the Stars failed to protect their net. The Devils scored four goals in the first period, which sent Jake Oettinger to the bench for the night. The Stars clawed their way back into the game with a tough second period, but two goals in the third sealed the loss for the Stars, despite Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston providing almost all of the Stars scoring punch.
The Islanders game was a better performance, as the Stars were not played off the ice in the first period. But the offense did not come to play, as it was not until late in the third period when the Stars got their only goal of the night from Matt Duchene. The Stars ended up losing in frustrating fashion, 2-1.
Both games showed what the Stars were lacking of late: a strong defense to protect the goalie, and a powerful offense that had overpowered teams throughout this season.
Last Saturday the Stars got Rantanen back for a matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. After one period the Stars trailed 1-0, but on the ice the Penguins were overwhelming the Stars with shot after shot. The second period is where Rantanen’s return was truly felt. The Stars scored four goals in the second period, with Rantanen setting Jason Robertson up on one and Robertson returning the favor by setting Rantanen up with a beautiful shot from one knee.
While Sunday the Stars came back down to earth with a flat, 18 shot game on the second day of a back-to-back, the Stars played good enough defense to steal a point.
The rest of the week saw the Stars get crushed by Boston, shutout Winnipeg, and then fall 2-0 against Colorado. Rantanen had an assist in Boston and against Winnipeg.
Without Rantanen in the lineup, the Stars were beginning to fishtail. With him back in the lineup, the Stars look more like themselves.
Injuries, Injuries
Heading into the final weeks of the regular season, the Stars are battling a number of injuries.
In one week, the team had four different players go down with an injury.
First it was Sam Steel, who missed the remainder of the road trip after sustaining an injury against the Islanders. Steel had really come into his own being on a line with Duchene and Jamie Benn.
Against Colorado Nathan Bastian left after blocking a shot with his hand.
The following day Michael Bunting skated only six shifts in the first before leaving with a lower body injury that coach Gulutzan said he believes won’t make him miss too much time.
Defenseman Tyler Myers left that same game, and has been labeled day-to-day but has missed the three games since.
There is concern beginning to rise that the Stars will be too injured going into the playoffs to be able to survive the gauntlet of the Central Division. Currently the team has seven players out who are starter level players.
Here’s what the lineup would look like at full strength:
But, due to all of the injuries, here is what they are currently working with:
After last Tuesday’s beat down at the hands of the Bruins, the Stars have been going 11 forwards and 7 defensemen because they do not have any more healthy forwards.
I am definitely worried about the health of this team going into the playoffs this year.
Now, yes, last year the team went up against Colorado and beat them in seven games without their top defenseman Miro Heiskanen and top two forward Jason Robertson.
But I feel like last year’s team had more depth to handle losses like that. At this point the team is relying on AHL call-ups like Hyry and Hughes to fill in at the bottom of the lineup.
There is the hope that some of the players will return soon - Hintz has supposedly been skating, as has Faksa. If those two, Steel, and Myers can all come back before the playoffs, things could be alright.
This Week
After Saturday’s loss to the Avalanche, the Stars are basically locked in to the second seed. On Thursday they have a big matchup with the Wild that could determine who has home ice for the first round. If the Stars struggle to play well against the Wild, combined with their current health issues, they may be in for an early summer. And considering the expectations they had coming into the season, an early summer would be a step backwards.