GDT: [Game #58] Dallas Stars @ Toronto Maple Leafs - 6:00 PM CT (BSSW)

[Magic Mittens]

Nashville will beat a strong Pitts team, and we lose to a weak defensive team with an AHL goalie lol

 

[The Tourist]

On the bright side of this game, Studenic is fast.

He and Glendening were the only two players who stood out for me tonight. Top six was awful.

 

[Elysian]

He and Glendening were the only two players who stood out for me tonight. Top six was awful.

Guri stood out on the power play, had several chances.

 

[Elysian]

Oh, look which Dallas player had the highest xG.

 

[M88K]

View attachment 516176

Oh, look which Dallas player had the highest xG.

guess the secret was to put him with Faksa after all.
Bowness is clearly a genius

 

[Elysian]

guess the secret was to put him with Faksa after all.
Bowness is clearly a genius

He got his scoring chance either on the PP or with Benn and Seguin.

 

[DieselPig]

This team is unbearable. Kallgren looked so shaky in net spitting out rebound on almost every shot and Dallas can’t even muster one goal. Pathetic.

 

[Troy McClure]

The sad part is that I don't really even know how to fix the team. Sure keep Radulov, Benn and Seguin away from each other, more playing time to Harley, Kiviranta to minors, dress Peterson. Would that really change anything? Ugh.

I also don't have any ideas, but the worst thing is clearly Bowness also had no idea what to do.

 

[Linus Bryksa]

This is so sad- can’t even blow it up even if there was the will to do it- besides Robertson and maybe Gurianov and Hintz - no other teams want any of the rest! High paid and most useless will be here for at least another 2 years- gotta love the long term - no trade contracts! GMs are so stupid!

 

[David Castillo]

On the plus side, Dallas' 39 goals on the road at EV is a league worst, so hopefully Toronto mistakenly believes Kallgren is their new starter, only to watch him implode in the first round. Small victories.

 

[BG44]

I also don't have any ideas, but the worst thing is clearly Bowness also had no idea what to do.

I think the saddest example of this was the evolution of Benn-Seguin's line tonight. He's not wrong that Benn-Seguin-Gurianov has not been as effective. He has no clue how to fix that though so he reverts back to Benn-Seguin-Radulov. Predictably, they get lit up. It's asinine to continue playing them together. In the ultimate give-up move, he just simply switches back eventually to Benn-Seguin-Gurianov to end the game. It's beyond his comprehension to try anything else at all apparently.

He literally refuses to try anything new or play anyone up the lineup in an attempt to help the team win. It's incredible that he has no answers. I'm really starting to wonder if this is a Top 3 Central team easily with a different coach. They've flirted that with him running the team poorly. They win right now, at least when they do win, which at times can be semi-regularly, by sheer will from the first line, PP, or goaltending.

Most people bitch about effort and whatnot, but you clearly have a coach putting players in a position to fail ... especially with a guy like Faksa. I don't think it's a stretch that the team would be significantly better overall if they simply played some of their depth so they can see who fits in the middle six and actually played Faksa on the 4th line where he belongs ... or out of the lineup. You have a 3rd line anchor right now that plays Top 6 minutes occasionally, and you can't figure out why you have one of the best top lines in the league and are still one of the worst teams in the league at even strength scoring.

There has been no attempt whatsoever to create a 3rd line and only frail, predictably weak attempts to find a 2nd line, and I just wonder how much better Dallas would be if they had a coach that actually deployed a competent middle six with that top line they had, and he refuses to play talented younger players up the lineup that might have a shot to help. His only move is a broken, former juggernaut line or playing Raffl with Seguin

This isn't a contender, but it's not a bad team either. This is a team that should probably be better than Top 16 if not for awful coaching. That doesn't excuse Nill's management, and the team definitely has some problems in terms of construction, but I'm really confident this team is not as bad as they perform with this head coach. I think any NHL-quality head coach could probably do more with this roster than Bowness which makes it sad that Gaglardi and Nill haven't done anything about that.

I thought they could outplay the poor coaching and get into the playoffs, but I really don't know that this coach has the ability to compensate for the loss of Heiskanen. He was already overwhelmed and barely keeping the wheels on this thing with a healthy roster.

 

[Kcb12345]

On the plus side, Dallas' 39 goals on the road at EV is a league worst, so hopefully Toronto mistakenly believes Kallgren is their new starter, only to watch him implode in the first round. Small victories.

100% that's already being thrown around

 

[Captain Awesome]

Fill in the blank! The forward with the most ice time after Robertson, Hintz, Pavelski tonight was ______.

 

[Rory]

I think the saddest example of this was the evolution of Benn-Seguin's line tonight. He's not wrong that Benn-Seguin-Gurianov has not been as effective. He has no clue how to fix that though so he reverts back to Benn-Seguin-Radulov. Predictably, they get lit up. It's asinine to continue playing them together. In the ultimate give-up move, he just simply switches back eventually to Benn-Seguin-Gurianov to end the game. It's beyond his comprehension to try anything else at all apparently.

He literally refuses to try anything new or play anyone up the lineup in an attempt to help the team win. It's incredible that he has no answers. I'm really starting to wonder if this is a Top 3 Central team easily with a different coach. They've flirted that with him running the team poorly. They win right now, at least when they do win, which at times can be semi-regularly, by sheer will from the first line, PP, or goaltending.

Most people bitch about effort and whatnot, but you clearly have a coach putting players in a position to fail ... especially with a guy like Faksa. I don't think it's a stretch that the team would be significantly better overall if they simply played some of their depth so they can see who fits in the middle six and actually played Faksa on the 4th line where he belongs ... or out of the lineup. You have a 3rd line anchor right now that plays Top 6 minutes occasionally, and you can't figure out why you have one of the best top lines in the league and are still one of the worst teams in the league at even strength scoring.

There has been no attempt whatsoever to create a 3rd line and only frail, predictably weak attempts to find a 2nd line, and I just wonder how much better Dallas would be if they had a coach that actually deployed a competent middle six with that top line they had, and he refuses to play talented younger players up the lineup that might have a shot to help. His only move is a broken, former juggernaut line or playing Raffl with Seguin

This isn't a contender, but it's not a bad team either. This is a team that should probably be better than Top 16 if not for awful coaching. That doesn't excuse Nill's management, and the team definitely has some problems in terms of construction, but I'm really confident this team is not as bad as they perform with this head coach. I think any NHL-quality head coach could probably do more with this roster than Bowness which makes it sad that Gaglardi and Nill haven't done anything about that.

I thought they could outplay the poor coaching and get into the playoffs, but I really don't know that this coach has the ability to compensate for the loss of Heiskanen. He was already overwhelmed and barely keeping the wheels on this thing with a healthy roster.

I agree. This team is better than what they show. This coach has no clue how to get the most out of them. He is so concerned with defense that he put Faksa out there more than he should be. But this GM won’t let Faksa go. He needs to be traded. There are other teams that will take him as a 3C. Peterson should not be scratched especially with kiviranta in the lineup. Seriously what does kivi have on Bowness? Why is this guy in there? He has been trash all year. Peterson had made strides.

There may be some other issues as well. Maybe Benn won’t play a bottom six role. That’s where he belongs but they force him with Seguin. Gurianov and Peterson make more sense with Seguin. Benn can play 3C. But this is also the same coach who puts out Lindell on the top PP in the bumper spot. Who had that stupid idea? What the hell is Lindell even doing on a PP? Why do they keep dumping it in? This coaching staff is beyond garbage. I feel like half the people on this board can coach this team better.

 

[hairylikebear]

They had a weird gameplan tonight. It always seems most sensible to me when you're up against lesser quality goaltending to make their jobs as hard as possible. Move the puck side to side, fake shots, get lots of traffic in front.

The Stars did the opposite. It looked like the plan was to "keep it simple" and "just get pucks on net" - every attack was just a direct line to the net and the first shot was always chosen over the best shot.

I'm sure Bowness is going to ride the team for their effort but his staff let the team down in this one.

 

[Johno]

I agree. This team is better than what they show. This coach has no clue how to get the most out of them. He is so concerned with defense that he put Faksa out there more than he should be. But this GM won’t let Faksa go. He needs to be traded. There are other teams that will take him as a 3C. Peterson should not be scratched especially with kiviranta in the lineup. Seriously what does kivi have on Bowness? Why is this guy in there? He has been trash all year. Peterson had made strides.

There may be some other issues as well. Maybe Benn won’t play a bottom six role. That’s where he belongs but they force him with Seguin. Gurianov and Peterson make more sense with Seguin. Benn can play 3C. But this is also the same coach who puts out Lindell on the top PP in the bumper spot. Who had that stupid idea? What the hell is Lindell even doing on a PP? Why do they keep dumping it in? This coaching staff is beyond garbage. I feel like half the people on this board can coach this team better.

Kivi single-handedly ‘won’ Bones the contract extension with his game 7 hat-trick. Bones is forever in his debt and will not scratch that man!

 

[MBTendy]

Tough game to watch live.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Crap game by Stars. I hate the down parts of an up and down season.

I did notice both Guri (coach whipping boy) and Kivi (fan board whipping boy) with a few nice plays each. Overall, just one of those games where they really didn't have much push, or it's in some contract that they have to make rookie goalies look like they belong in the HOF.

I wonder 2 things about Otter:
- Is he the new Dobby, i.e., great until the pressure is on to be a true no. 1, and then he falters a bit?
- Other teams seem to know that his weakest spot is blocker side mid height....(statistically, that has always been the easiest place to score on all goalies, but it does seem they scout him and aim most shots that way now.
- I saw the stat after the game that his road GAA is 1.98, road SV% is .940, and his record is 4-5-1. Seems like they could have given him more goal support on the road this year.

 

[BrettHullsToe]

Incoming shutout against a goaltender in his first NHL game.

Also expecting a hattie from RoboJR.

1 out of 2 ain't bad.

 

[Elysian]

Crap game by Stars. I hate the down parts of an up and down season.

I did notice both Guri (coach whipping boy) and Kivi (fan board whipping boy) with a few nice plays each. Overall, just one of those games where they really didn't have much push, or it's in some contract that they have to make rookie goalies look like they belong in the HOF.

I wonder 2 things about Otter:
- Is he the new Dobby, i.e., great until the pressure is on to be a true no. 1, and then he falters a bit?
- Other teams seem to know that his weakest spot is blocker side mid height....(statistically, that has always been the easiest place to score on all goalies, but it does seem they scout him and aim most shots that way now.
- I saw the stat after the game that his road GAA is 1.98, road SV% is .940, and his record is 4-5-1. Seems like they could have given him more goal support on the road this year.

That's what it is, he seems fine under pressure.

 

[BfantZ]

Crap game by Stars. I hate the down parts of an up and down season.

I did notice both Guri (coach whipping boy) and Kivi (fan board whipping boy) with a few nice plays each. Overall, just one of those games where they really didn't have much push, or it's in some contract that they have to make rookie goalies look like they belong in the HOF.

I wonder 2 things about Otter:
- Is he the new Dobby, i.e., great until the pressure is on to be a true no. 1, and then he falters a bit?
- Other teams seem to know that his weakest spot is blocker side mid height....(statistically, that has always been the easiest place to score on all goalies, but it does seem they scout him and aim most shots that way now.
- I saw the stat after the game that his road GAA is 1.98, road SV% is .940, and his record is 4-5-1. Seems like they could have given him more goal support on the road this year.

Not on oettenger at all IMO . Last game was a little bit , but this game you could tell they were gonna lose right from the get go . The stars are so predictable on how they play the first period . Also very predictable following a loss . They rarely lose only 1 game . Once they lose a game they usually play terrible for a few in a row . Just a very mentally fragile group .

 

[BrettHullsToe]

I've kinda lost faith in Gaglardi at this point...

Honestly, I wonder how much shit Nill gets which is actually on Gaglardi. Like maybe Nill doesn't actually want to sign that many vets, but the guy who gets admonished in legal proceedings about drawing up line combos instead of paying attention keeps getting in Nill's ear about signing some UFA he likes the look of. I also wouldn't be surprised if the number one reason Nill isn't a clear seller right now is because Gaglardi wants his one round of playoff revenue.

I guess we'll find out if the next GM does more of the same.

 

[BfantZ]

Honestly, I wonder how much shit Nill gets which is actually on Gaglardi. Like maybe Nill doesn't actually want to sign that many vets, but the guy who gets admonished in legal proceedings about drawing up line combos instead of paying attention keeps getting in Nill's ear about signing some UFA he likes the look of. I also wouldn't be surprised if the number one reason Nill isn't a clear seller right now is because Gaglardi wants his one round of playoff revenue.

I guess we'll find out if the next GM does more of the same.

I doubt gaglardi is any more involved than just simply demanding we try to make playoffs every year . Nill has always seemed honest in his interviews and has given the impression that management and ownership have been for the most part , on the same page . If he was that involved himself , I don’t think he would have hired greeley to babysit management .

 

[Elysian]

Honestly, I wonder how much shit Nill gets which is actually on Gaglardi. Like maybe Nill doesn't actually want to sign that many vets, but the guy who gets admonished in legal proceedings about drawing up line combos instead of paying attention keeps getting in Nill's ear about signing some UFA he likes the look of. I also wouldn't be surprised if the number one reason Nill isn't a clear seller right now is because Gaglardi wants his one round of playoff revenue.

I guess we'll find out if the next GM does more of the same.

I don't think Gaglardi is that involved in the team, and when the team is this mediocre for this long, that's the problem, and why I have no faith in him as an owner. He's also the one who forced Hitch, which is exactly why we're stuck on this shitty defense only system so many years later.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Yah, no. In most sports, having an overactive owner, i.e., Jerry Jones, acting as co-GM is considered a bad thing. The two instances we know of that he intervened, i.e. hiring Hitch and telling Lites to go effen horse turds on the team didn't work out well, and we can presume he has both learned his lesson and backed off a bit. From press reports, they do take all the big money signings to him for spending approval, which I think is normal. We have no way of knowing which he might NOT have approved.

I agree he probably wants to make the PO each year, and revenue is one part of that, given the lost year of revenues in COVID. I can't fault him or other owners for that. When you get down to it, hockey is a crappy biz model that really rich guys do for ego, and maybe a few tax write offs. They may make money on paper, with arena revenues, etc., but in real cash terms, I think they lose a lot and survive by extending debt out down the road.

I think basically, his attitude is to put good people in place and let them run it, while he runs the hotel biz. And, oh yeah, spend to the cap.

If there is a fault from the fans' viewpoint, it might be that he has that old Dallas Cowboys belief that management stability will eventually yield benefits, or at least be as good as a constant carousel. I don't know, but probably, it does equal or exceed the results of constant change. We have had, for various reasons, a constant change of coaches under his tenure, which may contribute to the overall lack of a Cup or even better results. Maybe he has given some general direction to focus on defense, either as an idea he has (and not all that unreasonable if you don't have Tampa level talent) or maybe that is Jim Nill, despite his Detroit pedigree where teams always had some offense, but then again, he wasn't the head guy responsible if it went wrong.....

So, I think it's on Nill, Bones, and most of all the players. The roster Nill has assembled always had some nice pieces, but he has never gotten all the complementary pieces together. When Benn and Seguin were two of the top forwards in the league, goaltending was suspect. (although the Ruff system may have made that worse). When he got Vezina level goaltending, Benn and Seguin had dropped off. D used to be terrible, then stalwart, and now down around the middle of the pack, perhaps tied to the goalie quality. (otter is good, but not at the level the Bish/Dobby tandem was for a few years)

And, for most mid talent teams, winning the Cup depends on some injury luck, and a few more than normal players having career years at the same time. That just hasn't happened, but then again, statistically, it rarely does.

Short version is, I guess we have to say it is what it is.