Give the Stars space, they’re off to the races.
Entering Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Washington, Dallas was dangerous on the rush through the season’s first week, generating a staggering 11 of their 12 goals in transition. That’s great for the Stars that they’ve been able to strike quickly, but discouraging that their in-zone offense has lagged behind.
“I think the one feeds the other,” Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. “You have a good rush attack, you put the other team on their heels, it leads to recoveries, which should lead to o-zone time.”
On Saturday, the Stars couldn’t generate much offense, and were nearly shut out for the first time this season by Capitals rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov in his second career game.
Their power play went 0-for-6, running their season total to 1-for-20 with the man advantage. Washington, meanwhile, went 2-for-5 on the power play, twice scoring on Joel Hanley penalties.
Radek Faksa scored his first goal for Dallas — his wraparound stuff seven minutes into the third period cut Washington’s lead to 3-1 but the Stars couldn’t get closer.
It was Washington’s first regulation victory in Dallas since Oct. 17, 1995, at Reunion Arena. The regulation loss snapped a 17-game home point streak for the Stars against the Capitals.
The Stars are 1-4-1 and play their next four games on the road.
“Everyone has to look in the mirror,” Montgomery said. “Everyone has to be better. Everybody’s got to take ownership for the ice time they’re getting and lack of production, maybe, they’re giving. And also the lack of energy and emotion they’re giving to the team.
“As a coaching staff, we got to look in the mirror and ‘What are we doing wrong that we don’t get off to better starts?’ We’ve been trying to look at it, and it’s just too reminiscent of last year, probably more late October and early November.”
Before Saturday, speed gave Dallas leads or kept them in games.
Roope Hintz has been the key.
Hintz has been the team’s best player early, entering Saturday with four goals in five games, all of which came on the rush. Of the Stars’ 12 goals, Hintz has been on the ice for six of them. His bursts of speed have become commonplace in Stars games, from taking defensemen wide to chasing down loose pucks.
“He has speed and power,” Montgomery said. “I think you see it anytime he touches the puck, it’s like ‘Woah,’ from the crowd. That speaks to his talents.”
Hintz is arguably the fastest player in the organization, with Miro Heiskanen and Denis Gurianov also in the conversation, and his pace has allowed him to change games, especially when placed on a line with speedy Swedish forward Mattias Janmark.
“Every time you see us have a good rush attack, Roope Hintz is out there,” Montgomery said. “Janmark and him are good together because of that. Janmark is great at gaining the blue line himself.”
Janmark has a short-handed goal this season that came on the rush in St. Louis, and he’s helped set up two of Hintz’s goals.
Heiskanen has also been instrumental in the transition game, skating the puck out of the defensive zone, and through center ice. Hintz, Heiskanen or Janmark have been on the ice for eight of the Stars’ 11 rush goals.
While Hintz’s speed is hard to duplicate, his shift length is something Montgomery would like other Stars to emulate. Montgomery wants shifts at 5-on-5 to be 40 seconds or less to allow players to empty the tanks and then get off the ice after max effort skating.
Figuring out the exact average shift length at 5-on-5 can be difficult (the Stars analytics team does it for the coaching staff), but a rough estimation using Natural Stat Trick reveals that Hintz’s average shift at 5-on-5 is 34.5 seconds. That is the lowest on the team.
“There’s not an easy stride that he takes,” Montgomery said. “We would like everybody to be at that level, so that’s why that 40 seconds is important for our process. But it also means that he can’t take those same minutes that maybe other players can.”
Over the summer, Montgomery tasked assistant coach John Stevens with tweaking the Stars’ play within the offensive zone. The result was an added emphasis on placing two players between the dots and asking for more movement.
Has Montgomery seen that early on?
“We’re seeing it consistently that we have two players,” Montgomery said. “But now what has to happen is our forwards and D-men being on the same page. And what I mean by that is D-men expecting to get the puck from the forwards at the time they expect to get it and then forwards also using the top, using the defensemen is synchronicity. The shape is there; it’s just the puck movement isn’t there.”
