First Shift 🏒
The Stars had some of the most balanced scoring in the NHL last season.
Two seasons ago, they seemed to rely way too much on the top line.
This year, it’s a little bit of everything.
After starting out with the trio of Duchene, Mason Marchment and Seguin surging as one of the best even strength lines in the league, Dallas has sort of become a grab bag of good and bad. With Seguin out 4-6 months after hip surgery, the Duchene line has quieted down a bit. With Joe Pavelski retiring, the top line with Hintz and Robertson still is looking for its chemistry with new winger Johnston. And with Johnston moving up to the top line from the third line, the chemistry that was once there with Benn also is missing.
That leaves some need for spackle and paste in the 2024-25 edition of the Dallas Stars.
“We’re not scoring easily right now,” said coach Pete DeBoer. “We’re creating quality chances, they’re just not going in right now.”
Dallas ranked third in scoring at 3.54 goals per game and fourth in shooting percentage at 11.4 percent last season. They are 10th in scoring this season at 3.24 goals per game and 16th in shooting percentage at 10.6 percent. A significant backstep in power play success rate from sixth last season (24.2 percent) to 25th this season (17.6 percent) is a big part of the dropoff, but there is some frustration overall in how the lines are coming together and how the offense is panning out.
“We’ve just been trying to grow our game every time we go out,” said Hintz. Whose points per game has dropped from 0.81 to 0.61. “We’re just trying to create plays and work hard. We want to build on that and keep going.”
Robertson has had one of the biggest drops from 0.98 to 0.66 in points per game, while Benn has gone from 0.73 to 0.62 and Johnston has fallen from 0.79 to 0.59. Robertson, who scored a power play goal on Saturday, said he has to just keep pushing ahead.
“If you do it, it should go in,” Robertson said of increasing his shot volume. “Just keep getting the volume up and hitting the net. I definitely want to get that up.”
Robertson is on pace to shoot the puck 40 times fewer than the team-leading 231 shots on goal he had last season, and he’s not alone in that regard. The Stars as a team could definitely shoot more. Again, getting chemistry is key in making that happen. When Seguin played, the Duchene line created a ton of opportunities. Now, they have to build new chemistry with Stankoven. Likewise, Hintz and Robertson have to get going with Johnston and Benn has to mesh with Steel, Dadonov or whoever else ends up on that line.
On Saturday, the entire team looked in sync and outshot St. Louis, 37-16.
“We generated a lot tonight,” Duchene said. “If we keep generating like that, we’ll get our swagger going and start scoring more.”
If they do that, then the swagger can become contagious. Robertson said when one line has a good shift, it can hand off to the next line, and that line will then be in a good place to have a good shift, and then it can hand off to the next line and so on.
“A lot of lines were going and we kind of put each other in good spots, in good situations, and we kept rolling and rolling,” Robertson said. “You build momentum and then you start feeling it. We definitely want to take the next step.”
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