Without the number one chain run by Roope Hintz, Dallas Stars won’t have much this season either. The imbalance in the team also creates a lean expectation value for a possible playoff round, writes Tommi Seppälä, the NHL reporter for Urheilun.
Four losses from five matches had put Dallas in front of a tight spot in Washington early Monday morning. The playoffs are still strongly in the team’s own hands, so an entry had to be made in the winning stats, even though there was a bad away match against a quality home team.
Dallas responded to the call with the lead of its number one chain.
Stars won both Monday in Washington and Wednesday at home against Edmonton. The team made eight hits in two matches, of which Roope Hintzin led the number one chain on its edges Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson your stuff five. In total, the trio raced for power points in two matches at eleven.
Few were surprised as the formula has become familiar to NHL followers. Although Dallas has gained power from an increasingly broad front line in its lineup in recent weeks, the team is still equal to its number one chain. If the star shirts want to win, Hintz, Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson will have to step into the front row.
We’re talking about one of the best offensive chains in the NHL.
Huge responsibility
At the same time, however, Dallas Stars is still in an unhealthy imbalance. Sure, over the past month, the team has started to get power in a promising way from behind the tip as well, but at the same time, it’s true that Dallas rarely wins if the Hintz aren’t in the game.
Last week’s Montreal win was only Dallas ’second winning game this season, where the No. 1 chain was completely ineffective. In that first, Dallas did not score a single goal, winning the match 1-0 after a winning goal race.
Dallas have scored 134 goals in 32 winning games this season. Hintzie’s power from winning games is recorded at 59 + 68 = 127. The chain has done almost half of all the goals. Sixteen victories have already been recorded for the chain, so every second victory has been decided by either Hintz, Pavelski or Robertson.
By comparison, Colorado’s number one chain Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen has made nine and Toronto fiery Michael Bunting – Auston Matthews – Mitchell Marner thirteen winning goals. And now it’s good to remember that Toronto has scored 53 goals and Colorado 65 hits more than Dallas.
In Dallas, everything crystallizes into underperforming million stars Jamie Benniin, Tyler Seguin mixed To Alexander Radulov. Underlining statistics.
The trio has played a little better lately, but the big picture is hard to wash clean. The trio, who scratch the club’s cashier’s salaries by a total of more than 24 million Yankee bucks this season, have made a total of 23 hits and 51 points in winning games – as individuals in total, not as a chain.
There are five winning goals against sixteen in the Hintz chain.
And playing in two directions doesn’t make up for the lack of goal scoring. Where the combined power stats for Dallas ’number one runner-up are +48, the combined figure for the trio operating on giant wages is 29 hits in the frost. The trio have all been involved in the work in recent weeks as the team has won.
In losing games quiet
The situation is different when the No. 1 chain and the rest of the team need the support of leading players.
When Dallas is lost, the team’s payrolls have rarely been on top of their game. This has also been directly reflected in the statistics. In Stars’ previous 16 losing games, Radulov’s balance is 0 + 0, Captain Jamie Benn’s 1 + 0 and Tyler Seguin’s 2 + 2. The trio’s power statistics for the losing games of the season are -49.
Robertson (5 + 2) and Pavelski (2 + 6) have played an average of about half a point in the previous 16 losing matches, which can be considered at least a moderate performance. The power of Roope Hintz is recorded as 2 + 5. In frost power statistics, the trio has 30 hits.
The end result is that Dallas always and in all situations needs the best from the Hintz chain to the table. The chain has been handling this challenge in a fantastic way for two seasons now, but from the team’s perspective, the situation is unsustainable in the long run. Especially now that Dallas has not been as close to the defensive team as in previous years.
Carelessness in the puck game as well as occasional difficulties in their own area have raised the average number of goals scored to close to three. The reading is the highest in Dallas in five years. This puts more pressure on the scoring game, so pressure on Roope Hintz’s chain.
The situation is particularly difficult because there is not too much firepower behind the six top strikers. The problem is also that no functioning chains have been built around the uneven Benn and Seguin – and playing the duo together is not a win-win choice either. Radulov is just miserable throughout the game.
The club is stuck with expensive stars
After all of the above, the fact that the playoffs are still strongly in the team’s own hands is, to say the least, a moderate accomplishment. Especially when Miro Heiskanen has not played for weeks. Without its number one chain, Dallas would already have been preparing for the summer holidays.
In the short term, the team is in dire need of a continuation of the budding rising trend of a millionaire. To reach the playoffs and fight there in a credible way, the team needs a lot more from the leading players who have dropped to the second basket – and especially when the top chain is unable to score.
In a broader perspective, the situation is more difficult.
Next season, Benn and Seguin will scrape more than $ 19 million a slice of the Dallas wage ceiling. And worst of all, the latter’s contract will reach summer 2025 and the latter summer 2027. As long as this duo represents Dallas, the club will lose valuable years from Hintz, Robertson, Heiskan and the rest of the team.
This is because, as surely as the experienced veteran trio will have good episodes from time to time, these will surely disappear from the picture in a moment, as they have so many times before – and especially in difficult matches. This is not the kind of leadership Dallas needs and that Benn, Seguin and Radulov are paid.
While Dallas surprised many a couple of years back in the corona bubble all the way to the finals of the Stanley Cup, waiting for a new final trip is more of a hopeful hoax than any realism due to the swinging performance of expensive star players and the imbalance nesting in the group.