If Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz do not raise the level of their play, Dallas will not advance from the second round to the next round, writes Tommi Seppälä, Urheilu’s NHL reporter.
Tommi Seppälä NHL reporter
Dallas pulled a trick that few believed.
When you lose the first two home games in a best-of-seven series, you can really call the hole dug deep. Especially when it was against the reigning Stanley Cup winner Vegas Golden Knights.
After the first two games, Dallas was in a situation where they had to beat the champion Four times in five games and at least twice on the road. Believe who you want, I thought.
Dallas turned a weak start into three straight wins and finally knocked off Vegas in Game 7 early Monday morning. You have to know how to really give value to the performance. In the NHL playoffs, it is very rare to come out of such a hole against such tough teams.
Strong five-man play
And how Dallas did it. The star jerseys controlled the flow of the game with their quality work throughout the match series. Dallas, which operated with a tight five, won the dangerous goal positions with five against five in six games out of seven.
After losing the first two games, it went 5-5 to give Vegas 1.7 goals per game and just 7.5 dangerous chances per hour in the last five games.
Such readings are shockingly hard against a hell machine like Vegas.
Dallas showed during the series what a well-coached team it is. Stars are able to release even heavy pressure by puck-ing away from under pressure, and on the other hand, it defends the core of the game excellently – and most importantly, ice-free.
Although there were a lot of tackles in the series, Dallas only took 10 shortstops in the last five games, killing them at 89 percent efficiency.
Downstairs was dominated by the player acquired from Calgary in the middle of the season Chris Tanev. The Canadian defender is known as a tenacious basic defender and a fearless shot blocker. This was available. Tanev leads the block statistics in the playoffs and with 5-for-5, the net behind his back never wavered against Vegas.
You win championships by defending, they say.
Does Colorado have a Dallas number?
However, Dallas does not have time to savor the victory in Vegas, because in a couple of days, Colorado, who took off in the first round of the playoffs, will skate against them.
Mikko Rantanen, Artturi Lehkonen and Justus Annusen represented by Colorado found a real flying mood in its game after a difficult period and it literally crushed Winnipeg. Now it receives Dallas, whose number it has in its pocket.
Although Dallas was perhaps the best team in the regular season, Colorado’s speed has been its worst poison in the past couple of seasons. Dallas was the league’s elite in the regular season in defending its own goal, but against Colorado it was in big trouble.
Of the four mutual matches, only one ended in a Dallas victory, as Colorado bombarded the Dallas net with an average of five hits per match. Over 80% underpowered play became 60% against Colorado.
In the past two seasons, Dallas has beaten Colorado twice in eight tries.
Dallas also has a few key players who will need to find a whole new gear for the second round. Dallas’ number one center Roope Hintz literally slept through the first round. One scored goal (into an empty net), an undersized character and a power stat reading of -4 is not what is expected from this.
Miro Heiskanen (1+4) scored points, but lost the game 5 against 5 and had no less than five hits in the power statistics in freezing temperatures. Heiskanen didn’t play badly, but we’ve seen better.
When Colorado’s mercilessly tough top division skates against him, Heiskanen also has to raise his game to the victory wall. Willingness to finish and sharpness is still an area that Heiskanen must be able to improve. Especially when there’s not much other firepower to be found at the rear end of Dallas.
The Finns are at the heart of everything when talking about Dallas’ chances of winning against Colorado. Hintz must be able to play at least straight against Colorado’s top chain, Heiskanen must hit the table with the best in the puck game and Esa Lindell to offer tough love in front of his own goal to the Colorado stars as best he could.
It would be easy to pick Colorado as the favorite for the starting series, but games aren’t played on stat sheets. Colorado offers a hard challenge to Dallas with its tough top division and merciless foot speed, but also places to hit.
Colorado is not on the level of Vegas in terms of defensive play, tightness of the five, discipline and goaltending. Dallas gets a chance to hurt Colorado.
The best players all have to be the best when the puck hits the ice, and that’s a real concern for Dallas.