The Hockey PDOcast - Granlund’s Goals, Oettinger’s Shutdown Performance, Heiskanen’s Return, and Jets vs. Stars Game 4 Takeaways

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by David Castillo and Robert Tiffin to get into everything they saw from Jets vs. Stars Game 4 on Tuesday night, including Mikael Granlund's goal scoring outburst, Jake Oettinger's stellar performance, Miro Heiskanen's return, and the role special teams have played in Dallas being up 3-1. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PDOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dmitra Filipovich. And joining me is my good buddy Robert Tiffin. Robert, it took a while for you to make your first appearance. But now we're having you back on for a second time in close succession. The listeners loved your first debut appearance. And so we had to have you back on. How's it going, man? It's good to be back, Camitri. It's all about keeping the listeners happy. So that's what I'm here for. That's right. Also joining us is our pal, David Castillo, back by popular demand. We're doing the three-man show we did a couple weeks ago after the stars beat the abs in that dramatic game seven. We're bringing it back, doing it all over again. David, how's

going, man? Good. I know how adolescent PDO listeners would like more timely episodes. So I'm stoked to be part of a very timely episode. That's right. We had, and by the way, let's do the organic plug right off the top here. If you love this show, you listen to it all the time. We're banging out as many episodes as we can this postseason. Please help us out with a five-star review, wherever you and we had one recently from a 12-year-old listener that said they love the show, but wish we released more episodes. I'm working as hard as I can here. We're doing about five episodes a week during this postseason.

So we're doing our very best, but I appreciate the sentiment. And so we're delivering for that one specific 12-year-old. We only had one game in the NHL on Tuesday night. It was Jet Stars, Game 4 in Dallas. It was a game filled with interesting storylines. We saw Miro Haskinen's much-awaited return. Jake Ondra had a phenomenal game, which we're going to talk about. I feel like most importantly though, especially in terms of the scoring, it was the Michael

Granland game where he puts together this remarkable hat trick just balls out, was blasting the puck past Connor Hallibuck in a variety of ways. Robert, it's kind of funny because I think anyone familiar at all with Granlin's game over the course of his NHL career knows how reluctant a shooter he is, how much he prefers to be a distributor and a playmaker and a passer, and that's reflected in all the stats. I believe this was the first game, this postseason where he even registered three shots on goal, scores on all of them. I think he had four combined playoff goals

in the past decade. Now, missed the playoffs a bunch of times throughout playing on a variety of teams. But this was quite a Herculean performance by him. And I know that we can get into each of them one by one. The first one was certainly one that I think Connor Hellebuck would like to have back.

But he was ripping the puck. And I thought the second one in particular was quite an elite display of skill on his part in terms of deception. and how he ultimately put that past Hellebuck. It was kind of an out of nowhere performance, though, right? He's certainly very involved. He's been on the top line.

You'd expect him to contribute offensively. But I got to admit, I did not see this type of a goal scoring barrage coming from Michael Granland. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned that he's usually known for being more of a passer or deferring more in those chances because he was asked last night, actually, I asked him actually, if he had thought about passing to hints on that two-on-one.

And he is not a player who usually gives you, you know, those really juicy quotes in an interview. He's very professional. DeBoer called him the elder statesman of those five finished players for the stars because he's been around a while. But he did say his good line last night was when you pass all the time, maybe you catch the goalie by surprise. I'm paraphrasing a little bit. But basically joking a little bit about how he's known more for passing. And, you know, maybe it was all just a plan setting up hellabook, you know, for years now to expect a pass on that chance.

And that's why he was able to rip it over his glove on that chance. But he's been that sort of player. You know, when he first came, when he first came from San Jose, I think he played his first game on the wing with Matthew Shane, who he played with in Nashville, obviously. And then kind of played in a couple other spots in the lineup. And this line with Ranton and Hints didn't even get put together until, I think it was maybe game two against Colorado or something like that.

And obviously it stuck since then. And Granlin is that sort of player who it's easy. to it's easy to forget about it a little bit, especially when you're playing with, you know, a number one center like Gropa Hintz and a superstar player like, like Mika Ranton. But Granlin was also one of the top players at the trade deadline that people were looking at. Now, you know, everyone had different opinions about him and stuff. I'm sure David had a different opinion about him too. But, but he has that level of skill. There's a reason he was playing, you know, number one minutes for San Jose as their top center and everything, you know, as bad the team as San Jose was. He was earning those minutes for them. And he showed that he has that skill, you know, even in the Four Nations tournament, he had basically an identical goal to that two-on-one goal with his overtime winner. I think it was against Sweden with that two-on-one play, ripping a shot at Glove side.

It's eerie almost how he has that in the bag, and he just decided that, you know, tonight was the night he was going to trot that out. And, of course, the one-timer for that third goal was just as pretty and I'm sure felt even better. But, yeah, that second goal was especially pretty. Yeah, he certainly went in his bag on. Lisa Robert, you got your boots on the ground. You're in the room. You're talking to these guys.

I need you to ask Michael Granland about his nicknames because I, in prepping for this and doing some research, I noticed that Wikipedia has his nicknames as the following. Bruce, FBJ, which stands for Finnish Baby Jesus and Grandolph. I can't say that I've ever heard anyone to refer to Michael Granlin as any of those, but it's quite a, quite a catalog. I know there's a story. The Bruce one's a good story. I can give it to you really quick. I think Mike Russo reported this way back in Minnesota. soda. But another player, oh, God, I'm going to butcher it. But essentially, another player from Jersey, and you can all find this. Another player was from New Jersey. And some of the other players were saying something to him, like juice or something. And Granlin misheard it and thought

that they were calling him Bruce instead of juice or something like that. And so then all the other teammates started cracking up. And so they started calling Granlin Bruce because of his misunderstanding that it was like a Bruce Springsteen reference or something for this person from New Jersey. So it's a very convoluted, you know, as hockey nicknames are. But of those three, Bruce is very much an organic kind of developed in the room nickname. And Rousseau, as he often does, kind of dug up that story. So that one in particular is a really good one. Although when someone brought it up to him after he came to Dallas, he kind of had that look of, where did you hear this? Like, I haven't heard this in a long time. Why are you bringing this one back up? So, yeah,

That one especially is worth looking up because Russo did a really good story on it. It was a monster performance by Grandolph, no doubt. David, in the first period, Dylan DeMello got called for a penalty literally stealing Granlin stick and just ripping it out of his hands and maybe Dylan DeMello is able to see the future and was just trying to save the jets from this onslaught by him. The first one, he scores off the seemingly innocuous solo rush. It was Hallibuck's 11th goal against of 30 plus feet out. Apparently, I know you want to talk about this later.

Maybe we can save it for a conversation about the special teams and the outsized impact they've had in this series. But it really stuck out to me that one of the adjustments the stars have made is pressuring the jets on entries and forcing them to dump it in and waste time, kind of trying to chase the puck and retrieve it. Whereas in this case, the Jets P.K. really just allowed him to walk in unabated without any real threat in terms of conceding it because there was someone rushing on the wing. it was kind of a solo venture. There were a couple of wingers behind him. And Pionk just lets him essentially concedes the middle lane, lets him walk in, and then he rips it past Halibuck. The second one was that aforementioned 201 with hints,

where he kind of sells pass. He's looking at that way the entire time. He pulls the puck in and just rips it high glove. And then the hat trick was at the end of that four-minute powerplay in the third where Dushain rips it off the bar. Puck comes to Hayskin. He quickly slings it over for the one-timer, and that's the hat-trick.

It was quite a performance and a shooting display. I think from Granland that none of us saw coming. Yeah, I felt like that was kind of a low-key call-out for Robert earlier because I was not a fan. I'm certainly Eden Crow now. And, you know, like a big part of it, you know, I know you're kind of talking about special teams, but I think a big part was just kind of not really seeing

or not really seeing the vision for kind of where he would end up, which, yeah, you know, early on with like Taken Sagan's place, kind of looked out of place. granted, maybe some of that is on Marchmont in Dushain, and then, you know, playing with Johnson and Ben for a while, which also kind of didn't really work. And then until he got on the top line where he's been quite fantastic. I think in part because I think some of this, I think the special teams play has really helped him as well. Because in getting those shifts and getting that energy, not just on the power play, but the penalty kill, I think it's kind of allowed his three zone play to kind of really flourish. And, you know, I wouldn't expect a hat trick.

a hat trick from all the time. But Dallas's power play, to your point, Dallas's power play has just done really fantastic work. I know we all miss that Harley, Duchayne, Robinson, Johnston,

I can't remember the other Ford, but that power play unit that was just evil for like a 12-game stretch. But I think a lot of these players really kind of highlight just how versus, this Dallas forward group is.

And Granlin, against my personal odds, has turned into one of the most versatile forwards. And, yeah, like, Jack Hahn had a really good breakdown, too, on the mechanics of his shot. And just for all of his playmaking chops, what an elite release in terms of timing he had on each of those. And so, yeah, sure, you know, we can talk about Connor Hallibuck. And, you know, maybe he's just, you know, the sort of playoff. labels and how he is on the road. But I think those are just really, really good plays on Granland's part. Yeah. And to your point, David, about depth. Grandland, again, they traded a first round pick for him, him and Cody C.C, I guess. But Granlin was definitely the more premier of those two in that trade.

This is a top round pick, one of the, you know, kind of better players available before the deadline. And he's been playing on their second power play pretty much the entire time. I mean, who trades for a player, oh, we need to get another forward in here. And then he's immediately relegated to their second power play the way Granlin has been. It's if you want evidence of their depth, there's lots of places to look. But that to me continues to just be kind of a wild thing that you would be willing to pay that much for a player and then be totally fine with him being on your second power play. Yeah, Robert, I think I was with David at the time of the move and being dubious about that

being the quote unquote all in move in Jim Nell utilizing a first, which I know he's very reluctant typically to do. And obviously, we didn't know that it was a precursor for the actual big splash in going out and getting ranching in at the final possible moment before that deadline. I imagine, you know, the versatility was a big selling point in terms of the vision. I also do wonder, we'll still see this is maybe putting the cart before the horse a little bit, but just the idea that Granland would sort of step into that long lineage of becoming the latest event to sort of prolong their career with productive team-friendly deals.

to stay in Dallas as part of this Finnish mafia. And that was part of the logic where it wasn't necessarily purely a rental for the rest of the season, but potentially, you know, the first stage of a couple of year run here where they retain him. And he just fits into nicely into what they do in terms of this collection of depth and, you know, guys who are efficient offensively and can chip in a variety of different ways because this team attacks, whether it's, you know, working it low below the goal line

and then working it up to the point and trying to get those tips or off the rush. she can sort of contribute in all those different areas in a very unique way. Yeah, Granlin definitely has that skill set, the ability to see space before he gets to it. And so he knows what he needs to do, knows where the puck can get. As far as the trade, it's also worth remembering just from a couple of the people I talked to in the organization. When they acquired Granlin and Cody C, C, C, that's kind of how they viewed that trade, a first round pick that was kind of split between two players. Nils Lungwis had just gone down for the season.

Hayskinen had just had surgery. So they knew they needed some help. They just lost two of basically their top four defense. And I don't think anyone, you know, that tends to look at the sorts of numbers that us and your listeners send to look at would have put Cody C.C. at the top of that shopping list necessarily. But to their credit, and Pete DeBore even said this the other day, too, when he was asked. But I also know some other people in the organization have kind of viewed C.C.

similarly as they knew they weren't getting Chris Tanna. I'll put it that way. They knew very well that they were not getting that sort of a player. Their hope was just, and divorce said this the other day, their hope was that he would come in and help fill that void. They needed NHL defensemen to come in rather than asking like Kyle Coppo Bianco or even at the time, Alex Petrovick to come up and try to be a top four player. And as much as Cody C.C., you know, everyone kind of knows what he is and what he isn't.

That first round pick being split between Granlin and C.C. kind of made that trade even before the hat trick last night. It kind of made that trade make a lot more sense when it was viewed more as a look, we need to, you know, fill this hole with Sagan. We need a player who can who can really help out in a lot of ways. Grandland also is one of their top PK forwards too. He was San Jose's go-to guy on three on fives. He was the top forward they would use. And Dallas used him too with Sam Steele and their top PK pair with Blackwell and Oscar Beck Scratch. So he's, he's very versatile. He's that sort of player.

I don't know if they can keep him with a cap situation. They only have like five plus million to fill like four or five roster spots in the offseason. So unless you move Matt Dunba, this isn't really a salary cap podcast, I know. So that's its whole issue. But yeah, that skill set you talk about with Granland, that being as versatile it is as it is and the trade being kind of split between those two players, I think is proven to be to be a better deal than it looked at the time.

I think big part to just kind of add into that. Start about that just real quick. I just think, and this is something maybe we'll get to. like a little bit later. But I also think Granthlin is kind of like a nicely kind of symbolic of how Dallas has been able to shift and be adaptable like in these series,

whether we're talking about Colorado or Winnipeg. And so that's just something I did not see comment at all. And, you know, I just want to kind of throw it out there. No, that's very fair. David, I was going to ask you, I want to talk about Andro here next. And he was simply sensational on this one. Now, the last time I had you on, you were dropping

Delta Fenwick's A percentage when we were discussing. Jake Onger, which certainly doubled as the nerdiest moment in PD Ocas history, and that's saying something given our typical conversations. He stops 31 to 32 in this one. It brings him up to just eight goals against on 113 shots for the series. I thought in particular early on when the Jets were clearly the superior team, he made some big stops. He had that glove save on Valardi off of a Shifley pass below the goal line.

And there was Perfetti, he's kind of posting up in the slot, a couple Eilers rushes. And he really allowed them to sort of hang around in this game for the first 25 to 30 minutes until they got their legs and gave a bit of a pushback in the back half of the second period. But I think beyond just obviously whenever you stop 31 or 32, you're going to have a good chance of win. I think in particular in thinking about this series and the way the Jets play, I do think it's not a coincidence that the one game where they looked really good, they got the early goal, they pretty much held the lead and shut out the stars for the final 56 minutes,

whereas these games where they've struggled and lost ultimately in games 1, 3, and 4, it's been a bit of a different script. And so just keeping it kind of hatched down and closed like that for the time being and allow the stars to get into it, I do think is sort of the biggest storyline beyond the Grandlin Hattrick and Hayeskinen's return in this game. Yeah, speaking of which, I really wish a lot of the chart huggers would kind of find like better names for some of these stats. Yes, I apologize for that plug last time.

But yeah, you know, Ander hasn't just been like good. He's been great. You know, he's third and goals saved above expected per 60. behind only Freddie Anderson and Logan Thompson. And it's worth noting, of course, that Hellebuck is last among active goaltenders. But beyond just being really good in all situations, especially on the penalty kill, there's like, man, entire podcast we can do on the penalty kill. But like on a granular level, Ander just isn't giving up any rebounds.

And your pal Woodley, you know, commented on his improvement in his kind of high to mid stance, how that movement is taking critical next steps, especially on rush retreats. And for Star Spans, it's something they can attest to, right? Like early on, early in his career, if the other team had a breakaway, Dallas was getting scored on. And so I think beyond just Odinger being the better goalie in these two series so far, it's just, I think also his work feels like a culmination of really his overall development. Yeah. The other thing. Yep, go for it.

Oh, go ahead, Demetri, sir. No. But the staff that I keep, the staff that I keep coming back to that just blows my mind is Ottinger has been really good. like David said, Anderson and Thompson are kind of the only other goalies up in that echelon. He's got a 922 save percentage at 5 on 5. On the penalty kill, Ottinger's safe percentage is 927. He has a better penalty killing save percentage. After facing Colorado and four games of Winnipeg, he has a better penalty kill

state percentage than he does at 5 on 5. It's really insane when you look at it. Almost as insane as Hellebook's 690 say percentage on the penalty kill, I guess. But Ottinger being better on the penalty kill is exactly what you're talking about with him, making those big saves early, especially with all the power plays Dallas has been giving Winnipeg in this series. And probably Winnipeg should have had one more on that Connor shorthanded breakaway with Hayskin getting into his hands. But Ottinger's been incredible. You can't under, you can't overstate it.

He's been incredible. It was also a big game for people who like to say, remember that save leading up to the game swinging because, you know, in the second period, IAfollow comes around the net. He sets up Kyle Connor. He robs him with the left. it leads to Granlan's second goal. Then he once again, Rob's Connor on a short-ended breakaway in the third period

with that left pat again, and then Granlin comes back down and scores the third goal. And even after they went up 3-1, there was a couple moments there in following shifts where I think Morrissey had a couple great chances that he stared down, then off a set play. Off an ozone draw win, Shifley gets a look from the left circle, and he stops that.

As David alluded to, I just think what really stands out is how few rebounds. were available and kind of how he's getting squared up to these shots. I also, I went back and looked at all his goals. He's given up 28 goals in 11 games so far. Zero of them by my account came from above the circles. The closest was that Landiscault goal. He scored, which was such a cool moment in game four when he put the abs up three

nothing. That one was kind of a rip from the inside edge of the top circle, but it was a three on two rush and it was just a perfectly placed shot. And I think that's what really stands out to me beyond just the same percentages. we know, especially when you compare it to what's happening at the other end of the ice this postseason, kind of what a typical source of offense in the playoffs is when games bogged down some of these wacky point shots

with screens and traffic and tips and stuff. And there's been none of that. He's been beaten a couple times by bad balances, going off of defenders' legs and stuff like that or backdoor tips, particularly in the Av series. But just in terms of stopping the stuff you should in making it look pretty routine, it's remarkable that in 11 games now,

which is a pretty, you know, expansive sample at this point that he hasn't really been beaten by one where I'm like, oh, man, that was kind of a softie from distance. And we see that for every goalie, no matter how good they are. They're not immune to it. And yet he hasn't really, you know, succumb to that at all yet. Also, if you look at the finishing, right, the like finishing heat maps for Audinger, kind of like, at least in the Winnipeg series, kind of all of it is just like goal line kind of fluff from the corners.

and, you know, which I think is a testament to shooters, right? I mean, we kind of talk so much about sort of the evolution of shooting and, you know, puck skills. And we've seen a lot of these kind of bank type shots in the playoffs. And if that's like the only thing that Audinger is given up, then you just take that all day. There was palpable frustration, too, from Winnipeg last night, both from Helibuck, if you listen to his postgame conference, but from Scott Arneal, who said multiple times in his postgame presser, I think we had 70 shot attempts.

You have to have more than one goal on those. And the Jets had been out attempting the stars pretty much every game. But if you look at like those heat maps, you're referencing David, you can also see that especially at five on five, the stars have been protecting the house. And so when you're not giving up goalies above the circles, or when you're not giving up goals above the circles, and you're not allowing a lot of chances inside of them,

that's a pretty killer combination, especially in one playoff series, where you can really start to frustrate a team and force them to start changing. things. You know, Arneal mixed up the lines. He moved a follow-up to the top line last night. I mean, they're clearly looking for answers. And this is a team that was incredible all season in just about every area. So for them to start struggling in this way and getting

frustrated in this way, even if probably it would end up working itself out over 10 or 20 games, they have one game left to fix it. And they have to do it three times in a row, which is crazy. And real quick, that was the first time. Like, Game 4 was the first time that Winnipeg actually won the battle in shot share. Shot quality. Yeah, 5.5. The only goal that he got beaten on was that Eler's kind of post power play early

in the second goal and it looks bad, certainly. But if you go back and kind of retrace the steps, Eelers doesn't look at the net a single time. Essentially, he's got Wilarty in the slot. He's got Shively lurking back door and he just kind of flings it off his pad. And I think it is a more difficult one than it probably looks on the surface. You know, David, you were mentioning that, that Woodley podcast that I did towards the end of last week breaking down some of the tendencies for these goalies.

And I do think it's interesting in that discussion. Woodley was talking about the wraparounds in particular. And that's clearly a mandate for the Jazz. Part of it is because they create so much of their offense from behind the net and below the goal line. But by my account, in the game three, they had at least four attempts where they kind of tried to wrap the puck around. They scored their first goal on the Kyle Connor wraparound. They had a couple opportunities again in this one.

In the first, Connor actually stopped short and tries to, trick him by sort of banking it off of them as opposed to bringing it all the way around and Ander ultimately wasn't cheating on it. In the second, you know, Niederhead had him beat and would have scored a wraparound, but Jason Robinson was there on the far post to kind of stuff it. And I think that's interesting to kind of track moving forward in terms of teams utilizing this, whether it's the rest of this series or a West final against the Oilers, just because of how, the way they create, but also because, you know, the wrap around is kind of becoming a bit of a dying our form in today's game.

Like you have to lift the puck generally to beat goalies. And so players aren't even really trying it that much anymore because it's been so inefficient. I think that's why we've seen more lacrosse attempts because it's essentially just replacing the conventional wraparound by bringing it around and then actually lifting it. It's obviously much more difficult to execute. But I find that fascinating because we've seen so much of it as this series has progressed. And it's clear that in their pre-scouting, the Jets were like, all right, we're going to try to create this way.

And for the most part, he hasn't really been burned by yet. Yeah, no, it's it's something, and it's something that is, I think, also a credit to Dallas's kind of, you know, they play this sort of hybrid zone coverage kind of man on man. And they've just done a really great job of collapsing. Robertson, of course, you know, being one of the better defensive forwards. So not a surprise that, you know, he kind of does the sort of goal tendent impression. But, but yeah, like I don't, it's something that continues to kind of surprise me in like subtle ways, you know, which is just how. the stars have kind of managed to play, especially the slot area, which is something that Winnipeg was really good at in the regular season, right? They were really good at getting those cross seams passes through and Dallas just kind of hasn't allowed it. Now, you know, part of this is Winnipeg just not having, for one, kind of fumbling the trade deadline and just not having the depth to really take advantage of those situations where they do get opportunities. I mean, you saw that Like, my goodness, the Morgan Barron, three on one, pass him to need a rider skates.

That was overall. Oh, God. Yeah. Like, I mean, I mean, like, I feel frustrated for Jets fans watching that because I just want to see good hockey. And that was not good hockey. And so there are some ways in which Dallas kind of has it pretty good, which is they don't have to worry about the Jets depth. And the Jets are kind of still built on specialization. You know, they're trying to do this kind of matchup thing, sort of bonus era style with, you know, Adam Larry, and they're losing those minutes.

But I think there are just a lot of really good things Dallas is doing well tactically as well as kind of matchup-wise that have been the story of the series. All right, guys, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back into it. We're going to keep going through game four and just the series in general and what we've seen from it so far. You're listening to the HockeyPedocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey PEO cast, joined today by Robert Tippin and David Castillo. We're breaking down everything we saw in game four of Stars Jets and how Dallas has gone up 3-1 in this series. Let's talk about the Power Play a bit because this is a continuation of what we saw from round one from the stars.

We're for the series. The Jets are 2 for 18 on their opportunities, just two goals in 30 minutes and change. On the Man advantage, the Stars on their hand have only had 11 opportunities. They've converted four of them in 15 minutes. And, you know, I thought, David, they were kind of getting away with it early in the series, particularly the games in Winnipeg where the Jets were having extended powerplay opportunities and weren't necessarily scoring or capitalizing, but we're creating a bunch of great looks. The stars were daring them like they did the abs in round one to bring the puck down low.

The Jets were a very willing participant and actually getting it down of Lardy and creating looks off of that. And I was curious to see if that would continue. I think as the series has gone along, we've seen a bit of an attention. adjustment from the Stars P-K that we alluded to earlier of forcing those Jets dump-ins a little bit more aggressively. And I think the reason that's important beyond how much time it's killing is just that, you know, this Jets team was 24th in power play efficiency last year. And they were first this year. And one of the big changes beyond having Eelers out there to retrieve more Pucks was simply much cleaner entries and getting set up earlier and then cooking off of that. And that's been harder for them

to come by in these games three and four in particular. And I want you to talk a little bit about some of those adjustments we've seen in kind of the exemplary job, I think this star's special teams unit as a whole has done in making up, recovering for some of the five-on-five flaws and using that and the goaltending to essentially win a lot of these playoff games. Yeah, that's, I was a little worried about Dallas's penalty kill kind of going in the postseason because the goalies were stopping goals, but defensively, they were just a hair over average. They were 14th and goals against just for minutes on the PK. So I wasn't too sure the game plan was necessarily.

sustainable beyond just kind of letting onger do the work who's obviously he's still good on the PK but but kind of like you said you know Winnipeg was committed to doing the opposite of Colorado right where instead of passing along perimeter and waiting for McKinnon

to do McKinnon things Winnipeg attacked the bottom of stars diamond formation catching players like Lindell and Cici stranded and it wasn't always effective though like we saw quite a few chances where Ellers at the goal line would kind of pivot towards the net and sort of try to cheese out kind of a sharp angle attempt that wasn't like super serious.

You know, it was still an attempt. It was still a chance. It still forced Dallas to respect that down low attack. But it didn't really work. But it did get Dallas to respect the plays down low, which kept Dallas from pressure on point, which is why they were so effective against Colorado. And since then, you've seen Dallas really adjust. And instead of giving Winnipeg the entries, they're put in like two forwards high in the neutral.

to kind of force dump-ins. And this is creating scrambles along the wall. So rather than the jets, you know, transition into formation, they're just kind of stuck in the octagon. And you're seeing the jets settle for these predictable point shots. And it's, again, just brilliant work from Dallas's PK. And Elaine Nazardine deserves a lot of credit. Yeah, to your point, David, if you look at even last night,

it's such a good example. I was looking at this last night after the game, the shot locations for the jets and the power play, they're split exactly evenly. They're either from the high slot or they're from just above the goal line on either side of the net. There's nothing kind of in between the circles at that kind of mid-range level, whereas Dallas's power play shots are all from like almost exactly if you drew a straight line from one face off dot to the other, that's where all of Dallas's power play shots were last night.

And they're very happy to get to that mid-range kind of area and set up those quick little chances and, you know, occasionally get redounds at the net, sure. Whereas Winnipeg has had to do one or the other down lower up high and Dallas will give up those high slot shots all day long, especially with how Ottinger's been playing. And really, I mean, they're not getting as many of either of those shots as Winnipeg would want because of exactly what you were talking about with them forcing dumpins on the entries, which is, you know, the biggest part of any penalty kill. Any coach will tell you is making the entries tough and tiring him out that way.

I mean, the Stars PKK certainly had a lot of reps to practice here. I believe Ben and Marchman have taken five penalties each in 11 games worth of playoff data now, which is a remarkable lack of discipline. And guys like Rantan and Hints have also taken some, but at least they're drawing more, so it's not hurting the team as much. Let's get into, I can't believe, you know, there was so much going on in this game that you'd think that Mero Haskinen playing his first game back since January 28th, which legitimately feels like forever ago, would be the lead storyline here. And we would have spent the first 25 minutes talking about it, yet there was so much other stuff to parse. He plays 1452 in this game, clearly easing him back in. Now that was still comfortably the fourth most among Stars D.

took a good chunk of the Lubushkin minutes. But, you know, they were playing him for the most part with Harley. I imagine that as he gets more comfortable and ramped up, we might see them split those guys up and have him take the CC minutes with Lindell and a matchup assignment. Instead, they gave him a lot of the offensive zone draws. Also, which had previously been used primarily to shelter the third pair, so it wasn't necessarily, you know, him just stepping back into his usual role by any means.

But Robert Warrior kind of impressions in watching Haskinen's first. game back and was it a lot of what you would have expected from a guy who's jumping into the middle of round two of the postseason after missing this much time? Or did you think there's anything that they really caught your eye in particular that stood out? Hayskinin's one-on-one work still looked really, really good. Even though he clearly was not kind of, you know, the height of his powers. He had a couple of plays, even early on where even the crowd recognized him. They were that obvious. I think he had one on Connor early on where he was caught one-on-one and he was able to

able to basically stick check it away from Conner as he was bearing down on him, which as fast as Connor is, right? He's gotten the guys in trouble like that before. Of course, then there was a chance later in that I think it might have been the Vlarity chance that Audent had a glove down on that same sequence. But early on, you could tell, okay, Haste, one of the best things about Hayskinins, his stick work and how he defends a blue line and how he defends guys one-on-one. Obviously, he's not the biggest guy. But that part of his game was absolutely there.

The rest of it, some of his passing, right? also turned the puck over on that Kyle Conner short-handed breakaway, which is pretty uncharacteristic for him. And his skating, even kind of his, you know, trying to beat guys one-on-one, which normally he can do really, really well. He has these great kind of subtle headfakes that he'll use that you almost don't even notice unless you're really watching. But players, many players I've talked to have mentioned this about him, how he can, he just sends guys the wrong way so easily. Well, and you did see it, I guess, on the, on the third Grandland goal on the power play where his skin just kind of discards the top penalty killer.

and dishes it over to him. But his skating definitely wasn't all the way back. And you could see it. The numbers were there too, right? I think he got pretty buried and shot attempts. They didn't give him any goals, but that was probably as much an odds-in-ers-anything. But it wasn't necessarily that Hayskinin was a liability.

I wouldn't call it that. It was more kind of a virtue of how hard the Jets were pushing at times in this game. And again, Hayskin-in kind of did what the stars have found a way to do, at least in shorter stretches, which is, you know, avoid the, the most dangerous chances by his good stick work and kind of not completely losing position on guys or being overaggressive. And over time, I think I still, my money is he's likely to come back in and play with Harley mostly.

That's where he's most comfortable. And again, that pairing is so dangerous. And then you just slide Lubushkin down to play with Bischel in the third pairing. And Petrovich is an easy player to sit. As much as you would think that you'd move Cody Cici down the lineup and as much as I might even do that if I were the one coaching the team. It's pretty clear that they really like what C.C. and Lindell have been doing together, how they can deploy them as kind of the shutdown pairing, especially at home, obviously, against the other team's top line. They did it against McKinnon. They've been doing it against Shifley, too. So I think that's probably how it will shake out. But yeah, for our first game back, seven defensemen rotating him in, it's clear that the good things about him are still there, but the health isn't quite 100 percent yet. Yeah, I think his return was kind of a big deal for morale. But I think we can say,

say that he doesn't come back Tuesday night if this is the regular season. And I think in many ways he didn't need to. I mean, it's the thing that I always personally go back to, which is how much shine Thomas Harley deserves that, like, high skin would not have been needed per se. Because Harley is just a player that, you know, I've been doing a lot of film room stuff with the star stack. And there are so many, there are so many times where Harley actively kind of looks like high skin.

Now, obviously, the two have different styles. But Harley is such a great example of the reverse. Like offense comes from defense. Offense comes from offense in a three zone world as well. And the way Harley reads the play and sees the opponent's offensive routes is I think a big reason why he's been so good in the defensive zone. And we know he can make great outlet passes and clean exits with his skating. But his anticipatory stick work, again, chef's kiss reminds you of high skin. And so I really don't think they needed high skinned last night.

I mean, not just because they won, but obviously they'll need high skin at 100%. The further Dallas goes into the postseason, but to me, it just always goes back to how much weight Harley is carrying on the back end. Yeah, I think where it helps is moving forward, not only the future matchup, but just you look at the workloads in his absence. And for the series, Harley and Lendell have already played over 100 total minutes in these four games, whereas for the Jets and I know that Morrissey, missed game one, but Sandberg leads them with 70 minutes and 36 seconds just to kind of reflect how much they're leaning on those two guys in all

situations. The other thing it did is open up this unique opportunity for Pete DeBurr to go 11-7 and beyond providing some insulation for those high-skinned minutes and not necessarily needing to rely on him with a full workload. It just opens more natural openings for kind of sneaking

some of the top players like Ranted in on for shifts against Weger competition. And also I thought you saw in this game much more mixing and matching with the forward lines to create some potentially advantageous shifts. We saw a lot of Ranton playing with Yad Jonston and Jason Robertson in this game. We know that Rantanin kind of sneaking out with Sam Steele and Doddanov and the fourth line has provided a couple goals throughout this series. Robert, I want to talk more about Rantan because, you know, we've become so spoiled by just

expecting three-point periods from him throughout this postseason that it feels like a relatively quiet game from a production perspective, only the one assist on the, on the second grandland goal. Yet I thought, especially in the second half, when the stars started to make more of their push, I thought he was awesome. He had that rebound off a point shot that he sent just a bit high. In the third period on the power play, he has this beautiful sequence where he's kind of lulling the PK to sleep. He's waiting for Wyatt Johnson to drift into his shooting pocket in the slot, and then he feathers a pass over to him through traffic that Johnson just barely misses. And then there was this set play with Lindell on the third, which would have just absolutely brought

the house down. And you could sort of see it developing in real time, yet I still was like, no way he's actually going to pull this off. And Lindell kind of throws a pass diagonally, waist high, and random and bats it. And it just misses the crossbar high, but it would have been a remarkable goal. And the fact that they even saw that happening and then executed it was preposterous. I did really like the shifts that I mentioned with Johnston and Robertson with him. They played 536 together. The numbers aren't necessarily overwhelming, but you can in particular see when the game started to swing a little bit in Dallas's favor, just the low post kind of puck protection from those two guys and some of the mismatches they were creating and some of the looks

and one shift in particular where they had the initial chance and it came out of the zone and Robertson kind of fell down and still got the pass over to Johnson for another look. I like the experimentation there. I like the mixing matching and I actually thought that provides them with another interesting opportunity in some of these games where if they're struggling or looking for a spark, you go to that and all of a sudden it just provides kind of a different aesthetic look and a different problem for the other team to try to handle. Yeah, I don't know what you do if you're an opposing coach and you look at line rushes and warm-ups and you see Wyatt Johnson and Jason Robertson skating on what seems like a fourth line. Like how are you supposed to game playing for that?

This game was so weird because Rantan had over 19 minutes a 5-on-5 ice time, which is more anyone on Winnipeg, including their defense, and second only to Harley and Dallas. He's that sort of player. I guess you give credit to Colorado conditioning for allowing him to eat those minutes. But when you can do that, when you can throw him out there with either Steele and Doddanov or Wyatt Johnson and Jason Robertson, when you have that just as a tool you can use kind of at will, I don't understand how you can really match that up that well as a coach. At a certain point, you just have to trust your guys and just say, well, just get through

it just weather the storm. And like you said, the numbers, actually, they, Winnipeg did okay, really. That's why it's even more remarkable that was really Granlin who burned everyone because that third chance, that waste Taiwan, you mentioned where Lindell threw it in. Brantnan actually started to celebrate after that because he did execute it so perfectly, it seemed. You can tell he just flinches and starts to put the stick up and I think reaches for the mouth guard to take it out too and then has to take it all back because he just assumed,

and who could blame him, right, given how the postseason's gone. He just assumes that that puck's going in it because he executes the play that well. Rantin is the sort of player that people have asked me about him because he'll have those games. And you even remember from Colorado, there would be sometimes those games where he might be kind of quiet or you wouldn't really be noticing him as much. But if you just look at his passing, how he delays, like you mentioned with the Johnson Chance, how he delays, how he sees things and just waits, waits, waits, and then he will get a pass to a place. Often it'll seem like it's the exact spot that the other team is guarding against that Rantan is going to put it there. And you're worrying, oh, no, he's going to force it. he's going to force it there and turn it over.

And then just after the other team kind of relaxes and says, okay, we shut that lane down. Then he finds a way to get it there anyway. And that's the sort of skill. There's got to be some technical term for it or something. But it's a vision is the word I always come back to, that he just, he sees a way to solve that problem to either create the lane,

like you said, with just kind of waiting and inching towards a spot or by finding it with his skill. His combination of size and skill, his vision, it creates things that Dallas has genuinely, I don't know that they've ever had a player even close to what he can do at all fronts like that. And it's when you can do that at either the top line or the fourth line or anywhere in between, it's an embarrassment of ridges.

Yeah, I really don't have anything to add to really any discussion about Miko Ranton. And he's just, he's been that absurd. And also, Ranton and Granlin are scoring 63% of Dallas's goals. So, you know, at a certain point, like, as great as it is, as fun, as it is to watch as much kind of technical precision and excellence is on display. If we're looking forward to like a series against Edmonton, I do have to kind of wonder like, okay, guys, Marchman Dushan Sagan, where are you at? That is fair.

I mean, Shane had a rough one last night. Yeah, yeah, he did. He had to post right before the third Grandland goal on the power play. But other than that, yeah, it's been a pretty uphill battle for that line in particular. I think, you know, other notes on the forwards and kind of the matchups here, you mentioned, David, the matchup minutes against Lowry earlier. I actually do think from a Jets perspective where, you know, they were trying to lean on that as much as they could in the first two games. We've seen 24 minutes, 5-1-5 of Rantan v. Lowry. I think Lurie's certainly done his job.

Goals are 1-1 in that time. Chances 6-4, Winnipeg shots 12-9 for the Jets in 42 minutes away from that match-up, though. Rantan is up 5-0 in those minutes. So that's kind of where it's gone away from them. And I thought because of some of this interchangeability at home, the stars were able to create more of those opportunities. Robert, you also mentioned the Jets kind of, I think, as a sign of desperation or looking for answers offensively in the series. They mixed up their forward group. They went with Lowry playing with Eilers and Volardi.

And I thought Eilers was awesome in this game, just buzzing around, creating stuff. And then Connor and Shifley playing with Aiofalo instead. Now you guys don't have access to this, but it was funny on the Canadian Broad. podcast, Blake Wheeler was on the panel as a guest and anyone familiar with the end of his Jets tenure would find this response pretty funny, but they essentially asked him about mixing the lines up like that at this spot of the season. And a guy who, you know, his reluctance to change and adapt and kind of rigidity and demanding certain minutes causing the Jets to become pretty stale towards the end of his time there. Being against this sort of a thing was was pretty funny to me and very on brand. I thought it was. a net positive for the Jets and it's tough to argue with what they would be able to create in the first half of this game. Ultimately, though, what it kind of reinforced to me is a point David made earlier where you look at the two deadline approaches for these teams and it really hammers home the lack of offensive, I guess, optionality or versatility when, you know, for all to talk about ranch and you see what Granlin does here

and just kind of how he can move around the lineup and play with different players and give you some secondary scoring. The Jets aren't really afforded that in a way. I mean, they haven't gotten anything really from the bottom six had some moments, certainly from a guy like Nita Ryder, but they're at the point now where I feel like Rick Bonas's ghost has almost taken over Scott Arneill's body, and that's the only explanation for Mason Appleton being their fourth most frequently used forward. F.I.15, he was in tandem with Barron responsible for the blunder on that potential four-on-one jail break where they don't even get a shot off on it. and the puck is just consistently dying on the stick in the offensive zone.

And so if you're Scott Arnieo looking for answers and you're at the point where you look up and Sam Steele has the same number of points as your leading score in this series and you're like, all right, how do we fix this? Beyond a few more pucks just sneaking by, Onger, just from a tactical X's nose perspective and line juggling, there aren't that many solutions there because you look at the personnel and just what you're afforded.

And it's just night and day compared to what the stars have at this point. yeah one of the one of the things about depth for the stars obviously scoring is kind of the whole point that's how you went hockey games but the last six minutes of the game the duchin march with second line didn't see the ice at all they just rolled steel johnston and uh steal johnston and hints those three centers uh partly because they're killing a penalty for two minutes there but then during the during the six on five set as well which by the way i also with like you said with three bonus showing up i really think i get that as good as Winnipeg's power play has been this year, you have to trust him to get you in the game there with a goal on that one late. But given how the series is gone, I was kind of surprised Scott Rneal didn't pull, didn't pull Hullabuck to go six on four during the power play because they really have been looking for answers. That frustration's been palpable. But as for the depth issue, I think when you have those three centers, you know, Johnson's well known, how he was matched up against McKinnan and all these things. And then hints, obviously, also is

very strong as a defensive center as well. And then you have Sam Steele, who, you know, he's a sort of a classic checking center, a third line guy who plays on the fourth line because of how deep Dallas is, that is going to frustrate guys like that. When you have that kind of level of really good player, but maybe not quite superstars, although you could argue about players like Shifeley or Connor, I guess. Sometimes you can't break through in the playoffs when you have a series like this and the other team can roll good checking lines.

Defense is just easier to do when you're on. under pressure. I'm pretty convinced more players can be really defensively good under pressure, then you can create goals under pressure. That's a rare skill. And Dallas has been able to do that pretty consistently against Colorado, right? Remember that Brock Nelson line just really had trouble creating goals, even though they had chances. They just couldn't break through. And now we're seeing the same thing from Winnipeg's depth, too. And over time, when you get a couple of other breaks and when you're winning the battle on special teams, sometimes that can be enough to really start to frustrate a team and get them looking for answers.

And I think that's just kind of to, you know, further to Robert's point, I think that's really kind of the story of the series, right? Which is that, yeah, it's like the Jake Odger, insert, finish forward here show. And there's a lot more that goes into that between special teams. And I think specifically the matchups. But so far it's really a Winnipeg team trying to kind of nickel and dime their way towards a positive goal differential.

And we're seeing just how effective that strategy is. against a team whose stars are, you know, playing like stars. And I think that's why Colorado looked so much more effective, even though they were broadly speaking, the lesser team, but they still had those players that could jail break a shift. And Winnipeg, they kind of have some of that, but not on the level of like a McKinnon or Rantan. You guys got anything else on this series?

I feel like we covered all my notes from game four in particular, but you feel like if there's anything that we haven't given enough shine to or any storylines that we haven't covered that have had, a prevailing theme in these four games? We've hardly talked about Winnipeg at all, I know, because obviously I am, you know, I'm around Dallas more than Winnipeg, but I will say that players like Samberg,

and I know you mentioned Eilers earlier too, that it, I really, I feel for players, even like Halibuck to an extent, you really feel for players in a short playoff series where a lot of really good, really high caliber, consistent work gets immediately overshadowed because of a rough nine on special teams or one bad goal that goes in or one fluky bounce or something like that.

Because even players like Neil Pionk have really impressed me in this series. And there have been a couple of games where it's felt like Winnipeg deserved a lot better than they've gotten. Again, no disrespect to players in Dallas who've obviously come up huge in three games out of four. But man, you can see how this team won a president's trophy. You can see how they did it. But also they had to have a lot of things working well to do it.

And much like Washington, kind of in the east, you can see what happens when they go up against a team whose system is just more relentless in a certain way, more relentless and deeper than theirs. And suddenly all the things that were working well because your top line kind of greater than the sum of its parts in some ways. Again, this sounds very disrespectful to some of the top caliber players with Winnipeg. But I genuinely feel like if I were Winnipeg, I wouldn't overreact too much to this other than, like David said, yeah, maybe just try to upgrade a little bit more at the deadline or something, you know, boost your depth, get another couple top-end guys. But overall, you've got

a lot of really good pieces there, and I feel like you shouldn't be too unhappy with this series in a lot of ways. You just have to give a lot of credit to Dallas and the pieces that they have because they've been able to win those battles. But yeah, Winnipeg's really impressed me in this series.

I guess that's all I'm really trying to say, even though they're down. I think that's fair. I mean, obviously, the 3-1 deficit going back home is one thing. There have been a couple trends that have been revealing, but to your point, games 1 and 4, which they lost,

I felt like they played pretty good games. Then on most nights, you'd win the goaltending was just better at one end. And then game 2 obviously was a very dominant start-to-finish performance from them. So on the one hand, the 3-1 isn't necessarily very reflective of the way these games have been played, but also this is the NHL postseason. And that's kind of how it goes sometimes.

It comes down to getting saves. and a couple bounces here or there, and that's sort of been, especially in that game three, the difference between these two teams. All right, David, I'm going to let you plug some stuff here in the way out, let the listeners know where they can check you out

while you've been cooking up, and then Robert, you can jump in and do the same. Yeah, just same thing, pretty much same spots. I'm always at D Magazine. Robert and I do recaps after every game in the playoffs,

and then, of course, Starstack. I'm going to be doing, kind of working on a couple of big pieces, one of which is special teams battle, which we've kind of talked about, and it's been fascinating to me. And then, of course, the other one is, you know, how do you understand,

how do we define a counterpunching team in the analytics era? And I think that's what I got cooking. Yeah, and you can find my stuff at starstops.com and then also at D Magazine, like David said, we're doing post-game pieces during the playoffs and then features during the year that'll do as well. This week actually, I think tomorrow I'll have a piece.

Talking about a couple different stars stuff, some fun nuggets. Cody Cici's brother was in town and they got some barbecue yesterday. So anytime you have hockey players getting Texas barbecue experiences, I always have to write about it. So look forward to that. Awesome, fellas. We'll keep up the great work. This was fun. Thank you for indulging me here today.

If you joined today's show, as I said, off the top, give us a five-star review wherever you listen. join us in the PDOCAS Discord as well. David is in there, very active. Hopefully we'll get Robert in there as well. It's a good time. That's all for today. We'll be back Friday. Thank you for listening to the Hockey-PedioCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.