Playoff Takeaways: Kraken break Stars’ Oettinger with offensive onslaught

The Dallas Stars’ best defenceman and star goalie disappeared in the second period Sunday when swamped by the Seattle Kraken tsunami.

Only injured blue-liner Miro Heiskanen actually left the game. Jake Oettinger just checked out. Both players are a concern after the second-year Kraken embarrassed the Stars 7-2 in Seattle to take a 2-1 lead in the teams’ second-round playoff series.

The Kraken scored four goals on four shots in a span of 6:22 early in the second period to blow open a 0-0 game and blow away the Stars. Oettinger surrendered five goals in the period, looked sketchy on at least three of them, and did not appear for the third as backup Scott Wedgewood mopped up the final 20 minutes.

Oettinger did not look like the best goalie still standing in the Stanley Cup tournament, which he should be. But the Dallas starter has proven mightily resilient, going 20-1-4 in the regular season and playoffs after losses. The Stars will need that resilience in Game 4 on Tuesday.

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The situation with Heiskanen could be worse. The defenceman who leads all skaters in average playoff ice time at 29:45 was injured on the opening goal by Jordan Eberle when Tye Kartye’s shot ramped off Dallas defenceman Ryan Suter and struck Heiskanen flush in the face, near his mouth. 

The 23-year-old star dropped immediately to the ice, which is why Eberle encountered no resistance when he gathered the loose puck, waited for Oettinger to commit, then pulled the puck to his forehand and scored at 2:10 to make it 1-0.

Heiskanen was helped to the dressing room and did not return, although coach Peter DeBoer told reporters in Seattle that the Finn wanted back in.

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With Dallas down to five defencemen, Alex Wennberg made it 2-0 Seattle at 3:36 with a top-shelf finish from distance after Jani Hakanpaa misplayed Vince Dunn’s stretch pass.

Carson Soucy – CARSON SOUCY!!! – made it 3-0 at 6:30 when Seattle’s sixth defenceman (and three-goal scorer from the regular season) walked around Mason Marchment and badly fooled Oettinger with a shot between the pads.

Oettinger was handcuffed by Matty Beniers’ unscreened, short-side shot from the top of the circle that made it 4-0 at 8:22.

Oettinger’s final act was shovelling the puck straight on to Eeli Tolvanen’s stick for a gimme that made it 5-1 at 19:21 after a Dallas turnover was accompanied by a poor line change that gave the Kraken a leisurely three-on-two.

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Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 24 of 26 shots he faced, which included a point-blank save on Jamie Benn shortly before Eberle opened scoring, and a breakaway stop against Roope Hintz when it was 3-0.

THE CULT OF KRAKEN

Former Vancouver Canucks general manager Brian Burke famously said of the Minnesota Wild 20 years ago, “It’s not a hockey team, it’s a cult.” He was referring to the Wild’s universal and fervent devotion to coach Jacques Lemaire’s defensive system.

The Kraken don’t play like the Wild did back then. Dave Hakstol’s team has far more speed and offensive ability. But the ideas of devotion and buy-in — the interchangeability of players within a system that is unyielding to opponents in its speed and pressure — apply to the Kraken.

The Kraken got seven goals from seven players on Sunday, and through just three games against Dallas have had 10 different scorers. Seattle led the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ opening round with 15 different scorers in the Kraken’s seven-game upset of the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. And Hakstol’s team is doing this without its two most prolific offensive players, injured 40-goal scorer Jared McCann and winger Andre Burakovsky, who had 39 points in 49 games before he was hurt in February.

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY. . .

When the Edmonton Oilers were up 5-0 to start the third period of their game Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights, coach Jay Woodcroft rested his biggest stars. Connor McDavid played just 3:14 of the final 20 minutes and Leon Draisaitl logged 4:08.

With the Kraken up 5-1 going into the third, Hakstol just kept rolling his forward lines and defence pairs. He has no stars to protect. Lots of good, fast, well-drilled hockey players, but no stars (until Beniers emerges as one). Hakstol may, however, have to plug in another spare player for Game 4 after winger Daniel Sprong left the game in the second period.

The last player inserted into the lineup, Kartye, has two goals, three points and a plus-six rating in six games since replacing McCann alongside Beniers and Eberle on what appears to be Seattle’s first line.

SPEAKING OF STARS. . .

Oettinger is a goalie of consequence, a star who has the ability to decide a game. The Stars have two forwards like that: Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz. But the linemates who combined for seven goals and 19 points in seven games against Colorado, have a single second assist between them through three games against Seattle.

STARS SCARS

Six-foot-seven Seattle defenceman Jamie Oleksiak, claimed in the 2021 expansion draft when Dallas left him unprotected, was a beast in Game 3, leading his team with six hits and four blocks, while finishing plus-two in 22:28 of ice time. He crushed Marchment with an early check and Seattle outshot Dallas 11-6 at five-on-five when Oleksiak was on the ice. His expected goals-for percentage was 68.8. Oleksiak looks, uh, motivated.

WORTH REPEATING

If you don’t appreciate the significance of DeBoer’s voluntary pre-game comments about Saturday’s mass shooting at an outlet mall near Dallas, then you may not understand Texas politics and the pro-gun zeal of many of its leaders.

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Texas governor Greg Abbott, for instance, once tweeted his “EMBARRASSMENT” that Texas was second to California in new gun purchases and urged his voter-constituents: “Let’s pick up the pace Texans.” Abbott tagged the NRA in his tweet.

DeBoer began his pre-game media availability Sunday by saying he is heartbroken by America’s latest mass-shooting. The Dallas coach offered something more substantial than thoughts and prayers for the victims.

“Frankly, when you hear victims as young as five years old. . . you get tired of hearing it,” DeBoer said. “I think when you hear Sandy Hook and Parkland and Nashville, unless it’s in your backyard, you compartmentalize it and put it aside. And then when it happens in your backyard, you realize the horror of it. I don’t pretend to know the answer on how to fix it, but it’s too great a country (with) too many intelligent people not to do something about it. So, just horrific.”

DeBoer is from Dunnville, Ont.

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