DALLAS — When Jamie Benn won the Art Ross Trophy in 2015, he finished the season in spectacular fashion with 87 points. Through 18 games this season, Benn is on pace to finish with 91 points.
“I think he still has some tanking ability,” Tyler Seguin said. “Tweet it.”
A lot has been tweeted and said about Benn and Seguin on the ice in recent years and not much has gone right. The parties at fault range from the fans, the media, and even the franchise’s front office and ownership. Saturday night’s 5-2 win over the Islanders was an emphatic statement from the old superstar Dallas Stars.
These days, Dallas’ dynamic duo up front is Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson. Each came into Saturday night riding career-high scoring streaks in 10 straight games. While Robertson extended his streak with a goal in the third period, Hintz was a late scratcher for the Stars with a lower-body injury. He missed practice Friday, but was on the ice to skate Saturday morning and warmed up before the game.
“It was a game time decision tonight,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “I tried. I don’t think it’s a long-term thing. I’d call it day-to-day.”
With Hintz gone, the Stars were arguably without their best forward overall and the anchor of one of the best lines in the NHL. To start the game, Benn was on the line with Robertson and Joe Pavelski. Early in the second period, Seguin was penalized for a high level of adherence. The Stars finished off the penalty, with Benn, Radek Faksa, Miro Heiskanen and Ryan Suter on the ice to complete the kill and Seguin joining them outside the box. Soon after, Suter won a puck battle along the boards and passed the puck across the ice to Faksa, who had Benn and Seguin with him against three Islanders skaters. Faksa gave the puck to Benn, who showed incredible patience and puck handling as he entered the offensive zone:
From there, Benn moved on to Seguin, who found Faksa waiting in front of the net to complete the Stars’ first goal of the game.
“They came out together on a line change and made the first goal happen,” DeBoer said. “From that moment on, I decided to keep them together. That line was great tonight.”
Great might be an understatement of how the line of Benn, Seguin and Mason Marchment performed. They were easily the best line for the stars. According to Natural Stat Trick, in just over six minutes together, that line had a Corsi For percentage of 76.92 percent. They took six shots on goal, scored twice, and didn’t allow a single one. Their expected goal percentage was 99.17 percent as they had 0.73 expected goals for and 0.01 expected goals against.
The second goal of the game was also scored by that line. This time Marchment was the beneficiary of Benn’s artwork.
“I don’t know, it’s funny how you take a break from a guy and play with him for so long, it’s like instantly knowing where he is and where I was,” Seguin said. “I thought (Marchment) played a great game as well.”
The Stars tried several times early last season to relive the glory days by reuniting Benn and Seguin with their former running mate, Alexander Radulov. The results were terrible, as they were statistically one of the worst lines in the NHL. Benn was in his disappointing fourth season of play and Seguin was in his first season after a series of serious injuries.
There was always more hope for Seguin’s resurgence this season after he split more of his surgeries, but Benn’s seemingly came out of nowhere. Even this season, Benn didn’t record his first point until game five and his first goal until game 11. Through 10 games, Benn had five points, all assists. Since then, Benn has had 15 points in eight straight games, including five multi-point games, and he had three points in three of those games.
DeBoer sees it more as a reward than a fluke.
“Every time I showed up at work this summer after taking the job, he was the first to the gym, he was the first to train, the first to try to get faster,” DeBoer said. “No one put in more work than him at the start of this season. I think sometimes you get what you put in and I think it definitely started there for him.”
DeBoer also deserves credit for this revival. Benn’s high offensive production is striking mainly because of how low his production has been in recent seasons. DeBoer has implemented a style of hockey that allows offensive players the freedom to do their thing. After that, it’s up to the player to start rolling and collect points. When that starts to happen, something else comes up as well.
“Everyone’s confidence, you know, I think it took a little bit of time,” DeBoer said. “The first 10 games, obviously he used it a lot. But now he’s being rewarded and he’s playing fantastic. (Confidence) is a huge piece of being an NHL player, riding those waves of confidence. It’s impossible to have him all year, but he’s extending those waves when you’re feeling really good and minimizing the ones you’re not, so they don’t turn into eight or 10 games, just like win-loss streaks.”
Benn has scored 789 points in his NHL career, 337 of which have been goals. He is a player who has been the scoring king in the NHL, so there is no doubt that Benn has been able to do it. The question in recent years has been whether he can still do it. Since early November, Benn is tied with Robertson and Erik Karlsson for the most points in the NHL with 17, slightly ahead of Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov.
The question of “can you still do it?” it will now evolve into “how long can you keep doing it?” It’s highly unlikely that Benn will keep up his torrid pace and set up another career high in points, but that was never expected of him, nor is it required of him. Prior to Saturday night, Benn had been a third-string staple for the Stars. Dallas has been searching for the third piece to its second line all season, and Benn’s final weeks, capped off by Saturday’s cameo, give DeBoer an interesting option.
“We’re going to enjoy this tonight and see who we have available for the next game,” DeBoer said. “But it’s hard to ignore that chemistry and that success they had tonight.”
three plays
These are scoreless plays that stood out.
Suter’s Neighbor Moment: In a game like Saturday’s, it’s hard to pinpoint a game-winning play, but this play by Suter to keep the puck out of the net late in the third period when the Stars were only holding on to one goal. the lead was a deciding factor.
“Very good,” said Benn. “I was chilling in the groove watching it all come crashing down. He saved the game for us and put himself in a good spot to make that play.”
Benn’s two-on-one opportunity: Sticking with the Benn theme, his lone goal and two assists don’t do justice to the number of chances he had against the Islanders. In this play, he and Marchment had a two against one look.
The appetizer: Before Benn scored his game-winning third-period goal, he and his linemates were hyped. This is what happened just seconds before Benn scored while working with Seguin:
score distribution
The lines were mixed due to Hintz’s absence, with Joel Hanley jumping in to play up front, so this isn’t an exact look at the lineup.
1G (Robertson)—Johnston— 2A (Pavelsky)
1G2A (Benn)- 2A (I went on)— 1G1A (March)
Kiviranta— 1G (Faksa)—Glendening
Dellandrea—Blumel—Hanley
Heiskanen — 1A (Miller)
Suter—Lundkvist
Lindell- 1G (Hakanpaa)
Oettinger: .931 save percentage, 1 assist
(Photo by Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin of the Stars celebrating Benn’s game-winning goal against the Islanders: Jerome Miron / USA Today)
Source: news.google.com