DALLAS — If you wanted a clue about who would impact the Dallas Stars’ 5-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night, you only had to listen to pregame introductions.
As the Stars’ entire roster was introduced at 7:05 p.m., the loudest cheers were reserved for faces of the franchise. Jason Robertson? Thunderous. Roope Hintz? Roaring. Miro Heiskanen? Rolling. And the loudest of all, Jake Oettinger.
The sellout crowd at the American Airlines Center proved clairvoyant. Either that, or the team’s best players performed like it during the home opener, pushing the Stars’ record to 2-0-0 on the young season.
Hintz had two goals and an assist, Robertson had a goal and two assists, Heiskanen had a goal and an assist, while Oettinger made 29 saves. Joe Pavelski also had two assists, and Mason Marchment added an empty-net goal with 73 seconds remaining.
The Stars’ top line of Robertson, Hintz and Pavelski were one of the league’s best lines last year, and entered this season as one of the few sure things on the Dallas roster. Even with Robertson’s late arrival to training camp, the trio was pegged to pace the Stars offense once again. Despite a Pavelski goal in the opener on Thursday, the line had a relatively quiet night.
Not so on Saturday, when their fingerprints were all over the victory.
“They were electric,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I’ve seen them before from the other bench and I like them a lot better standing where I was standing tonight. They showed up at a different level tonight. You can see Robertson, a couple games in, is starting to get comfortable. We know what Roope can do, and obviously Pav’s Pav.”
Hintz scored on a shorthanded breakaway less than five minutes into the game, stripping the puck from Roman Josi (who appeared to plead for a tripping call) and ripping a shot past Juuse Saros’ ear. He gave the Stars a 2-0 lead in the first minute of the second period on accident, when his pass intended for Pavelski ricocheted off Mattias Ekholm and past Saros.
Even on a first-period power play, the three combined to set up Jamie Benn for a prime chance with deft, quick passing. Hintz and Pavelski connected in the second period for a goal that was wiped out because Esa Lindell was offside.
Heiskanen’s goal came on a long give-and-go with Robertson, with Heiskanen crashing the net and deflecting Robertson’s spot-on pass.
Robertson’s goal, his first of the season, was the prettiest of the night, a constellation of five passes that guided the Stars from their own zone to the back of the net: Robertson to Hintz to Robertson to Pavelski to Hintz to Robertson.
Faced with questions about coaching (how would DeBoer’s system gel?), defense (other than Heiskanen, who would be a difference-maker?), veterans (would Tyler Seguin and Benn increase their production?) and goaltending (would Oettinger duplicate his postseason performance?), the top line was a known quantity.
Even if DeBoer had the option of breaking them up to spread scoring around the lineup.
“I think I’m smart enough to know not to overthink things,” DeBoer said. “That’s one you don’t overthink. They have something special. … I’ve done that before, you try and separate guys to spread out and hope that you can create three great lines. It’s rare that that works. When guys have that type of chemistry, I think you’ve got to respect that.”
Through geometric accuracy and symphonic skating, Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski have the skills to consistently break down opponents and break open games. Hintz has the speed and the shot. Pavelski and Robertson, for what they lack in skating, make up for it with elite goal-scoring ability.
“Some good plays, reading off each other, good pressure, all those little things and really liked the compete not just from us, but up and down the lineup,” Pavelski said. “You can feel a four-line attack and it’s fun to play that way.”
When the line was on the ice on Saturday at 5 on 5, the Stars had more shot attempts (10-8), shots (6-2), scoring chances (7-4), expected goals (0.48-0.26) and goals (2-0) than the Predators.
The Stars are 2-0-0 for the second time in the last three seasons. In 2021, Dallas also beat Nashville in the first two games of the season before missing the playoffs.
“It’s another building block,” DeBoer said, “but it’s two games of a long, long season.”
More for Benn: Benn played just 11:20 during the team’s season-opening win in Nashville on Thursday night, his lowest usage since 2010, excluding games in which he was injured or disqualified.
DeBoer said he sought out Benn on Friday to speak about his lack of minutes.
“It was just one of those situations, I didn’t use him killing penalties and we ended up with five or six penalties,” DeBoer said. “He was great about it. That’s not going to be an ordinary number for him. The nice thing for me is gets it, he just wants to win.
“There was zero issue on his end on it. We had a conversation about it that I initiated. He wouldn’t have even brought it up.”
April 3, 2010 was the last time Benn played as few minutes when healthy and eligible, when he logged just 10:29 against the St. Louis Blues. Only eight times in Benn’s career has he played fewer minutes than Thursday’s 11:20, and most were because of injury.
Benn played 13:57 on Saturday night.
— The Stars used the same lineup on Saturday night as the season opener on Thursday, meaning Jacob Peterson and Joel Hanley remained healthy scratches.
