Roope Hintz’s first career hat trick in win over Hurricanes has Stars’ future looking bright

Traditionally, the 20-game brand is the right time to take stock of the quality of product your local NHL team is delivering. It’s not getting complicated this season so much by COVID (the stars weathered their battle with the virus last season), but because it has already become a two-season story.

The first lasted 12 games and was as ugly as it gets. The Stars stood 4-6-2, failing to beat a single opponent without overtime help, and let’s just say the celebration of Rick Bowness’ 2,500. Playing behind an NHL bank on Monday night was not a given. NHL coaches are generally considered to be as good as they were last month, and Dallas’ first one was terrible.

When the club finally broke through with a regular win over Philadelphia, everything changed. Young Jake Oettinger, who certainly had his star moments last season, returned to the stage and promptly produced victories over Detroit, St. Louis, Edmonton and Colorado.

On Tuesday night, it was veteran Braden Holtby who was four seasons away from his cup celebrations with Washington and both his 500. But it was the first hat-trick in Roope Hintz’s career that made the difference, drawing attention to the next 20 games could be very different for Dallas.

The Hurricanes ‘only visit of the season was an uncomfortable reminder of the stars’ year-long exile in a newly configured Central, where they only played division games in the 2021 travel-reduced season. The stars missed the playoffs after being largely wiped out by Carolina, Florida and cup winners Tampa Bay at the top of the league.

That experience, as Jerry Jones would say, is as dead as Napoleon. The question is how long this burst of solid play will last from end to end, and how the stars can keep up while remaining a team challenged in the scoring department.

We got some answers on Tuesday.

In the club’s current winning streak of five games, Dallas has scored three goals in a row in the first 90 seconds. In fact, Joe Pavelski scored two goals against Colorado in the first 91 seconds on Friday, Hintz scored on Saturday’s first shift in Arizona and again against Carolina.

Hintz contributed to the scoring in the second period with a 2-on-1 goal after a feed from Pavelski (they really aren’t the only two offensive players on this team, it seems). The third goal, which cleared all doubts in the third period, was of course Pavelskis by Jason Robertson and Hintz. After Carolina finally got on the board and pulled her goalkeeper, it was Hintz again, this time from about 120 feet into an open net for the hat trick.

With the win, the Stars cracked the 20-game mark at 11-7-2. It’s not great, but a 7-1 with the only loss to leading Minnesota changed their outlook.

With Oettinger looking hot and Holtby looking solid again, the stars aim to keep up. In fact, they don’t really have much room for 2020 playoff hero Anton Khudobin. You could buy him, but his age, salary and 3.73 goals against are not going to make anyone burn the phone lines.

Regardless, the problem with Dallas was and is getting pucks online. They came into the game to score goals on Tuesday the 21st and it would be a lot worse without the help of their power play. So the best part of Tuesday’s win over a really good hockey team wasn’t near-disqualification. It was an extraordinary challenge to score three 5v5 goals before the Open Netter when there were two to be scored.

It’s interesting that the stars hit the 20-game mark, with Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov all playing 20. Their relative health decided the fate of this team in the not too distant past when they were forever at the top of the scorers’ list. That’s not an expectation anymore, which is great as everyone has nine points.

Pavelski, who is five years older than Benn and 71/2 ahead of Seguin, is what the team comes closest to being a point-in-game scorer. But without too much detective work, the stars’ course correction can be traced back to the end of Hintz’s miserable luck with the puck. With no Hintz goal in their first 11 games, Dallas went 4-5-2. With 10 goals from the great Finn in the last nine games, the Stars are 7-2.

Do you feel a difference?

In the first quarter of the season, Edmonton, Calgary and Minnesota scored 30 points and separated from the pack with relentless goals. The stars lack this punch. But Hintz is just warming up, and he could drag this team straight into the Western Conference hunt.

More star coverage from The Dallas Morning News can be found here

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