Tyler Seguin appears as Stars dominate Avalanche in Game 1
The Dallas Stars can win the Stanley Cup, if Tyler Seguin scores.
The All-Star center has been a brilliant scorer in the regular season for the Stars, and magically vanished at the worst times for the franchise during the postseason.
“When you’re a guy like Tyler, that everybody keys on, you get all of that extra attention,” said former Stars teammate, current NBC NHL analyst Patrick Sharp in a phone interview the day before the Stars’ played the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL’s Western Conference semifinals.
“I like him a lot on that line with Jamie Benn and (Alexander) Radulov. Seguin knows how to score. He’s a confident player. If he gets one early, he can be a major factor in this series.”
Four minutes into Game 1 on Saturday night, Seguin scored the series’ first goal on an assist from Benn and Radulov.
The Stars scored three first-period goals and won Game 1, 5-3. Game 2 is Monday night in the NHL’s Edmonton Bubble.
If the Stars are to win this series, Seguin has to do what he did on Saturday night. The Stars are not going to advance beyond the West semis if a player as talented as Seguin is not visible.
Seguin will never live up to the eight year, $78 million contract he signed with the club in September of 2018; few players can live up to a contract of that duration.
But he is in his window; if he’s going to be a productive playoff player and carry his regular-season production to the postseason, he has to do it now.
He’s 28, and in the prime of his career.
A highly productive playoff run is the one element missing to his resume.
Against Colorado, the line of Benn-Radulov-Seguin accounted for eight points; Seguin scored one goal and assisted on another.
“Tonight (Benn) was definitely going and we kinda hoped on his back to start,” Seguin said following the game. “When we’re competing, especially early on in the first few shifts, that’s a good indicator that we’re going. Tonight we were definitely going.”
The Stars are following their regular-season pattern up in the bubble; they go through stretches where they can’t score on an empty net, followed by periods of goals on every shot.
The Stars scored three regulation goals in their three round-obin games in Edmonton; in their last two games, they have scored 12 goals.
They had a stretch where they scored nine goals on 26 shots.
This line is not going to score eight points every game, but a trio this talented can’t be invisible and expect to win.
“It was a good job by the Seguin line and when Jamie is skating north he’s a difficult man to handle,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said.
The Avs potentially suffered a major loss when goalie Philipp Grubauer left the game in the second period with an apparent leg injury. Backup Pavel Francouz finished the game.
Another loss to look for is Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson. He left the game with an apparent injury but returned later to the bench.
As evidenced by Game 1, skill and speed will have their place in what should be an entertaining series.
The Stars have both, and they can win this series provided Seguin is one of their best players.
