Stars look to get special teams humming as regular season opener nears

The Stars on Saturday spent most of their practice working on special teams. It was a great first step in getting ready for the season opener Thursday at Nashville.

While the power play has lost just one key ingredient, it’s a huge part in the retired Joe Pavelski. On the penalty kill, half of the pieces will need to be replaced. Dallas ranked sixth on the power play and eighth on the penalty kill, and that was a big factor in the Stars having the second-best record in the NHL.

“It’s huge during\] regular season, and I think it’s even bigger in the playoffs,’ said Stars center [Matt Duchene. “Look at the playoffs last year. We lose to Edmonton, and we didn’t score a power play goal. That could have been the series. If we push it to Game 7, I like our chances at home in Game 7.”

That’s the delicate balance of special teams, and the reason the Stars have to be diligent in their workouts. You never know when an extra goal or an extra kill can swing a game. And as we have seen in recent years, the NHL is becoming a league where a point here and a point there can really change the standings. Dallas has gotten off to good start in the Pete DeBoer era, and special teams have played a role. Assistant coach Steve Spott had the power play fifth in the league two seasons ago at 25.0 percent and saw that slip slightly last season to 24.2 percent and sixth place. Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine had Dallas third in the NHL on the penalty kill two seasons ago at 83.5 percent. They were eighth last year at 82.0 percent.

“It’s a big part of who we are,” said forward Tyler Seguin. “It’s important and we put a lot of work into it.”

Seguin has become a bigger part of the penalty kill as the Stars look to nontraditional players to complement the career penalty killers. That might be even more important with Radek Faksa (St. Louis) and Ty Dellandrea (San Jose) leaving in the offseason. Wyatt Johnston and Sam Steel look like the top two returning penalty killing forwards now, but the rest of the group will be filled by the likes of Seguin, Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn and even Duchene (who practiced Saturday on the kill for the first time since coming to Dallas last season). Yes, players like Colin Blackwell and Oskar Bäck still are in the mix, but having skilled forwards who can help back off the opposing power play can be an important tool.

“They’re good killers,” Nasreddine said. “You see all around the league that your role guys, that’s their job. But you see guys like Roope and even Johnny, they’re really good penalty killers and you don’t want to keep them on the bench.”

Nasreddine also will have to replace two of his biggest minute defensemen in Jani Hakanpää and Ryan Suter. Incoming blueliners Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin will play big roles on the penalty kill this season.

“We lost a few guys from the last couple of years,” Nasreddine said. “Lyubushkin is a guy you’re looking at, Matt Dumba, Bäck, Blackwell. Some of our structure is going to be different, so we’ll keep working on it.”

The fact is, both Nasreddine and Spott get to work with each other. The two veteran assistant coaches share ideas on how to attack the opposition. Spott might ask about what a penalty kill is trying to take away while Nasreddine might inquire on where a power play might see holes in his penalty kill.

“I break down so many power plays, and you know where you can get exposed, especially against teams that play a similar structure to ours,” Nasreddine said. “So, Spotter will ask me and I’ll ask Spotter, ‘How can you expose this?’ He gives me pointers. It’s very helpful.”

The power play uses its own brand of inner workings to get better. The two units challenge each other to see which one is better.

“We had times last year where we were 1A and 1B and that’s what we need to be,” Duchene said. “Both units have to push each other. We’re 10 guys together trying to get the job done.”

On paper, the first unit appears to be Miro Heiskanen with Jason Robertson, Johnston, Benn and Hintz. The second unit will then be Thomas Harley with Seguin, Duchene, Mason Marchment and Logan Stankoven. Johnston moves up to the top unit and takes the place of Pavelski. Stankoven steps in for Johnston on the second unit.

“Chemistry is everything on the power play,” Nasreddine said. “We lost Joe, he was a big part, but I think Spotter had all summer to figure out who can replace him. It might be Johnny, but things change. We have all of our main guys coming back, and they have shown that they can be an elite power play in this league, and that’s comforting.”

Pavelski led the Stars in power play goals with 11 last season, so his loss is notable. He also was known as one of the best “tippers” and net-front presence in league history, so Dallas will look to fill that void.

“He was just such an elite middleman on the power play, so whoever has to fill that role on that unit has to have some of the same characteristics,” Duchene said. “Johnny is a great candidate to play there, you need a righty. Are we going to replace Pav? Probably not. I think what you need is a different dynamic there, but at the end of the day, we have two really strong units and that’s what we need.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.