Heika’s Take: Stars persevere through chaotic game to defeat Kraken

The Stars pretty much tailored their game for Gary Bettman on Monday night.

The NHL Commissioner was in the building for an annual visit and answered several questions from the assembled media before the game – among them issues concerning overtime and the emergency backup goalie.

Dallas then went out and weathered a couple of scary moments for netminder Scott Wedgewood before beating Seattle, 4-3 in overtime, on a perfect pass from Matt Duchene to Thomas Harley.

Jake Oettinger is out “week-to-week” with a lower body injury and the Stars had to use emergency backup goalie Joe O’Brien, who works at his family’s restaurant in Missouri, as a backup in St. Louis on Saturday. Wedgewood played the entire game and the Stars were able to call up professional netminder Matt Murray as a backup going forward. However, when Wedgewood was struck in the neck with a puck in the first period, it looked like the Stars might have to dip into the local EBUG pool for more help as a potential backup for Murray.

While coach Pete DeBoer admitted it was scary, he said, “Not as scary as in St. Louis the other night.”

The issue of using a non-professional in an NHL game has become a topic of discussion for general managers in the league, but Bettman said he doesn’t see it as a huge issue.

“If you take out the last five years, you had a 50-year period where maybe we saw the EBUG twice because of injury,” Bettman said. “Now, it’s become a matter of cap management. If you put yourself in that position, then that’s the position you’re in. If you leave yourself cap room, then you’re not in that position.”

The Stars could have called up Murray for Saturday’s game but didn’t have the salary cap space. They were granted an emergency exception after that game, and GMs would like to talk about finding a plan where maybe they can get more exceptions – or simply staff a third goalie on a regular basis. But Bettman said he’s fine with the current rules.

“It’s really on the club to manage the cap,” he said. “When it happens, it’s kind of a fun story.”

But with the Stars in their current state, they are very protective of Wedgewood. He was interfered with in the third period and his teammates rallied in physical defense.

It’s a storyline that might be repeated going forward.

“We know Otter’s is a hockey injury and you don’t want to lose anybody on a physical play,” Wedgewood said. “I think it was a respectful thing standing up for each other.”

He added that the Kraken have a history for being physical around the goalie, and that’s how they scored the tying goal in the final minute of play.

“They crashed the net hard. That was in the scouting report for us,” Wedgewood said. “They’re a net-front team, they get pucks there and bodies there, and they tied it up in that fashion at the end of the game. It’s a good strategy.”

And as for the night of battles, Wedgewood said, “I came out fine, a couple of bumps and bruises, the throat’s okay, so we’re good.”

That set up an overtime session, which was another perfect discussion point for fans and the Commissioner. Coaches have been finding ways to take the air out of the three-on-three overtime, which has sparked discussions that the format might need to be tweaked. But Bettman said he doesn’t see the need just yet.

“There’s a mixed view on it,” Bettman said. “It gets a little defensive and then it opens up and there’s chaos. I think when we have the three-day General Manager meeting in March we’ll see whether or not we think there is a problem. I don’t know that there is agreement that we think that there is, but if the group concludes we need some adjustments then we’ll talk about it. But I don’t think we’re at a point where enough managers view it as a problem. More often than not, three-on-three overtime has been somewhere between spectacular and chaotic, which is what it was designed to do.”

The Stars and Kraken showed that on Monday. Duchene had an early turnover that led to a Matty Beniers shot that rang off the post and then Duchene headed up ice and set up Harley with a gorgeous pass. The three-on-three session was chaotic and exciting, and it also showed that the Stars learned their lesson from Saturday, when they lost the game because they weren’t patient.

“I was lucky,” Duchene said. “Thankfully, we were able to rebound there.”

It was a good lesson, especially when you consider the Stars move to 18-8-4 and take over first place in the Central Division.

Duchene finished with two goals and an assist, Joe Pavelski had two assists and Jamie Benn moved into second place on the Stars’ all-time scoring list with an assist. It was a night befitting a viewing from the Commissioner.

“If we didn’t get that extra point tonight, we were going to be pretty disappointed,” Pavelski said. “We felt like we played a pretty good game, we had the power play chances to put it away and then we gave up at the end. There was no panic, but there was a feeling that we would really be letting something go if we didn’t get that extra point tonight.”

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.