Heika's Take: The fight of the night

After a trip to the Western Conference Final last season, the Stars imagine they will be getting the best that opponents have to offer on every single night.

Two games into the 2023-24 season, that prediction seems to be holding strong.

Dallas opened the season with a 2-1 shootout win against St. Louis and then lost a 3-2 shootout game to Vegas on Tuesday. Both games were tight and physical, and both showed a few holes that still need to be patched. Still, starting the year at 1-0-1 with just three goals allowed isn’t the worst thing in the world.

“It’s going to be tight. You can see right off the bat that teams are hungry,” said veteran forward Craig Smith, who scored his first goal with the Stars. “We’re just getting started ourselves, but overall I thought we did a lot of great things tonight.”

Smith scoring was one of the highlights. The Stars acquired three free agent forwards in the summer – Smith, Matt Duchene and Sam Steel – and that depth should give the Stars an offensive boost. While it hasn’t appeared on the scoreboard yet, you can see the quality scoring chances. Add to that the fact Roope Hintz played his first game of training camp, and the depth solutions could be seen in upcoming games.

“I think it was the first time all camp we have had a full group together,” said Joe Pavelski, who also scored a goal. “You can feel it. I think our compete level has to be there every night. If we get that up and down the lineup, we’re going to create scoring chances and create some momentum.”

Dallas took a 2-1 lead on the goals from Smith and Pavelski. Smith was able to score into an open net off a nice pass from Tyler Seguin, while Pavelski converted a faceoff win by Hintz 2:50 into the third period. The Knights then took control after that, forging a 16-8 advantage in shots on goal through the third period and overtime.

Vegas tied the game at the 17:01 mark of the third and then tallied two shootout goals to one for the Stars.

“You hate losing a 2-1 lead with five minutes left in the game, but it was a good learning opportunity,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “I think that was their fourth game. The more games you play, your experience will get better and we’ve got a stretch of games here where we’re going to get the opportunity to do that.”

Dallas has had a stuttering start to the season, playing their opener last Thursday against the Blues and then heading to Palm Springs for a team bonding trip over the weekend. Vegas moved to 4-0-0 with the win. And while the defending Stanley Cup winner is missing some key players, it has the mojo from last season. Dallas lost to the Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final last season, so it was fired up, but Vegas wanted the win too.

“You had two pretty motivated teams tonight,” DeBoer said.

Jake Oettinger was again solid as he stopped 34 of 36 shots. And while the shootout didn’t turn out how he wanted, it’s clear the Stars can again flirt with being one of the better defensive teams in the league.

“He’s been excellent,” DeBoer said. “He dealt with an injury and rehab over the summer, and has come back and looks really, really sharp.”

Hintz too looked good after missing all of camp with an upper body injury. He played 16 minutes on Tuesday, eight of those in the third period and overtime.

“He’s Roope, flying around making a lot of great plays, so it’s definitely good to have him back,” Pavelski said.

It also allowed the team to ice their healthiest lineup. That could be a key going forward as the team starts to play closer to every other night.

“You get in a rhythm, and I think you kind of relax in the system and keep the level of energy high,” Smith said of how a more active schedule can make the team better.

And, he added, it can help the chemistry build even more.

“Just the eyeball test, we had a lot of good looks tonight,” Smith said. “Everybody contributed in some areas.”

Now, they have to do it again and again against teams who will likely be motivated to play very well.

“It was a good hockey team, right? The defending Stanley Cup champion, so you knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” DeBoer said. “They defend well, the goaltender is playing well. It’s a good point on the road for us. I thought our execution looked like we haven’t played in five or six days, and it was our second game of the year, so we’ve got some areas to improve. But we’ll take the point and move forward.”

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.