On February 29, the Stars acquired Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames. It was the latest grift by Jim Nill, who is no stranger to winning a trade, and the Stars went 16-4-0 over the final quarter of the regular season.
On May 29, Chris Tanev blocked a shot and hobbled off the ice. The Stars collapsed, turning in perhaps their worst performance of the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers as the Western Conference final drew level at two games apiece.
Just a few minutes into Game 4, the Stars were up 2-1 in the series and leading the game 2-0. Then Tanev took a puck to his lower leg and the Stars went quietly. Now Dallas is facing the prospect of a best-of-three series with the potential for two games at home.
Tanev was exactly the piece Dallas needed, and his arrival enabled the Stars to finish atop the Western Conference, giving them home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs. That immediately came in handy, as the Stars won the deciding Game 7 at home against Vegas in the first round of the playoffs.
It’s easy to forget, but Tanev nearly didn’t make it to the playoffs in one piece. On March 30, he was hit by Adam Larsson, and we held our collective breath:
Thankfully, Tanev’s arm wasn’t seriously injured, and the hockey world once again marveled at a tough-as-nails player who always seemed to bounce back from violence with nary a scratch. And it was a good thing for Dallas, as he has been a key piece in the defensive corps through the first 17 games of the playoffs.
Tanev could make another remarkable comeback, as coach Peter DeBoer said Thursday the team is waiting for further testing to confirm his status. But even if he does play, it’s reasonable to wonder how effective he’ll be, given the shot block was painful enough to take him out of the game to begin with.
The worst-case scenario, however, would be a prolonged absence. Even a one-game absence could be critical for the Stars’ Stanley Cup hopes. Whether or not they get Tanev back, the Stars will have to adapt—and quickly. But the good news is that they’ve done this before. Sort of.
Back in December, Jake Oettinger went down for a month with a lower body injury, during which time the Stars called upon Scott Wedgewood to keep their season from veering off track. Wedgewood filled in admirably, Dallas went 7-3-2 without its top goalie, and the Stars picked up where they left off when Oettinger returned in January. What’s more, the absence may have inadvertently helped Oettinger by giving his body the crucial rest he never got last year. That rest may have helped keep Oettinger fresh heading into a playoff run during which he has posted some of the best numbers of any netminder to make it past the first round. The Stars are six wins from hoisting the Stanley Cup, and if they’re going to continue that quest, Oettinger will be one of the biggest reasons why.
Oh, and if missing their starting goaltender wasn’t bad enough, the Stars played 10 games without Miro Heiskanen after he collided with Wedgewood in early January. But again, the Stars weathered the absence of a key player, going 6-3-1 as Thomas Harley finally proved himself worthy of top-pairing duties. The defensive corps might not be as deep as the coaches would like, but it has certainly been tested.
Tanev may not play as many minutes as Heiskanen or be as irreplaceable as Oettinger, but he is just as crucial in another way. Last year, the Stars’ blueline crumbled in the Western Conference final against Vegas, with players including Ryan Suter and Jani Hakanpää playing higher in the lineup than DeBoer would have liked. But with Tanev, the lineup withstood Vegas this year and then took care of the fearsome Colorado Avalanche offense, to boot.
Despite relying primarily on just five defenseman, DeBoer is playing the right five players, and that’s the key. Suter has stayed largely comfortable with less responsibility (his bad mistake on Edmonton’s first goal of Game 4 notwithstanding), and Harley and Esa Lindell have rounded out the top four alongside Tanev. The Stars have fearlessly rolled out four forward lines and avoided disastrous matchups on the road, where the opponent has the opportunity to get more advantageous matchups with the last line change.
By having two high-quality defense pairings, Dallas is not only more dangerous but also less vulnerable, which might be the more important aspect of the two. Heiskanen and Tanev have locked down the right side of a defense that is short on trustworthy right-handed options. If Tanev’s tests return bad news, the Stars are right back where they were before the trade deadline: one piece short of a championship team.
This would be different from the absence of Heiskanen or Oettinger, though. For one, it’s the playoffs, where every team is game-planning for you night after night and trying to expose your every weakness. Even if a not fully healthy Tanev plays, the Oilers will surely exploit that weakness with some of the best forwards in the NHL.
For another, Tanev’s absence wouldn’t just create a hole. As Dallas saw on Wednesday, it created a chasm filled with mousetraps and the Sword of Damocles dangling overhead. Every player on the blueline will have to play out of his comfort zone without Tanev anchoring the right side, giving Edmonton far more opportunities in a series that has featured a razor-thin margin for error.
This is the nature of the playoffs, to some extent. Teams always have to backfill, and coaches preach a next-man-up mentality. But in Dallas, the next men up are not exactly a murderer’s row, to put it charitably.
Here are the options: Nils Lundkvist, who against Colorado played his way out of the meager minutes he was getting; Derrick Pouliot, who played in five regular-season games and got a shot against the Avalanche only after Lundkvist struggled; and Lian Bichsel, a 6-foot-6 20-year-old rookie who has never played in an NHL game. Not great.
Hopeful fans might want to believe Bichsel can contribute immediately, but it’s far more likely that a young player fresh off of playoff runs with teams in lesser leagues would be overwhelmed by the moment. Pouliot got those five games because the Stars were shorthanded, but he hasn’t played 10 games in an NHL season since before the pandemic.
What remains to be seen is whether the Stars will continue to struggle against the Oilers without a healthy Tanev or work the same reinforcement magic they did twice before when pivotal players went down. If the Stars can rebound with a win tonight, it will lend more credence to the notion that this is a true championship team. If not, they’ll go right back to looking for another top-four defenseman to stave off disaster next year. Because as Dallas knows all too well, there aren’t many Chris Tanevs out there.
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