DENVER -- Esa Lindell and Tyler Seguin were sitting in the press box at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on April 14, when the Dallas Stars were playing the Detroit Red Wings. Lindell was resting for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Seguin was missing his 58th straight game with a hip injury.
They had played together for more than nine seasons. Still, Seguin had gained a new perspective on Lindell while out of the lineup.
“I told Esa [in Detroit] that I haven’t fully appreciated him over the years,” Seguin said. “I haven’t seen it as a player as much as I [have seen] it over the last months of watching on TV and being there and seeing the things he does.”
We all have a chance to fully appreciate Lindell as the Stars face the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round. The best-of-7 series is tied entering Game 5 at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; Victory+, ESPN, ALT, SN360, SN, TVAS).
Miro Heiskanen, the Stars’ No. 1 defenseman, is out with a lower-body injury. That puts more pressure on -- and brings more attention to -- the rest of Dallas’ defense corps, especially Lindell and Thomas Harley
After leading the NHL in short-handed ice time (287:02) in the regular season, when the Stars ranked fourth in penalty killing (82.0 percent), Lindell leads the playoffs in short-handed time on ice (17:39). The Stars have gone 11-for-14 on the penalty kill against an elite power play.
In Games 2 and 3, they won in overtime after killing a penalty that carried over from the end of regulation into to the start of overtime. In Game 3, it was a double minor. One second after it expired, Lindell blocked a shot headed to an open net.
Although Colorado dominated Game 4, winning 4-0 at Ball Arena on Saturday, Lindell was not on the ice for a goal against.
The 30-year-old won’t sing his own praises much.
“I guess it’s cliché,” he said. “You can always be a little bit better, but I’ve liked the game I’ve played lately and through the season. Kind of the consistency has been my key and what I rely [on] and what I expect from myself. What that being in a good place, I think it helps the game a lot.”
Lindell’s teammates and coaches love to sing his praises, though.
Harley brought up defensemen Jaccob Slavin of the Carolina Hurricanes, Gustav Forsling of the Florida Panthers and Chris Tanev of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tanev was Lindell’s partner in Dallas during the playoffs last season.
“Esa should be in the conversation for best defensive defenseman in the NHL,” Harley said. “Like, you see guys like Slavin and Forsling getting all this love. He should be in that conversation. When the pairing last year was Esa and ‘Tanny,’ Tanny got a lot of love. Esa should be getting that.”
Goalie Jake Oettinger said Lindell is smart and inquisitive.
“I’ve never had a defenseman ask me questions and go back and forth with me as much as him,” Oettinger said. “He wants to know what I want out of him, I want to know what he’s expecting me to do, so we have a great communication, great friendship. He’s just a quiet leader. He’s not going to yell at guys. He’s not going to break his stick. But he leads by example, plays the right way.
“He’s not going to sell all the jerseys, but he’s going to be a big reason why we win.”
Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Lindell is always in the right place because of his high hockey IQ, and Lindell knows how to use his 6-foot-3, 217-pound frame.
“He’s a really underrated big, body strength guy,” DeBoer said. “Very few times he doesn’t come out of confrontations with the puck or battles with the puck. I think that’s probably the biggest thing.
“He’s such a nice guy off the ice, and he’s always smiling, and he’s like a gentle giant. And then you go in the corner with him, and most of the time he’s coming out with the puck. He’s got that quiet competitiveness.”
He's got what a Stanley Cup contender needs.
“He’s one of those invaluable guys that doesn’t take you out of your seat with his skill or his speed but is just quietly very effective in whatever situation you put him in,” DeBoer said. “Those guys are the glue and the meat of the teams that win. Everybody’s got those type of guys, and he’s one of those guys for us. It’s consistency. It’s competitiveness. It’s leadership, and it’s done in a quiet, understated way, but invaluable to our group.”
