Stars play the Hintz, breezing past Blackhawks to end road trip

Changing on the fly has been a big deal for the Stars this year, so it was nice to see them do it fairly smoothly on Thursday.
Welcoming back both coach Rick Bowness and goalie Anton Khudobin, who had each been sidelined in the NHL's COVID protocol because of false positive tests, and adjusting to an uneven performance on Tuesday, the Stars came up with a convincing 5-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.

WATCH: [All highlights from Stars' 5-1 victory over Blackhawks]
It was huge for the standings -- where the 14-14-10 Stars remain within shooting distance of fourth-place Nashville and the final playoff spot in the Central Division -- as well as in the minds of the Stars players, who needed a mental boost in confidence.
"We've got some key guys out, obviously, so moving forward we're going to need different guys stepping up," said Blake Comeau, who had two goals. "If we can find ways to get other guys to step up on a nightly basis, it's going to go a long way. I was happy to be able to chip in offensively. It's been a bit of a grind for me to find the back of the net, so to be able to chip in and us get the win definitely feels good."

In addition to all of the COVID distractions, the Stars are missing Tyler Seguin, Ben Bishop, Alexander Radulov, Jason Dickinson, Joel Kiviranta and Joel Hanley because of injury. That might have weighed on the team Tuesday, but the bottom line was Chicago was better in a key game and earned the win.
On Thursday, the Stars were better.
Part of it was because of a strategy to give the players some energy. Bowness flew from Carolina to Chicago Wednesday after being released from his COVID quarantine, and the coaches kept most of the players off of the ice. They then decided to not skate Thursday morning and save their energy for the game. That seemed to be a good decision.
"I think the biggest thing was the rest we had yesterday," Bowness said. "We had two physical games back-to-back in Carolina, and we just didn't have the energy to start the game on Tuesday night. Yesterday, we kept most of the guys off the ice and we kept them off the ice this morning. We just had more jump tonight."

The Stars also tweaked some of their strategies. They showed on video that the commitment between the forwards and defense in both attacking aggressively and supporting in defense was missing Tuesday, so they worked hard to get it back Thursday.
The coaches put the line of Comeau, Radek Faksa and Andrew Cogliano head-to-head with Chicago's best line of Alex DeBrincat, Kirby Dach and Patrick Kane, and that worked out well. They also moved winger Jamie Benn to center, and that worked out well. But it wasn't without some first intermission adjustments.
The two teams were tied at 1-1 after 20 minutes, but the coaches tweaked quite a few things before the second period. Dallas then came out and scored three goals in the second to take over the game.
"We didn't like our first period, so we made some adjustments and played much better after that," Bowness said. "There's got to be a trust between your forwards and your defense. We gave up two 2-on-1s in the first period, it drives me crazy. With no practice time, you're doing a lot of teaching on video, but it's a lot easier on video than it is in the game. So we needed to get the trust between the forwards and the defense, and I think the players bought into that."

Of course, having Khudobin close the door on a few great chances also helped.
"That was huge," Comeau said of Khudobin's play. "I thought we were a little bit scrambly in our defensive zone. You've got to give them credit, they have some elite playmakers and guys with good vision. He made some big saves and was able to keep us in it. Then, as the game went on, we did a pretty good job of trying to close things down."
Jason Robertson scored off a nice pass from Roope Hintz to give the Stars the lead 1:13 into the second period. Miro Heiskanen scored on a power play to make it 3-1, and then Comeau scored his first goal off a nice play by Cogliano that sprung Comeau for a breakaway and a 4-1 lead.
Among the several things that were working, the Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau line was fantastic. The Stars are a relentless checking team, and they often derive their identity from the "FCC" line. This was one of those nights.

"We love that role," Comeau said. "It's a big challenge for us on a nightly basis to play against the league's best, and I think we all enjoy trying to shut down other team's top lines. Obviously, on the road, it's a little harder to get that matchup, but tonight we tried to find our matchup when we could, change when we could and those are elite players. We just tried to frustrate them as best we could."
They did that, as Kane finished with just one shot on goal and was minus-2.
Hintz, meanwhile, had a goal and three assists for the first four-point night of his career. The 24-year-old center now has 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) in 27 games and is proving a huge catalyst when he is healthy enough to play. Hintz has missed 10 games at various times because of a nagging lower-body injury.
"Probably a lot of guys wouldn't play in the situation that he is, what he's dealing with," Bowness said. "Give him 100 percent marks for being gutty and having the character to go out and play. He's just a dominant player, he's our best forward."

And that's just one more layer to what the Stars are dealing with.
So, now, with a huge two points gained and the chance for another big game Saturday at home against Florida, Dallas has to find a way to learn from a win (much in the same way it learned from a previous loss). They still have to fight to catch Nashville, which sits in the final playoff spot with a 22-18-1 record.
"We have to play like this now, not just one game and then not in the next one," Hintz said of the team's history of inconsistency this season.
"We have to take this one now with us and play like this the rest of the regular season."

Up next

vs. Panthers; Saturday 1 p.m. CT
American Airlines Center
TV: Bally Sports Southwest, NHL Network
Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.