This season, he's continued to get to the gritty areas, but he's also started to see a return to his open ice skating. With Roope Hintz injured and out of the lineup for most of the past three games, Seguin has moved up to the top line and found a little more of his skill again.
"He's done a good job. He has worked hard," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "Those are big shoes to fill with Roope out, but that was a big goal for us, and he did a good job."
Seguin showed a bit of his split personality on Thursday against the Rangers. He battled hard in front of the net on a long shift and drew a roughing penalty. The amount of physicality he took, he probably should have earned four minutes of power play time, but two were enough. Seguin snapped a perfect shot past Igor Shesterkin's glove for what became the only Stars' goal of the game. The Rangers would come back and tie things in the final second, eventually winning in overtime, but Seguin continues to show the Stars are in good hands if Hintz is out for a while.
"He's got a great opportunity to play on that line and he's doing a great job," said long-time teammate Jamie Benn.
Benn said he likes when Seguin gets some edge to his game. He said he appreciates how hard Seguin has worked to get over the injuries.
"I think when he plays more in your face, hard-nosed hockey, when you push him to do those things, he rises to the challenge," Benn said. "I think you can see it in his game, he plays with confidence and you're seeing results because of it."
Seguin said he's just trying to help the team win and is taking what the game gives him. He's averaging 16:37 in time on ice per game, down a minute from last season, but his scoring is up slightly, and his plus-minus is much better.
"You work hard in the offseason to get yourself in great shape, and then you just play the games when you get here," he said. "I think this year I was trying to get back to how I used to play, looking for shots in the slot and things like that, but you have to be able to score a lot of different ways, so I go to the gritty areas and look for tips and finding those rebounds."
Seguin said the fact he had to work so hard to come back from his last injury, which kept him out for almost a full season, allows him to feel better now.
"When you start feeling a little older, when you start feeling the exertion of a schedule and travel, it's different," he said. "I feel like when you're younger you don't feel that. But things change and your routine before a game changes, and you have to evolve."
Right now, Seguin is doing just that.
Key Numbers
2.91
Calgary is 13th in the league in goals against average at 2.91 goals per game. The Flames were third in goals against last season at 2.51.
Plus-7.1
Calgary is third in the league in shot differential at plus-7.1 per game. Dallas is 17th at plus-0.9
12
Dallas is tied for the NHL lead in empty-net goals at 12. Calgary is 25th at 6.
He said it
"Obviously some good memories, where it all began. It's fun to be back. It still smells the same, still feels the same, so it's cool."
- Calgary forward Blake Coleman, who grew up in Plano, and was practicing at a suburban rink on Friday.
Expected lineup
Robertson-Seguin-Pavelski
Benn-Johnston-Marchment
Olofsson-Faksa-Dellandrea
Kiviranta-Glendening-Gurianov
Heiskanen-Miller
Lindell-Hakanpää
Suter-Lundkvist
Wedgewood
Oettinger
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.
