Tyler Pitlick doesn’t have pleasant memories from playing against Antoine Roussel.
As a skilled player with the Oklahoma City Barons and a right wing, Pitlick would often get matched up against Roussel and the Frenchmen did everything he could to get under Pitlick’s skin.
“What do I remember about playing against Antoine?” Pitlick said with a laugh on Monday. “I hated playing against Antoine. He was always a pain in the butt, he was a rat. He’s always in on you, hitting you, in the scrums, no one likes playing against Roussel.”
But when he’s on your side, it’s a completely different story.
“But everyone likes having him as a teammates, and it’s even better having him on your line,” Pitlick added. “He works his bag off every shift, you know he’s got your back if you hit someone hard and the scrum starts, you know he’ll be the first one in there so it’s nice.”
Centered by Radek Faksa, Pitlick and Roussel have helped form one of the Stars most efficient lines in the first eight games of the season.
The line has at least one goal in three straight games, all three players kill penalties effectively, and while other lines are still looking for chemistry the hard-working trio has made a noticeable impact each night.
“We don’t have any other choice. It’s the way we play the game,” Roussel said. “When we do things right we get rewarded for it, so it’s fun.”
While Faksa and Roussel have played together in the past, Pitlick was a bit of an unknown factor.
“I play against him for some time in the AHL, I knew he was a good hockey player, a good skill guy,” Roussel said. “But I didn’t think he was such a hard worker. I thought he was more of a skill guy. How hard he works, I didn’t know about it, so I like that a lot.”
Stars fans saw an embodiment of that effort in a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
Pitlick scored his first goal as a Star, diving for a loose puck and then going sprawling — a la Bobby Orr — over the Carolina goalie and defenders. Later in that game Pitlick scored his second goal, this time knowing exactly where to go when Roussel won a battle for the puck in the corner.
“I think all three of us are morph of the same player, we have differences but we all have that same knack where we like to get in on the forecheck and we like to play fast and gritty,” Pitlick said.
And they’ve made an impact in limited minutes.
Of the 23 skaters to play for Dallas this season Faksa (12:29), Roussel (12:09), and Pitlick (10:42) are 17th, 18th, and 20th in average ice time.
That’s seemingly going to change as the Stars open a five-game road trip tonight in Denver.
“I have to play the Faksa line more, especially on the road,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They’ve got a strong dynamic. They’re scoring goals, they’ve got four goals between them and that’s pretty good for a checking line this early in the season. So I’ve got to get them out on the ice a little bit more.”
In theory that line, which still needs a decent nickname, could be most effective on the road.
Away from American Airlines Center the Stars won’t have the luxury of making the last change, forcing Hitchcock to think twice about where and when he deploys each line. One scout, who has watched Dallas four times this season, said the Faksa line should make life easier.
“You can play them against anyone, while you don’t expect them to score against anyone, they play a game that’s high-energy and smart enough that it can hinder another team’s top line for a little bit,” the scout said. “I think you’ll see that on the road, you can put them out for a defensive zone draw and not worry about getting stuck. And I’ve yet to see a shift where they get outworked.”
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