The Dallas Stars defensive situation took another odd turn in a 2-1 win against the Calgary Flames on Friday.
Greg Pateryn, who for the first nine games of the season had been nothing more than a practice player, led all defenders in ice time. On top of that, Pateryn has the worst possession numbers on the team with a 33.3 CF% while having the highest percentage of offensive zone starts (66.67 percent) — that’s not an easy statistical task to accomplish.
On top of that, Pateryn didn’t look that bad according to the eye test. While his numbers made it look he spent the entire game losing possession and failing to take advantage of ideal starting position, he actually made a couple nice plays and did a nice job late in the game when Dallas was clinging to a 2-1 lead.
It was just an odd night, made even odder by Jamie Oleksiak’s usage.
One night earlier Oleksiak was benched in the third period against the Edmonton Oilers and extremely sheltered with 80 percent of his starts in the offensive zone. On Friday he had 75 percent of his starts in the defensive zone, and wasn’t sheltered in his usage, but still had the least amount of playing time of any Stars defender.
Once, again it was confusing.
The one thing we can take away from last night — and I would be saying this even if he didn’t score a goal — Esa Lindell was the Stars best player against Calgary.
Lindell played in all situations, came up with a big power play goal, killed penalties, and had a couple key clearances as late in the game. The analytics also look good as Lindell had a 53.57 CF% and had the lowest percentage of offensive starts (16.67 percent) on the team.
Odds and ends
— I’ll be a guest on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver later today discussing the Stars. Right now it’s tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. CT (noon in Vancouver). I’ll tweet out a link closer to the guest spot.
— Don’t be surprised if a suspension is handed out the AHL after the mugging the San Diego Gulls pulled off in the first period last night. Stu Bickel essentially attacked Justin Dowling, an unwilling combatant, and was ejected after his second “fight” of the game.
Catch-up links
The mailbag came out on Friday, we covered a little bit of everything.
David Castillo has a recap from the Texas Stars overtime victory
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