Thanks to healthy scratch Jason Spezza was back to “normal,” but what does that even mean?

DETROIT — For Ken Hitchcock making Jason Spezza a healthy scratch worked.

He was able to reset the veteran forward, forcing him to watch a game from the press box for the first time in more than a decade, and on Tuesday Spezza had a pair of power play goals — his first multi-goal game in two seasons — as the Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2.

“This is what he’s capable of and this is what we need,” Hitchcock said.  “I would say for me, the word would be normal.”

So what does normal even mean?

“He protected the puck, he held onto it he made plays, he was strong on it, he was strong on the dot, he was really competitive dot to boards,” Hitchcock said. “That’s how he’s got to play and it was great.”

While Hitchcock admitted it wasn’t easy to scratch Spezza against the Boston Bruins — he said “it’s not fun doing it, but I did it,” — he got the perceived result he wanted.

For the player, the more important reaction came from his teammates.

“It was a difficult day for me,” Spezza said. “So to have the support of the guys means a lot. And it didn’t go unnoticed. Every guy tried to pick me up, every guy tried to encourage me and that’s something that I think that stuff goes a long way with just those guys doing that.”

For John Klingberg, who had the primary assist on the Spezza’s first goal, it was important to get the alternate captain back into the lineup with a strong performance. Spezza has had a positive impact on Klingberg since he became a full-time NHL player, and when the veteran forward needed a pick-me-up, Klingberg was one of the first teammates at his side.

“I don’t really know what to say, but I feel really happy about him getting back int he lineup and score like that,” Klingberg said. “We all know how good he is and he responded really good to the scratch.”

It’s a nice team-building moment — younger players standing by a veteran, cheering him on when he scores — but did the scratch actually change Spezza’s game?

Sure, he had a pair of goals, but neither was a particularly groundbreaking. The first was a tip, the second was a quick finish on a brilliant pass from the Alexander Radulov. He was in the right place at the right time on each goal, and he still only played 13 minutes, 45 seconds.

Spezza said he tried to take a more aggressive approach, which makes sense, but if he doesn’t score, he’s probably not being praised about hitting normalcy like Hitchcock described.

“Didn’t change too much,” Spezza said of his game after the scratch. “Just tried to play with a little more instincts and not think as much out there I guess.”

Either way, Spezza still isn’t out of the woods in what still feels like a no-win situation.

His spot on the first power play unit wasn’t a move to instill confidence, but a reaction the coaching staff had to make because the Stars were told to “manage the minutes” of another injured top-unit power play forward (likely Brett Ritchie). At five-on-five he’s still being asked to elevate Devin Shore, a forward that has been miscast as a top-six player, and it’s not like his time on ice is going to improve any point soon.

The win in Detroit was a good feeling for the Stars, and it’s easy to play the cause-and-effect game with the healthy scratch, but it also could have provided a false positive.

Zubov like

Klingberg became the first Stars defenseman to record at least a point in eight straight games since Sergei Zubov did the same thing late in the 2006 season.

He was asked about being compared to the former Stars great (who will have his No. 56 retired at some point).

“When I was a kid, I didn’t know much about him, it was all (Nicklas) Lidstrom, ever since I got here, I understand how big he was, it’s a huge challenge for me to be named in the same area as the games as he, so I take pride in that,” Klingberg said. “Like I say I want to go back to my all-around game, I think I play a good all-around and part of my game is scoring points, and I feel good and have good confidence.”

Klingberg now has 37 assists and 43 points in 40 games, which leads all NHL defenseman.

Big games

Remi Elie and Stephen Johns both stood out during the stars back-to-back wins in Boston and Detroit.

Johns was particularly praised by Hitchcock after the game in Detroit, and by all accounts it looks like he’s won a full-time spot in the lineup when Marc Methot returns. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point on this road trip the Stars scratched Julius Honka to give Dillon Heatherington a look on the third pair with Johns.

Elie has assists in back-to-back games, including the play that setup Martin Hanzal’s third-period goal.
“You know what I think he’s one of those younger guys that he’s got great hockey sense,” Hanzal said of Elie. “He can hang onto the puck. he’s got great vision so I think he’s playing great.”

New Barn

As someone who went to high school in the greater Detroit area and attended quite a few games at Joe Louis Arena, including several college hockey games, it was a bit odd watching Detroit play in a state-of-the-art building.

And the building delivers on the hype. I gave myself a walking tour of the concourse and of the seating areas, while the steep bowl has ideal sight lines.

The video board and an on-ice projection system also deliver, overall it’s the ideal fan experience.

Of course there is one optic problem, which shows up on television: where are the fans?

The attendance was reported as 19,515 on Tuesday, but for most of the game there were open patches of seats.

I asked a couple employees at the arena (vendors, elevator operators, etc…) about this, and I was given three reasons for that perception:

1. The new building has so many amenities, there were never clubs and things like this at The Joe, so people are enjoying that atmosphere more and spending extra time in the lavish areas.

2. The team isn’t very good, so it makes sense to have another beer in one of the clubs.

3. It’s become more of a corporate crowd, so while tickets have been sold, there are empty seats that aren’t being used.

I’m not arguing for or against these points, but it was interesting to get some back story from people that see it on a nightly basis.