Dallas Stars top 3: DeSmith kicks, Rantanen floats, & everybody fights in preseason win vs Blues

The Dallas Stars swept the home-and-home with a 2-1 preseason win against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center on Monday.

Last season, Dallas had trouble shooting the puck. Like, at all. They were often double digits behind the opponent in shot count, and even though that is far from everything in a game, the difference was often apparent in the way the game was played.

The Stars have been pretty transparent with their approach to creating more offense this season. They want to maintain the defensive habits this organization has had for years, while adding a bit more speed and creativity up the ice. Shooting the puck will also be a part of that, but don't expect them to turn into Carolina and abandon their goal of holding onto pucks.

Tonight, in preseason game two, we have seen a few examples of quick ups by the defensemen. As Thomas Harley said the other day, quick and controlled breakout passes should theoretically allow the Stars to play with speed while also maintaining possession of the puck. Rather than skating behind the net and waiting for the rest of the guys to change, defensemen pick their heads up and decide whether there is an easy play ahead of them.

That has nothing to do with the Stars first goal of the game, though. But it did come because Harley found some open space and shot the puck. This shot looked to be on the ice but then went in over Joel Hofer 's pad, so maybe it hit a skate on the way.

This is one of the reasons I think Harley should QB PP1. But hey, what do I know?

Outside of the goal, there was another fight. Jack Anderson fought for what I believe is the third time between preseason and the prospect tournament. And he fought Dylan Peterson, who also fought on Saturday in St. Louis.

Casey DeSmith was excellent, as Dallas got into a bit too much circling in its own end and not enough stopping on pucks. DeSmith has one of the quickest pad flash saves I have seen in the NHL. He's great at that when plays break down.

The Stars have made it a nice habit of fighting a million times this preseason. I dig it.

Tonight, the second tilt was once again Kyle Burroughs , who was once again pushed into a fight in defense after he committed a penalty. And Burroughs got the better of Dylan Holloway (a scorer, not a fighter), switching to his left hand and throwing a perfect straight down the middle that dropped Holloway. Holloway went to the room and did not return.

After that fight, Dallas decided to take 100 penalties and went down 5-on-3 for at least two full minutes, with some 5v4 mixed in. Somehow, thanks very much to Trey Taylor's shot blocking, the Stars made it through every kill and went into the third period still up 1-0.

The penalties did not result in a goal, but they did result in this hilarity:

While they obviously won't fight this much during the season, I do love the don't-take-s**t attitude this team has adopted under Glen Gulutzan.

It's a small shift, but they don't sit back and take it anymore. When a teammate is hit, or there is a cheap shot, another player is right there in Victory Green to drop the gloves or put them in a headlock. I would've loved to see this attitude when they had the deep team they had both years against Edmonton in the WCF.

As a hockey player, nothing much beats the feeling of being able to walk into a puck just sitting there for you and hammer it as hard as you can. Like the hardest shot All-Star competition, it just feels freeing. Especially if you can hammer it at over 100 mph. I cannot.

But tonight, Nils Lundkvist had that opportunity, and he sort of made it count.

After a nice setup from Dylan Hryckowian to Mikko Rantanen, Rantanen tossed a backhand back into the slot for Lundkvist to skate into. It looked to me like Lundkvist hammered the one-timer and burnt a hole through the chest of the Blues netminder. But when asked about it, Lundkvist called it a muffin shot, saying he actually didn't get much of it.

So maybe it actually fooled the goalie instead?

St. Louis scored on a quirky bounce in tight to make it 2-1 and scare all of us that we would see one of the worst things in sports: preseason overtime. But DeSmith and the Stars held on and improved to 2-0 in the preseason, sweeping the Blues in the home-and-home.

Later in the third period, Jason Robertson gave the entire AAC a chuckle when he did his best wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man impression while defending a 2-on-1.

Yes, Jason Robertson defending a 2-on-1. It was as glorious as it sounds. And it worked.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan on Casey DeSmith

"Same old Casey. Bottom line is he's competitive… He's a competitive guy in practice, he's a competitive guy in games. He's vocal in the locker room… he's earned that."

I thought Dylan Hryckowian was great tonight. He was all over the ice, had a few great chances on what is a very quick-release snapshot, and he was in the scrums along with his brother.

I dare you to go back and watch Mikko Rantanen's shifts from this game. Actually, I don't even know if that is possible to do, but it would be very funny. Rantanen played tonight like he was in a roller hockey game on Huntington Beach. He kind of floated around, tried a dangle here, tossed a puck chest-high there, and stickhandled his way through just about any Blues skater that came his way. It was funny and impressive.

Arno Tiefensee was hurt at morning skate and did not dress tonight, as Brandon Halverson took his spot as backup. We should know more tomorrow about his status.

Colin Blackwell is not expected to miss much time, likely just days, after being helped off the ice during camp last week.

Matt Duchene has still not skated at camp for an unknown "maintenance" reason, but is expected to skate this week.

Cameron Hughes left the game 22 seconds in after taking a hit. He was seen in a sling after the game and is dealing with an upper-body injury that we should know more about tomorrow.

Trey Taylor played over two minutes on one extended PK and blocked 2-3 shots. He was great tonight and is right on the edge of being an NHL defenseman.