Afterwords: Good Enough

• I also want to point out that despite the “who cares” mantra I advocated for, I specifically found the Stars’ inability to get out of the defensive zone frustrating specifically because they tended to do so when the likes of Alex Tuch, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Rasmus Dahlin were on the ice. Despite their struggles this season, Buffalo does have some really talented players, so when you give them all the time in the world to score… well, odds are they will.
• I don’t like complaining about refereeing (which I feel like I say everytime I complain about refereeing), but last night felt particularly egregious. I know, I know, I’m the one who said “who cares,” but there were several instances where the Sabres made some blatant penalties that went uncalled — including one instance where Robertson’s helmet was ripped off and you could see the red mark it left on his forehead — as well at least one questionable call against Dallas (it sure looked like Thompson was holding and stole Craig Smith’s stick on that “hooking”).

Now, the fans are always going to think they’re getting ripped off. The American Airlines for sure let the refs have it, with frequent “Ref You Suck!” chants (including when the arena was playing the “Let’s Go Stars!” drum track over the speaker) and boos. Heck, the Whataburger Fan of the Game went to a pair of fans dressed up as refs, one with sunglasses on, who the cameras kept cutting to every time there was a controversial call (i.e. frequently).

But I think the most damning sign that this game might not have been called perfectly was the aforementioned Heiskanen misconduct. Not only was it the first of the Stars’ season, it was also very uncharacteristic of Heiskanen. He surely wasn’t upset about the penalty itself in a vacuum, as it was a very cut and dry cross check, but I imagine the frustration more so stemmed from how the calls seemed to be going against Dallas all night. A sort of, “Oh, so it’s only a penalty when we do it?” type complaint.

It is worth pointing out that the misconduct was not due to Heiskanen’s complaining, but rather because his glove made it’s way into the stands, which becomes an automatic misconduct. And, of course, it wouldn’t have happened had Heiskanen just kept his cool to begin with. But the point remains: if Heiskanen of all players is that upset about a totally legitimate call, it wasn’t just the fans who felt like Dallas was being screwed over.

• On a more positive note: it was a packed crowd last night in the AAC. Maybe Robertson’s bobblehead night had something to do with it, but still, this was a weekday game against an NHL bottom feeder in April. The fact that Stars fans still showed out in droves goes to show you how buzzing and excited the metroplex is right now for this Stars team.
• This will likely be the last Afterwords of the regular season. I apologize for the scarcity/infrequency of them throughout the year, but becoming a new dad meant watching games live pretty much never happened unless I attended in-person, and thanks to regional games only being available on one provider (that I don’t have), my only option for watching recorded would be two days after the fact, long after an Afterwords would be relevant/desired.

The good news is the latter issue goes away for the postseason, which means I plan (emphasis on plan) to get one up for every game, whether it’s 4 or 28 (please not either extreme).