Few American-born players have impressed in the Stanley Cup playoffs like Joe Pavelski, but he's still seeking the biggest goal of all. He'll get that chance again with Dallas.
VANCOUVER - For 18 years, Joe Pavelski has been going to the net, building a reputation as one of the greatest shot-tippers of all-time.
But on a third-period power play on Thursday, the 39-year-old showed his hockey savvy when he steered away from his usual post-up spot at the net front. In open ice at the bottom of the faceoff circle, he accepted a pass from Roope Hintz and laid a pinpoint feed on the stick of Jamie Benn, who was camped out in the slot.
Benn made no mistake on what proved to be the game-winning goal for the Dallas Stars, who beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 to become the NHL's first Western Conference team to clinch a 2024 playoff spot.
After a trip to the Western Conference final last spring, Pavelski and the Stars are looking to take another step this year. Riding a six-game winning streak, Dallas has opened up a three-point lead over the Colorado Avalanche atop what has been a tight Central Division race.
“This time of year, you're trying to position for points in the standings and give yourself the best route, whether it's home ice in a Game 7 or anything like that,” Pavelski said. “You watch it. You're aware of it. But there's always a team ready to play, so it's about keeping our game in a good spot. And it's just trying to keep building and not take a deep breath by any means. It's tight up there, and there's lots to play for.”
With 139 points in 146 career playoff games, Pavelski ranks third all-time among American-born players in the NHL post-season. He’s just seven points behind all-time leader Mike Modano, who captained the Stars to their lone Stanley Cup in 1999 and had a spectacular new statue unveiled outside the American Airlines Center two weeks ago.
Along with Benn, Ryan Suter, and Matt Duchene, Pavelski is also one of four Stars with more than 1,000 career games played and no Stanley Cup on his resume… yet.
When he signed on with Dallas in 2019, Pavelski never could have imagined that he’d spend the last two months of his first year locked in the Edmonton playoff bubble, with the Stars pushing the Tampa Bay Lightning to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final.
“As hard as it was at times, it was a lot of fun as well,” he said. “It was an exciting run. Being through it with fans in the city — you miss a little bit of that. But as a group, it was a lot of fun.”
Pavelski is also part of the core group of Stars that reached the Western Conference final last season. This year’s roster has been changed only slightly, with the additions of veterans Matt Duchene, Craig Smith and Sam Steel up front and Chris Tanev on the back end at the trade deadline.
Younger players like Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley have also established themselves as key contributors. And high-energy rookie Logan Stankoven had a massive cheering section from his native Kamloops on hand to take in his first NHL game in his home province of British Columbia at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Now in his second season in Dallas, Peter DeBoer also coached Pavelski for four seasons in San Jose, including the run to the Stanley Cup final in 2016, when Pavelski led the Sharks with 14 goals.
“Joe’s Joe,” DeBoer said Thursday. “Another 25 goals, another 60, 70 points — whatever he’s going to end up with. Just ageless.
“And the numbers have never told the story about Joe,” DeBoer added. “Joe's story is much more about leadership and leading by example and taking the young guys under his wing and showing them the way and playing the right way.”
That being said, the numbers are impressive.
Originally a seventh-round pick, Pavelski’s two assists on Thursday have tied him with Eric Staal for the most points by a player from the legendary 2003 draft class, with 1,063 points in 1,324 games.
Since joining the Stars as a free agent in 2019, he has logged 302 points in 361 games and is a team-leading plus-91. He was Dallas’s leading goal-scorer in their run to the Stanley Cup final in the 2020 bubble and became the oldest player ever to record a four-goal playoff game in his team's second-round opener against Seattle last spring.
Thursday night, Stars goalie Jake Oettinger logged his first-career win in Vancouver and is now riding a personal four-game winning streak. He agreed that the Stars won’t sit back now that they’ve clinched their playoff berth.
“We know how important getting those home games is,” he said. ”That's what we're playing for right now, and trying to get our game to the level that we played it tonight for the rest of season.”
“If we play like that, I think we'll be very confident going into the post-season," he said. "And we're trying to win the Presidents’ Trophy. It’s not every year you can say you're trying to win the Presidents’ Trophy. It's pretty cool.”
So the Stars don't buy into The Curse?
“We want to win as many games as we can here, going in the playoffs,” DeBoer agreed. “I like how we're playing. We've got eight games left. If that results in a Presidents’ Trophy, fantastic. If it doesn't and our game stays in the same place, we're comfortable playing against anybody.”