DALLAS — Mikko Rantanen, as Mikko Rantanen does, used his size and strength to pin Neal Pionk against the end boards late in the second period in Tuesday night’s Game 4, standing tall as the Winnipeg defenseman futilely tried to flail himself free. A moment later, Rantanen outmuscled Pionk for a loose puck and feathered a deft little backhand pass to Jason Robertson in the slot. Robertson caught the puck on his backhand, with Brandon Tanev right in front of him. With a split second to think and react, Robertson twisted himself around and snapped off a nasty little shot between a sprawling Tanev’s legs.
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Connor Hellebuyck actually got to this one, but it was a reminder that, oh, yeah, Jason Robertson — two-time 40-goal scorer, one-time 109-point producer, 25-year-old borderline superstar — is on this team, too. And, oh, yeah, he’s pretty darn good.
It’s been easy to get lost in Mikko Mania, as Rantanen has put the Stars on his broad shoulders and carried them this far, with some significant help from the unflappable Jake Oettinger in goal. Posting at least three points in five of six playoff games is god-tier hockey, and so far, it’s been enough for the Stars.
But the scary thing, the thing that should send a cold shiver down the spines of seven other teams, is that this isn’t even the Stars’ best. Not even close. This is the Stars at partial strength, with several high-profile players underperforming, and with their all-world defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, trying to hop onto a moving train mid-series— on a surgically repaired knee, no less.
Matt Duchene, a 30-goal scorer and the team’s leading producer with 82 points this season, hasn’t scored yet in the postseason. Neither has Robertson in the four games since he returned from a leg injury. Jamie Benn and Mason Marchment have just one goal each, and Tyler Seguin has just two. And until his Game 4 hat trick, Mikael Granlund only had one goal. Entering Game 4, Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston had combined for 18 of the Stars forwards’ 25 goals through 10 playoff games. The Stars became contenders through their remarkable depth, but they’ve been top-heavy throughout this postseason.
And yet here they are, anyway, one game away from a return trip to the Western Conference final after a 3-1 win gave them a 3-1 series lead.
Can we even fathom what this team is capable of if and when everyone else gets going?
“Mikko, he’s been playing (at) such an incredible level, and I’m sure he’s going to keep doing that,” Granlund said. “But obviously we need some help.”
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Granlund, Dallas’ initial splashy, Finnish trade-deadline acquisition, finally entered the main narrative in Game 4. From his very first shift, he looked like a man on a mission. He threw hits, he broke up Winnipeg scoring chances, and he scored three goals. Two came on the power play — one on a daring rush up the gut, one on a sharp-angle one-timer that put the game away. Another came when he kept it on a two-on-one with Hintz. Three times he shot at Hellebuyck from distance, and three times, he beat the soon-to-be three-time Vezina Trophy winner.
THROW THOSE HATS 🤠🤠🤠
GRANLUND HAS A HAT TRICK IN GAME 4!!! pic.twitter.com/pIvc7X2XnQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 14, 2025
It was a virtuoso performance, on a par with some of Rantanen’s recent heroics.
And he’s, what, the seventh-best forward on this team? Sixth, if you’re feeling generous?
Imagine what it will look like if and when Robertson feels fully healed from the leg injury he suffered in the regular-season finale. Imagine what it will look like if and when Duchene gets back in a groove. Imagine what it will look like if and when Marchment gets in gear, and Seguin finds his touch, and Benn starts planting himself in the crease, and, well, you get the idea.
“Obviously, you want to score and perform,” Robertson said. “I know these guys hold themselves accountable. But we’re winning games. The exciting thing is we’re earning more games. You win a game, you earn more games, more opportunities. This is only the mid-second round, and our goal is to go the distance. There are going to be plenty of moments, ups and downs for everyone. Another person can be the hero (the next game). That’s what happens. You create new moments every game. That’s the beauty of the playoffs. You have a good game (next game), score a goal, it just changes everything.”
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“You just need different guys to step up at different points,” Oettinger said. “Obviously, (Rantanen) has been on a different level. Next game, we’re going to need someone else.”
The biggest X-factor, of course, is Heiskanen. The perennial Norris Trophy candidate worked at a feverish pace to beat the clock and recover from Feb. 4 knee surgery in time to be part of this playoff run. In his first game back on Tuesday, he was far from his usual self. He played just 14 minutes, 52 seconds, 10-plus minutes fewer than his usual ice time. He bobbled a couple of pucks, and when he made a rough turnover at the blue line on a power play, he didn’t have the legs to catch Kyle Connor on the ensuing short-handed breakaway, barely getting a stick on his hip and fortunate to be bailed out by Oettinger.
“It’s a long time (since) the last game,” Heiskanen said. “But it was fun to be back, and (the) guys helped me out there pretty well.”
Now, Heiskanen at, say, 60 percent is still better than a heck of a lot of defensemen in the league. He’s just that good, that heady. But if he’s able to regain his form, his touch and his confidence in the coming days — and likely weeks — it gives the Stars a dream first pairing with Thomas Harley, two Norris-caliber defensemen leading from behind.
Up front, other teams have higher-end skill than the Stars do. Rantanen is probably the only Stars forward in a class with Toronto’s Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander; or Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart; or Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. But none of the other seven teams left in these playoffs can match Dallas’ depth. No team in the league can. For Pete DeBoer’s sake, their “fourth line” in Game 4 had Robertson and Johnston frequently playing with a double-shifting Rantanen.
DeBoer, for the record, isn’t sweating his stars’ statistics. Not yet, at least. One of his assistants, Misha Donskov, was an assistant coach for the Vegas Golden Knights when they won the Stanley Cup in 2023. He noted to DeBoer that Jonathan Marchessault went on to win the Conn Smythe that year after a slow start (no goals and two assists in his first seven games). That’s something DeBoer is clinging to.
“(They’re) used to producing at a regular-season (pace),” DeBoer said. “The playoffs are always a different animal, so I don’t think you can compare. They’re not even the same conversation, how you produce during the regular season and the way you do in the playoffs. And, really, I don’t think it matters. All that matters this time of year is winning. We can say, ‘Why isn’t Matt Duchene (at) a point a game?’ — but I don’t think it’s applicable. … The stats don’t matter this time of year. I’m happy with everybody. We’re still alive, we’re up in the series, and we’re winning. I know those guys are going to come through when we need them.”
If they do, look out. Because a fully realized Stars squad would be the team to beat in these playoffs.
Heck, even at partial strength, they might be.
(Photo of Mikael Granlund and Jason Robertson: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
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