Trying to have some rational initial thoughts on Mark Stone injuring Miro Heiskanen

The Stars best player was injured by the Golden Knights captain, let's chat about it.

“That Heiskanen injury looked rough.”

That’s a text I woke up to this morning from someone who was at the game last night between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights.

Since I hadn’t watched the game live and was planning to watch it back this morning¹ I quickly jumped to the 12:08 mark of the third period to watch the collision between Mark Stone and Miro Heiskanen that injured the Dallas Stars best player.

For those who haven’t seen it, here it is.

There are a couple immediate, and I’d guess obvious, thoughts that jump to mind².

1. That’s not good for the Stars.

2. What is Mark Stone doing?

Let’s break down both of these things as best we can.

On the Stars front, any amount of missed time for Heiskanen is going to hurt them. Heiskanen isn’t just there best hockey player, but he’s effectively the Stars security blanket that everything is going to be OK.

The Stars have dealt with injuries and absences to other key players, but historically speaking, when Heiskanen misses time the Stars seem to have lost their foundation.

Whether it’s a short or long-term injury, and there was no update after the game³, the Stars are going to have to prove they can handle playing hockey without Heiskanen.

They did last night in the heat of the moment, kudos to Wyatt Johnston, but that defensive group just took a major hit⁴.

It also brought me back to my conversation I had with Stars general manager Jim Nill two weeks ago when he told me “we know kind of what our needs are today, but I could wake up three weeks from now or 10 games from now and I’ll have different needs.”

Stars GM Jim Nill on why the NHL trade market is currently stuck in neutral

As of this morning, he has much different needs. The Stars were always going to be a buyer, looking at both defensemen and forward in the rental market, but what was once more of a forward need is now a defensive one⁵.

So the Stars wait, frustratingly so, for the result of Heiskanen’s injury.

For the rest of the world, and what I saw on social media this morning, was the discourse over how Heiskanen got injured and what Stone was doing.

It’s a weird play, Stone said after the game that he was tripped by Roope Hintz, and I don’t believe there was intent to injure.

But it’s also a dangerous play, and just like someone rear-ending someone on highway, it doesn’t matter whether you meant to cause the high-speed collision or not, the damage was done⁶.

There shouldn’t be any supplemental discipline, but in the moment, and I think Robert Tiffin covered this really well, the official missed the mark by not calling clipping on the play⁷.

I don’t want to go through and break it down frame-by-frame here because others have already done that extensively on social media and I don’t think there’s enough video evidence one way or the other to how much Hintz could have actually tripped Stone.

Hintz has an impact on Stone’s movement, yes, but how much? And does it excuse the full-blown diving poke check attempt from a player who’s known around the league for being able to maintain his balance while skillfully stealing pucks without leaving his feet?

Your fandom and view of how the Golden Knights have used LTIR historically, frankly, will likely determine your answer to those questions.

It all adds a bit of heat to an already boiling rivalry between the Stars and Golden Knights, which is already one of the best in the Western Conference⁸.

To Stone’s credit, he cleared the low bar that Jamie Benn set for explaining your actions⁹ in this rivalry. Whether you agree or not with his explanation, he at least gave a semi-realistic one right after the game and delivered the PR talking points that you “never want to see a guy get hurt.”

So where does this go from here?

For the Stars, it’s the biggest point of adversity they’ve face this season. With all due respect to Mason Marchment and Tyler Seguin’s injuries, losing Heiskanen is another thing entirely and the severity will impact how they look at the trade deadline.

For the Golden Knights, and Stone, this will become a footnote until they play the Stars again, potentially in the Western Conference Final.

1. I subbed in for a beer league game last night, sadly lost in OT, and then fell asleep when I got home. I don’t want to talk about the overtime goal against, even if I played well in regulation.

2. As someone who has blown out their knee and doesn’t have an ACL in his right knee, long story, I also cringe watching any knee injury. But that’s not the larger point of this piece.

3. And likely not updated until Thursday at the earliest, the Stars have an off day today. I also don’t and won’t speculate on what the injury is or isn’t, I’m not a doctor and don’t play one on TV either.

4. But not as bad as Team Finland’s for 4 Nation’s Face-Off, I would guess. If Heiskanen is out for that tournament that would mean that Jani Hakanpää is somehow in the top-six for Finland, despite only playing two NHL games this season.

5. And to be clear, this is a depth defensive add. The Stars, if Heiskanen is out for a long time, will never be able to properly replace him. It’s very similar potentially, in my view, to the Detroit Lions losing Aidan Hutchinson.

6. When I was a senior in high school I was running late to school and driving myself, I was going way too fast in the neighborhood and hit my neighbor’s mailbox, which happened to be made of stone and did some damage to my dad’s car. I didn’t mean to do it. But it was also my fault.

7. After the game Stars coach Pete DeBoer noted it was frustrating the officials didn’t even call the major initially so they could review it.

8. For me, Battle of Alberta will never be beaten in the Western Conference, there’s such a combination of historical hate and regional rivalry. But there’s always a roving spot available for second place.

9. This interview with Benn explaining that cross-check against Stone, which he got suspended for, is still one of the most baffling I’ve witness. I’ve covered Benn a lot in my career, and he’s not great with the media, but it was a bad look in this presser that the Stars and Benn weren’t better prepared for some questions that everyone knew was coming.