Dissecting Miro Heiskanen and Give Me More, Flashbacks to 2015 and 2018 and More – The Athletic

It’s been another busy week for the stars. The Stars have won six of their last eight games, the only two losses coming March 26 at home and Sunday in Seattle to the Canucks. The Stars beat the Ducks twice and then the Sharks on Saturday to go 3-1-0 on their road trip. Denis Gurianov left the lineup and rejoined the lineup. The Stars scored an important goal by channeling their aggressiveness and Joe Pavelski achieved a milestone by scoring in San Jose.

The biggest story, however, was the return of Miro Heiskanen. The stars’ stud defenders returned on Tuesday and made an immediate impact. In his second game, he ended the game with a dominant shift in overtime to help the Stars to a win. By analyzing this shift, we begin this week’s observations.

1. When Heiskanen returned to the lineup Tuesday in Anaheim after 11 games because of mononucleosis, head coach Rick Bowness urged caution. Heiskanen was only supposed to play 15-17 minutes and there would be progression from there.

Heiskanen played 20 minutes. And he wanted more.

“When he spoke to him afterwards, he looked at me like, ‘Give me more,'” Bowness said. “That’s typical Miro.”

This was the first and last game in which the Heiskanen ramp-up plan was even loosely implemented.