Antoine Roussel is quite a polarizing player among Dallas Stars fans (obviously fans of other teams have come to a consensus on how they feel about him). On the one hand, he plays with 100% energy at all times, can really get under the other team’s skin, and has shown flashes of offensive skill in previous seasons. On the other hand, he often takes bad penalties at even worse times (though some may be reputation-based more than actual infractions), and he occasionally does something that’s legitimately dirty rather than just pesky.

It’s been widely speculated that he’ll be playing somewhere other than Dallas next season, but Mike Heika thinks that his future in Big D depends largely on who the Stars hire to lead the team next year and what kinds of offers Roussel garners in free agency:

He led the Stars in SAT at plus-130 in 2016-17 and had four seasons of double-digit goals before this past season. He also is a fan favorite. The guess is he will study free agency, and that offers might be low. At that time, the Stars might consider bringing him back near or below his cap hit from last season.

Personally, I am a fan and would like to see him back next year, but I wouldn’t argue with someone if they disagreed with me. See more over at Mike’s place. [SportsDayDFW]

Stars Things

The Texas Stars begin their playoff run tomorrow night:

The @TexasStars had a strong finish to secure home-ice advantage in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Game 1 is on Thursday. https://t.co/DF9mHyJ8Ra — Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 17, 2018

Here are some words from the squad at their media day:

Texas Stars Media Day: Getting Out of Round 1, Ontario's Physicality, Starting Goalies https://t.co/mUg5mdEssB #txstars pic.twitter.com/L0l10tjsAK — 100 Degree Hockey (@100degreehockey) April 17, 2018

Though we are doing the best coaching candidate breakdown here at DBD, Sean Shapiro has some thoughts as well:

Started our coaching candidate series today with Jim Montgomery. Video, tactics, resume, and more. Ideally everything you would need in the hypothetical world where you are the one interviewing candidates. https://t.co/rOHA6mothr — Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) April 17, 2018

League News

The Winnipeg Jets shut down the Parise-less Minnesota Wild 2-0 to take a 3-1 series lead. [NHL]

The Washington Capitals almost kept on Capitals-ing their way out of the playoffs again as their game went into double overtime. However, they scored a goal that could either be described as lucky or deserved — but definitely ugly — to give themselves their first win of the series in Game 3. [NHL]

Finally, the Las Vegas Golden Knights swept the Los Angeles Kings to move onto the second round of the playoffs. Marc-Andre Fleury posted a fairly decent .977 SV% for the series. [NHL]

I wonder if it’s because they play on the West Coast, and so most media members don’t watch at least half of their games?:

We may have underestimated the Sharks’ potential as Stanley Cup contenders, writes @THNJaredClinton https://t.co/pOZwHRcvgy pic.twitter.com/qMxIReY4eX — The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) April 17, 2018

Patric Hornqvist will miss this evening’s tilt for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Philadelphia Flyers:

Hornqvist is out for Game 4. Malkin and Kessel have been reunited... And Crosby is inching closer to yet another Lemieux record.



3 things: https://t.co/HNOF1Cyop8 — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 17, 2018

Terrible news for the Wild:

Zach Parise will miss to six to eight weeks with a broken sternum. It happened on the last or second to last shift of Game 3.



Huge blow, had goals in each of the three games of series. Tyler Ennis is in — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 17, 2018

Down Goes Brown power-ranked the playoff teams from who is facing the least playoff pressure to who is facing the most. You’ll never guess who #1 is:

From earlier: Everyone wants to win, but who *needs* to win? Checking in with the 2018 playoff pressure index. https://t.co/SxgW07c2uG pic.twitter.com/oZUgHJWf7P — Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) April 17, 2018

The Calgary Flames — wait for it — fired three coaches yesterday, most notably former Stars’ bench boss Glen Gulutzan:

The #Flames have relieved Glen Gulutzan, Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard of their coaching duties. https://t.co/e11hRxsN0w — Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) April 17, 2018

No surprises here:

Vezina Finalists as voted by the GMs: Hellebuyck (WIN), Rinne (NASH), Vasilevskiy (TB). — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 17, 2018

It was Hot Take Tuesday over at the Denver Post yesterday:

Kiszla: Nathan MacKinnon and Avs expose Nashville as great pretenders in quest for Stanley Cup https://t.co/Dri77t15k3 — The Denver Post (@denverpost) April 17, 2018

I think Occam’s razor would just be to get rid of the delay-of-game penalty. It’s also pretty rich that Bruce Cassidy insinuates he would still be upset if the same kind of call went in the Boston Bruins’ favor:

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy says NHL officials can't be making penalty calls based on a hunch https://t.co/szwJ9XaogU pic.twitter.com/6PP36l9ML4 — Hockey Night in Canada (@hockeynight) April 17, 2018

Looks like Patrick Sharp may be thinking about his post-hockey career:

Patrick Sharp will be in studio serving as a guest analyst on NHL Live tonight & Weds on @NBCSN beginning at 6:30pm ET. — Sean Leahy (@Sean_Leahy) April 17, 2018

This is — interesting: