- 3 days ago
Robert Tiffin joined The K&C Masterpiece to break down the latest Stars storylines. Tiffin discussed Dallas’ roster strategy, 5-on-5 offensive concerns, the early-season schedule, and more.
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00:00right now it's time for breakfast at tiffin's with our dallas stars insider and man who i'm
00:05not even sure has ever seen the movie breakfast at tiffany's it is robert tiffin good morning sir
00:13good morning uh and i'll have you know that of course i've seen that movie i have opinions about
00:20it uh but yeah of course i've seen it i've heard all the jokes so i had to see it
00:24at least once
00:24defend myself yeah what did you think about mickey rooney's performance in that movie
00:29yeah that's where everyone likes to go isn't it uh there's really no way around that it's not great
00:34not super great uh also though i will just say the movie as a whole i got to the end
00:39of it was kind
00:40of like what's the what's the message here what's even a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff
00:45and not very much actually ends up happening so for me it's more it's a vibes movie that's how i
00:51feel
00:52about it more vibes movie all right we will talk about vibes and matt duchene already being doubtful
00:58and all of that good stuff but i want to start with a negative based question on paper it certainly
01:05doesn't seem like this team got any better does it it sure doesn't does it no they on paper they
01:13absolutely didn't and you could probably even make the argument that you know that that they took a
01:18small step back at least compared to where they were on paper at the start of last year um
01:23a lot happened obviously uh tyler sagan is starting the year healthy now he started last
01:28year healthy too until uh gavrikov fell in his knee in new york but um the hope will be that
01:34last year
01:35maverick bork was starting further down the lineup right he was i think on the third or fourth line
01:38justin scovian started the year in the fourth line um so this year is theory if sagan is back up
01:45to
01:45that second line spot if riskovian holds down that spot with johnson arantan then you break even and
01:52then gulson will say i'm sure that the kind of changes they're making to their system can help
01:56them kind of squeeze more juice from the orange this year so that'll be the hope but yeah there's
02:00really no way around the fact that they haven't gotten better on paper and also jason robertson's
02:05situation is kind of looming over everything too so yeah it's an interesting time right now
02:09i was i was looking yesterday robert at something you that gulson said about going 11-7 more often
02:17can you kind of explain how that like how that works and how it affects the roster
02:23yeah um and this all kind of changed this morning um i was listening to jim nill actually early this
02:28morning uh with sean and rj on on you guys and uh he was talking a little bit about that
02:34too
02:34but then the stars made some roster moves almost right after that phone call so maybe
02:38maybe they changed his mind i don't know uh but but they put duchene on lpir so now they have
02:43room
02:43to call up blackwell with uru again okay so they might not need to go 11-7 but to answer
02:48your
02:49question briefly before because they only had space to carry one extra roster player they had to choose
02:56whether to have one extra defenseman or one extra forward and they opted at least you know a couple
03:01days ago when you had to submit opening season rosters they opted for the one extra defenseman
03:05because that basically gave them the flexibility where if a defenseman got hurt you know they start
03:10the season playing back-to-back games right so if a defenseman gets hurt in one game or morning skate
03:14the day of get sick or something then boom you've got an extra defense and that's fine and if a
03:19forward
03:19gets hurt then you can just do something they have done in the past and just play with 11 forwards
03:25instead of the full 12 add that extra defenseman in and then you can either rotate them in as an
03:30extra defenseman and get some other guys some rest or you can even do a little bit what they did
03:34at
03:34practice yesterday and have kyle capo bianco skating as a forward here and there so having one if you
03:40can only have one extra roster player because of the salary gap which is their situation until this
03:44morning having what that player be a defenseman does give you a few more options whereas if that extra
03:49player is a forward and you lose a defenseman you can't really move a forward to defense doesn't
03:54they coaches usually would never ever do that because it's just too much responsibility being
03:59heaped on us you know irresponsible goal hungry folks yeah yeah those guys they have one focus
04:04all the time i the the other thing too like i appreciate that that right there kevin is why we
04:09have robert tiffin stars thoughts.com that dude can break it down in a way that makes it you know
04:14simple for a mind like me uh how important was it to bring to have the the contract with casey
04:20to smith
04:21and have him and what is that rotation going to you feel is going to look like this year
04:27yeah the upsides of it are that you know what you have dismissed for the past two years and
04:32especially last year he's outstanding uh by by all kind of measurements he outperformed jake
04:39ottinger last year with the caveat of course that he played fewer games so as we all know in anything
04:44in sports you know you can't necessarily just scale up someone's performance in a smaller role and say
04:50oh just give him more snaps or give him more innings or give him more more ice time or whatever
04:54and
04:54expect that to hold um but the good news is they have jake ottinger also signed for seven more years
04:59so they don't need to do that this basically gives him certainty a known quantity everyone loves
05:03casey to smith in that room they really do have seen it um and heard it too all the coaches
05:08and then
05:09we'll tell you that uh and his performance has been good now the risk of that is casey to smith
05:15is 35 years old and he has one more year left in his contract so these two years this two
05:19-year
05:19extension he just signed starts the next season so we all know that father time has a pretty good
05:25record so if if this miss does start to dip a little bit this year well too bad you've already
05:31lost him up in the next two years so that's kind of your plan and again certainty is a good
05:37thing we all
05:38we all don't like having you know chores like looming over us we want to get those boxes checked
05:43so this feels a little bit like jim nill doing that and just saying you know what we know this
05:47guy who this guy is and he's been you know healthy knock on wood and all that sort of stuff
05:52so
05:52if it all holds true this gives us a very tenable plan for this year and the next two years
05:58um and
06:00then if a you know decline does start to happen well they don't have remy poirier anymore because they
06:04lost him to waivers so then they'd probably have to go back out in the market by that point but
06:08you know
06:08what they're in win now mode so they're more worried about having to play instead now rather than you
06:12know two three four years down the road well let's talk about winning now as well as two three
06:18four seven years down the road how oh how do the dallas stars and the player himself get back to
06:25the
06:252024-25 levels of thomas harley yeah well it appears the one way they're going to try to do that
06:33is by
06:34starting the season with thomas harley playing next to merrill hastening which he didn't do a lot of last
06:39year he did it some both situationally if the stars are trailing late you know throw them together
06:44kind of that supercharged offensive pairing um but mostly thomas harley been playing more with
06:49nil blundquist last year and they they were pretty good pairing but this appears to kind of be
06:55you know goldson has said they're looking at getting more offense five on five that obviously
07:00was big talking points that didn't get the goals against minnesota five on five and as much as you
07:04know some of the scoring chances and stuff will still tell you they were actually pretty decent in that
07:08series the bottom line is they didn't score when they needed to and that's been the case in some
07:12other big playoff series uh in their last few years too so it's thomas harley next to merrill hastening
07:18if that kind of mirrors what minnesota had with brock faber and quinn hughes as stars fans unfortunately
07:24got to see close up you know that pairing was just absolutely like that against dallas and they did
07:31maybe maybe the best e-pair in the nhl or one of um around the league so it's my feeling
07:38it's a
07:38the stars are going to try to do that but you know what we know hastening lindell is a really
07:43strong safe pairing that can do a lot of good things but if harley hastening can really gel that
07:49could be one of the best defensive pairing in the entire nhl and you know top three even really i
07:54think that's really it's possible because harley's ceiling is that high you just have to show he can
07:58reach it and the physicality from the defensive uh side where are we going to get that from
08:04well in that last preseason game thomas harley dropped the gloves and laid a few hits let's go
08:09so so maybe that's the answer um you know goldson last year it's funny around this time we were all
08:16talking about the one degree more you know that extra one percent uh the term kind of changed here
08:21and there but this year it's less about the physicality because that kind of seems to be
08:25something that is now kind of baked in and again as we saw in that game that justin briscovian
08:30for goodness sake stepped up on michael mccarron who is you know six or seven inches uh taller than
08:36him and i think has 30 pounds on him at least i asked actually riscovian yesterday i said what's
08:40going through your mind when you know they both he and felino were going after jamie ben and riscovian
08:45just steps up grabs one of the guys it happens to be this fulking guy who's almost as big as
08:50like
08:50a lean bishel and riscovian says to be honest like i wasn't thinking anything like my mind was just
08:54completely blank so maybe that was some self-preservation or something that the brain does when it
08:58realizes you're in that much peril but uh yeah they'll they'll have to stop to find it from
09:03somewhere and if that's a little bit from tom mccarley and a lot from people like lean bishel
09:07and then grit from justin briscovian and others then you know they'll have to hope it's a thing by
09:12committee because they're not necessarily built the same way minnesota is with a line of line of kind
09:16of guys who can do it up like that maybe i miss his explanation about this but i know during
09:21the
09:21offseason uh our head coach talked about like they had analyzed the offensive efficiency even going
09:29back to all the western conference runs and found out that they had like a subpar offensive level
09:35did you did you did we ever get like more insight into why that was or how they analyze that
09:41or what
09:41they're going to do about it well i can tell you that if you go back to that famous mico
09:48randon moment
09:48in game seven against colorado uh in pete divorce last year here that series if you look at it as
09:56awesome as a moment as it was the stars had absolutely no business winning that series they
10:01really didn't if you look at any of the numbers underneath i'll kind of i'll tell you if you play
10:05that same series 10 times the stars probably win it maybe two out of those 10 times uh they not
10:11only
10:12did they have that miraculous third period hat trick from mico randon which by the way more goals
10:16more playoff goals in that one period than marty natchez has had in his whole uh two-year abs career
10:21so far always fun to throw out to your abs fans out there um who would like to talk about
10:25that trade
10:26um but they also needed overtime goals from colin blackwell and tyler sagan in that series too to
10:33just barely scrape it out so i i really do think that in a way we would have had been
10:39having this
10:39conversation a year earlier if mico randon hadn't put on the tape and done what he did because the
10:46offensive numbers were just as bad in that series then in winnipeg in that second series two years
10:50ago uh connor hellebuck we all know his struggles on the road uh thomas harley of course had the
10:56game winner in overtime but then they ran up against edmonton and the five-on-five offense
11:00pretty much disappeared altogether uh jake on drew the story but the stars offense was pretty much
11:06jason robertson and then some cameos in game one from tyler sagan and a couple other folks so
11:10it has been an issue for a few years now um especially the last two years i would say
11:16so that their data is sound um from all the kind of conversations i've had this is something that
11:22everyone has kind of gotten on board with from from players all the way up to management and
11:26you know the proof will be in the pudding right they play tomorrow night so they need to start
11:30proving that this isn't just them saying they're trying to marry good defense with offense they
11:34don't want to just crank it back up to lindy rough days and have everyone be just blowing the
11:38zone all the time but they are going to be putting the foot on the gas a little bit more
11:42and with the finishing ability they have in theory that should result in a lot more goals so we'll see
11:47if they can do it by the way do you kind of feel like the nhl schedule makers right out
11:51the gate gave
11:52the stars a middle finger because the season starts on tuesday they don't play until friday and then
11:58start the season with a back-to-back yeah three and four two they're back-to-back then sunday then
12:04then a home game i think against san jose after that so yeah part of it's 84 games this year
12:09there's
12:09two more games in the schedule so you gotta you gotta put those somewhere that's also the price
12:13of a shortened preseason um yeah i personally i just think the schedule the nhl schedule kind of
12:19is one of the workier ones of any league when you really look at it i kind of one thing
12:23i do like
12:24about this year's schedule is they have i think two or three sets where they play two games against
12:29the same team in the same city and then i think they have a couple home at homes against colorado
12:33as well so we all know in baseball how much it could be as a you know series three game
12:38or four
12:38game series goes on if you know maybe you get some some bad blood in game one or two how
12:43that can kind
12:44of build and and culminate so maybe we'll see some of that this year but yeah the stars definitely don't
12:49have an easy start uh they kind of have to make up you know the toronto maple leafs have already
12:53played two games and and the dallas stars played zero so they the standings are going to be weird
12:59to start the year because you'll have to kind of really look at you know points for games played
13:03as opposed to overall because as always they're just not going to be synced up but yeah i don't
13:08think schedule makers say dallas more than anyone else i guess i'll put it that way would you like to
13:13finish this interview with a question about the stars projection for the season or a question
13:18about a food item that the new york islanders are going to serve this year
13:24oh man projections it's a food item absolutely like yes yes i i don't have a crystal ball we
13:30can talk about it we'll talk all season i'm sure but give me the food item i'm hungry all right
13:35so this is for you and cory the new york islanders have unveiled their nerds gummy cluster brie grilled
13:44cheese sandwich i love nerds gummy clusters dude they're awesome okay but what do you see does too
13:49what do you think about the nerds gummy cluster integrated into the grilled cheese with brie
13:54sandwich for both of you gentlemen i'll let robert go first okay so you got nerds gummy clusters i
14:01assume those are not grilled like they put them in after or yeah probably so because you know what
14:06that's a fascinating question because the cheese looks melted with the clusters in there so i don't know
14:12about that i don't think i want to know what would happen to all of the chemicals and gummy clusters
14:18if you tried to grill them no i don't think it would be terribly appetizing because they are by
14:23themselves delicious they all know this that's true uh and brie is delicious now i actually don't know
14:29that i've ever had a grilled brie a brie grilled cheese i have great yeah it's already so soft i've
14:35made a
14:35smoked brie before uh smoked brie is really good but i've never done it with a grilled cheese wise
14:41but i know it tastes fantastic with like an apricot uh marmalade or jelly or jam on top so
14:47sweets with brie is good to me this is what i was going to say the savory sweet thing you
14:53know you
14:53get some of that kind of salty savoriness then you have the crunchy you know the crunchy carbs from
14:59from the crust and the bread in theory this could work right we all love a good uh you know
15:03if you get
15:03like a really good burger that has some of that jam on it or something you can actually really all
15:07all work together we all know you know the elvis hot dog sort of thing there is a way where
15:11you can
15:11marry sugar and savory this is just kind of cranking that up to 11 but then again we live in
15:17texas
15:17where the rangel sprout ballpark has you know that hot dog that's like 10 feet long so you know maybe
15:22by comparison it's not actually that crazy i'd try it i'd try it i'm in that i would definitely try
15:27it
15:27all right well delivered yeah i'll make sure to look up when the stars go on the road against the
15:31islanders and uh see if we can flow you some money for that sandwich now we're talking this is the
15:37collaboration i've been looking for alton brown eat your heart out i feel like we owe it to you
15:41all right stars thoughts dot com the sub stack for robert tiffin thank you as always very much
15:48good sir you bet guys have a good one stay dry
15:52you bet guys have a good one stay dry
15:52apart right right right right right right right right right right right right right right half