Five of Dallas’ 24 shots on goal belonged to Jamie Benn. None of the Stars’ two goals did.
That split is worth keeping in view after Wednesday’s 2-0 preseason victory over Minnesota at American Airlines Center. Benn led Dallas in shots and finished without a point. Matthew Seminoff and Esa Lindell scored. Kyle Capobianco assisted on both. The scoring came from different places than the largest individual shot total.
Benn’s five shots accounted for more than a fifth of Dallas’ total. He played 18:20 and recorded one giveaway. The empty scoring line does not erase that offensive activity, but neither should the activity be dressed up as a scoring contribution. In a game that took 35:33 to produce its first goal, the distinction mattered.
The useful evaluation sits between declaring Benn ineffective because he had no points and awarding him an unofficial starring role because he had the most shots. Five shots tell us he put the puck on net repeatedly. They do not tell us the danger of each chance. Dallas needed somebody to get a puck past Jesper Wallstedt, who finished with 22 saves on 24 shots.
Seminoff did it first. His even-strength goal at 15:33 of the second period broke the scoreless tie, with Capobianco earning the assist. Seminoff finished with two shots in 11:13, a lighter workload and a smaller shot total than Benn’s. One of those two shots changed the game.
That is the awkward part of reading an offensive performance from one night. Volume is useful, and finishing is indispensable, but they do not always arrive in the same player’s line. Benn supplied the largest Dallas shot count. Seminoff supplied the first goal. Giving the latter its proper value does not require pretending the former was useless.
Dallas had four shots in the first period and 11 in the second. Seminoff’s finish was the only goal in either frame. Minnesota remained close because Wallstedt kept stopping the rest, leaving Dallas with a one-goal lead that lasted 15:06.
Lindell ended that stretch at 10:39 of the third, scoring at even strength with assists to Capobianco and Artem Shlaine. The goal gave Dallas a two-goal margin with 9:21 left. Like Seminoff, Lindell finished with two shots. The pair supplied four of Dallas’ shots and both goals.
Capobianco’s evening added another route into the result. He had two assists in 16:42, appearing in both scoring sequences without scoring himself. His four giveaways also belong in any assessment of the performance. He was productive, though the two points should not make the possessions handed back disappear.