Seguin’s Four Shots Came With Six Minutes in the Box

Tyler Seguin’s return to the Dallas Stars lineup supplied both the encouraging detail and the irritating footnote. He put four shots on goal against Joel Hofer, matching Wyatt Johnston for the Dallas lead, and logged 14:55 in his first appearance since Dec. 2, 2025.

He also collected six penalty minutes as the Stars opened their regular season with a 4-0 loss to St. Louis at American Airlines Center.

That is a fair reading of Seguin’s night without turning one game into a medical forecast. The forward was involved enough to matter, yet twice went to the penalty box at moments when Dallas needed its attacking players available. Reacclimation, as it turns out, has a box score as well as a pulse.

Four shots were a real starting point

Seguin’s four shots on goal represented a meaningful share of Dallas’ 25. Johnston also had four in 21:49, so those two forwards supplied eight of the Stars’ shots on goal. That was the clearest evidence that Seguin was participating in the game rather than merely occupying a familiar spot in the lineup.

The rest of the forward group produced less volume. Mikko Rantanen had one shot in 22:10, while Jason Robertson finished with two in 19:39. Those numbers do not explain every offensive detail, and they certainly do not measure chance quality. They do show why Seguin and Johnston’s shared four-shot output mattered in a game where Hofer stopped everything that reached him.

Hofer deserves substantial credit for that. He stopped all 25 Dallas shots for his ninth NHL shutout. The Stars improved from seven shots in the opening period to 10 in the second, but the goaltender handled everything that reached him.

Dallas also won 36 of 58 faceoffs, a 62.1 percent rate, though clean restarts are opportunities rather than proof of sustained control. The scoreboard stayed untouched because the Stars did not turn enough of those beginnings into goals.

Seguin’s first costly interruption arrived at 10:21 of the second period. He was assessed a two-minute hooking penalty against Philip Broberg. St. Louis did not score on the ensuing power play, so the infraction should not be treated as a direct cause of a goal.

It still took Seguin off the ice during a period in which Dallas was trying to recover from its slow start. Coach Glen Gulutzan said afterward that the Stars found their legs in the second; Seguin’s penalty made him unavailable during part of that attempted response.

The Blues’ second goal soon made the deficit more difficult to repair. At 13:05, Dalibor Dvorsky scored after Jake Oettinger left the puck behind the net, Pius Suter got there first and Broberg fed Dvorsky as Oettinger tried to return to the crease. With Oettinger tangled with Roope Hintz on his way back, Dvorsky had an unguarded target.

That was the second goal charged to Oettinger, who stopped 20 of 22 shots before St. Louis added two late empty-net goals.

The high stick closed the book on a costly detail

Seguin’s second penalty came at 7:29 of the third period, when a high stick against Broberg produced a double-minor. By then, Dallas had already navigated an unusual sequence at the other end of the special-teams ledger. An apparent Adam Jiricek power-play goal at 1:06 was overturned after Dallas successfully challenged the play for offside.

The challenge kept the score at 2-0, giving Dallas another reprieve before Seguin’s high stick.

Dallas’ power play ultimately went 0-for-4, the same result as St. Louis’. Earlier in the third, Brandon Carlo received a kneeing major and game misconduct at the same time Thomas Harley was assessed a cross-checking minor. The sequence created four-on-four play first, followed by nearly three minutes of Dallas advantage.

Dallas could not convert that shortened opening before Seguin’s double-minor returned the advantage to St. Louis.

That context keeps the verdict on Seguin proportionate. He was not responsible for a 4-0 defeat in which Hofer was perfect and St. Louis executed the decisive sequences. But six penalty minutes from one returning forward are a meaningful cost even when neither infraction immediately produces a goal. They reduce his own time and force teammates to cover the missing minutes.

The night therefore lands somewhere between celebration and alarm. Seguin brought four shots on goal, then paid for a hook and a high stick with time in the penalty box. His return had tangible substance, but the hook and high stick left Dallas covering penalty-kill minutes when it needed a goal.

Seguin’s most useful next contribution would be to keep that four-shot involvement while spending more of the night available to attack.

Sources

NHL: official game report

NHL: official game report

NHL: Blues–Stars report