Before the first eight games of the Stars season, leading into their 5-2 dismantling of the Ducks on Thursday night, Esa Lindell turned to his left in the Dallas dressing room and talked to Miro Heiskanen. Lindell's stall neighbors the baby-faced rookie defenseman and 19-year-old Finnish phenom who was the franchise's first round pick last season.
Each night, Lindell told Heiskanen his first career goal was going to come that evening. In Dallas and Ottawa and New Jersey and Dallas, he was wrong eight times. As Heiskanen piled up the minutes and the shots and the chances, none found the back of the net.