DALLAS _ The Stars need Jamie Benn.
Benn is the Stars captain, their highest paid player and one of their best offensive threats. He's the bruiser, the agitator, the franchise cornerstone and a source of frustration all wrapped into one 6-foot-2, 205-pound package. He's the player who absorbs the brunt of criticism when the losses pile and the playoffs pass by without Dallas. He's a proven goal-scorer under contract for six more seasons after this one.
For much of this season _ one that included a few trying goal-scoring droughts and public criticism from Stars CEO Jim Lites _ Benn hasn't been the All-Star he was once. But during the Stars' 5-2 win over St. Louis on Thursday night, Benn was.
Benn scored two goals to lead the Stars past the streaking Blues, snapping a stretch in which he scored just one goal in 14 games. Radek Faksa and Alexander Radulov also scored for Dallas, which ended the Blues' 11-game win streak. Anton Khudobin made 43 saves in his seventh straight start, and Tyler Seguin added an empty-net goal.
Benn might be the Stars' most important player in the last six weeks of the season. Tyler Seguin has resumed scoring goals since the calendar flipped to 2019. Miro Heiskanen, John Klingberg and Esa Lindell have chipped in goals from the back end. And Khudobin and Ben Bishop have provided the strong goaltending to make it stand up.
At times, Benn has coughed up the puck at inopportune times. The errors caused Lites to compare his play in the neutral zone to youth hockey. He's frustrated fans with poor penalties.
Through it all, though, Benn's goal-scoring ability still remained. With the two goals on Thursday night, Benn reached the 20-goal mark for the ninth time in his 10-year Stars career. He now ranks third in 20-goal seasons in franchise history, behind Mike Modado (16 times) and Brian Bellows (10 times).
Benn's impact on games can easily be found in the win column. Including Thursday night, when Benn scores at least one goal, the Stars are 13-5-1. When he does not score, they are 16-20-4.
Earlier this season, Benn suffered through two separate seven-game goal droughts. His nine-game goalless streak ended with Thursday's pair. To find Benn's game, though, it's not all about goals, even if that's the reason he carries a team-high $9.5 million cap hit.
Stars coach Jim Montgomery has talked about how when Benn is playing well, he's stopping on pucks and doing the little things in the offensive zone like getting on the right side of pucks.
On Thursday night, both of his goals came in the dirty areas around the crease. On the first, he drove the net and finished a masterful feed from Heiskanen. On the second, he tipped home a Lindell point shot. It was the Benn the Stars need.
