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The Dallas Stars made another good run, but fell short in a 6-3 Game 5 loss against the Edmonton Oilers at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
That was… not good
I mean, what else can I say that you haven’t already seen, read, or said?
This was pretty much the worst 10-15 minutes I’ve seen Dallas play all season and in quite a long time.
A careless Mavrik Bourque high-sticking penalty and out-of-sorts penalty kill allowed Edmonton to go up 1-0 almost immediately. Then Mattias Janmark quickly made it 2-0, and after a Dallas timeout, Stars coach Pete DeBoer made a shocking move, replacing Jake Oettinger with Casey DeSmith.
To be clear, the goals and score were not on Oettinger. This was a Hail Mary move from DeBoer to change something before this game got completely away from his group.
It’s the first time DeSmith has played since coming into the third period of the Game 4 blowout in Colorado. He was welcomed with sloppy defending around the crease and a Jeff Skinner rebound goal that put the Oilers up 3-0. The AAC groaned and fell silent. All hope felt lost, and it looked like the Stars would ride off into the offseason without putting up much of a fight.
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But to give Dallas credit.. they woke up after that third goal. The anger and frustration were obvious, they got meaner and more aggressive, and Jason Robertson made it 3-1 with a beautiful wrist shot past the blocker of Stuart Skinner. I am choosing to only show the Stars goal here because I know none of you need to watch the depressing part of that period again.
The question now is: Where was that three games ago? Is it too little, too late? We’ll see.
Fun for a bit, but the same story in the end
The Stars continued to push hard in the second period. Outside of a couple good saves by DeSmith, the Stars controlled almost the entire period.
Speaking of DeSmith saves…
But it still felt frustrating.
Despite having loads of offensive zone time, the Stars were still not getting shots through to Skinner. They were stuck on seven shots for ages. Then Bourque made up for his early penalty with an excellent shift ending with a drawn interference penalty on Mattias Ekholm.
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And Roope Hintz sent the AAC into a frenzy with a tic-tac-toe power-play goal… when’s the last time we saw one of those???
But unfortunately, the story remained the same in the end. Dallas could not get shots on net, they bobbled pucks, and eventually, a blocked shot bounced right to the best player in the world on a breakaway. Connor McDavid in all alone… we know how that turns out. Credit to Hintz for his hustle, but there’s not much you can do against this guy in that situation.
McDavid making it 4-2 really hurt. Dallas is not out of this game, but going into the final 20 down 3-2 with all the momentum feels a lot better than down two goals with the season on the line.
20 minutes to save it and force a Game 6 in Edmonton. Let’s see.
The season has come to an end
We will talk and write a lot about the season and its eventual end in the coming days.
But I want to point out a few things here.
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- I do not agree with the decision to pull Oettinger when DeBoer did. I do not agree with the way he did it. I do not agree with him putting the blame on Oettinger and talking about his record (1-6) in the last seven games against Edmonton. I think Oettinger — your franchise goalie — has earned the right and deserved the chance to save this team’s season.
- DeBoer finally said that the losing streak and struggles at the end of the regular season bled into the playoffs. He said it didn’t sit well, and he will need to figure out what and why.
- Throughout this series and even in the first two rounds, Dallas seemed never to get a bounce. Meanwhile, they had many go against them. Could be deserved, but they either didn’t get bounces or, when they did finally break through, something went against them the other way. This goal by Evander Kane tonight is a perfect example.
5. I believe the Stars ran out of gas. If you want to read more about that, here’s my article from this afternoon.
Final note: What an amazing first year here at DLLS. All of you fans and DieHards not only made this possible, but made it so dang fun. Thank you for all of your support, chats, conversations at the rink, bracelets, and so much more. I can’t wait to run it back next season.
Quotable
Stars coach Pete DeBoer
“There’s no doubt the two best teams are playing for the Cup.”
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