DENVER (yup, you read that right) — The Dallas Stars scoring struggles continued in a 6-1 Game 3 loss against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Sunday.

Roope Hintz drama

Roope Hintz was ruled out for Game 3. But that was far from the only story… so let’s lay it all out here.

Hintz got into a battle with Darnell Nurse in front of the Edmonton net in the third period of Game 2. Hintz delivered a couple of cross checks, and then Nurse came down with a slash near the top of the skate of Hintz.

It didn’t look like much until Hintz threw his head back in pain and remained down on the ice. Hintz was helped off and down the tunnel… he did not return to the game.

Later that night, Hintz was spotted leaving American Airlines Center in a walking boot. After some drama, he flew with the team to Edmonton and arrived at the rink without a boot for Game 3.

Hintz began warmup but left the ice pretty quickly after a long conversation with the training staff. He was then ruled out just before puck drop.

All of this has caused a ton of drama and hate from both fan bases. Which is always both interesting and irritating. Just be nice, ya know?

I know I said it already, but I don’t think it is nearly as big of a deal as it is being made into.

Yes, it was a penalty on Nurse. Yes, it was dirty. But I don’t see it on the same level as Alex Pietrangelo’s chop to Leon Draisaitl two years ago, and I believe it was rightfully called only a minor penalty.

Will Dallas respond? As Craig Ludwig says, it is best to respond not to the player who threw the hit or slash on your teammate. It makes more of an impact and statement to actually go after the best players on the other team.. (if you are going to run around and hit/slash our top guys, we will do the same). We know Luds, Derian Hatcher, Jamie Benn, and others have proven that. I’d love to see it.

Dallas is not a super physical team. They haven’t been for quite a while. But I am really excited to see how/if they respond to losing their top center for Game 3.

Update: They really didn’t. Alexander Petrovic did do this, though:

Bad luck and a big bite

Well, sometimes missed calls don’t affect the game much. Sometimes they do.

This afternoon, officials in Edmonton incorrectly called this play from Brett Kulak. It was ruled a deflected puck and no penalty, which was wrong.

Edmonton scored 10 seconds later and added another goal to make it 2-0 36 seconds after that. So yeah, that missed call mattered a whole bunch.

Of course, the Stars needed to defend a heck of a lot better on both goals, especially the second from Connor McDavid on a 3-on-1 rush with only Cody Ceci back to help Jake Oettinger. But add to this another incorrect call at the end of the period — this one going in the Stars favor when the officials believed Mikko Rantanen was high sticked by Kaspari Kapanen (it was Rantanen’s stick that hit himself in the face on the play) — and it’s a tough look for officials in the first 20 minutes.

Human error is a real thing, but not seeing or incorrectly seeing two plays in a single period of a Western Conference Final swing game is not ideal.

Just ask Stars coach Pete DeBoer.

Dallas HAS to stop the bleeding and answer right now. They cannot let Edmonton open this up anymore and run away with the game. The problem is that the Stars really haven’t controlled play outside of the wild third-period comeback in Game 1.

The sample size is growing, and right now it is saying that Dallas is a bit overmatched by Edmonton in this series. Time to change the narrative.

Full credit to Dallas for responding in the second period. The Stars controlled most of the play, outshot Edmonton 21-8, killed two penalties, and cut the deficit in half while ending their road scoreless streak at 178 minutes. It really was much better, and a lot to build on.

Problem is… McDavid decided he wasn’t done and put the Oilers back up two with a late goal.

Yuck

The third period was going to tell us something about this series. If Dallas pushed and made Edmonton sweat — even in a loss — there could be some confidence moving forward.

If they allowed three more goals and were embarrassed in the final 20 minutes, it would be very hard to feel good about their chances to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

Unfortunately, the second option became a reality.

I am not saying the Stars are out of this series, far from it. But being outscored 9-1 over two games and 12-2 outside of their five-goal third period in Game 1 is concerning.

The Oilers played far from their best game this afternoon at home. Yet they were able to weather a second-period push from Dallas on their way to a 6-1 win. That’s tough to swallow.

The Stars did get a goal from Jason Robertson, his first of the playoffs after missing the first round with a knee injury. So that’s good.

But they need more.

They need more from Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment, Thomas Harley, Mikko Rantanen (remember when he was the best player in the postseason?), and even Jake Oettinger, who has been excellent in the playoffs but not near his best in the past two games.

The time is now. Dallas cannot go down 3-1 in this series. No more runway left.