Well, the Dallas Stars 2024-25 regular season is in the books.

It was a successful one for Dallas, making the playoffs while finishing second in the Central Division and fifth overall in the NHL standings. The Stars will face the Colorado Avalanche in round one of the playoffs beginning on Saturday — a full series preview will be available here Friday.

But let’s also be honest here, all of those accolades are being heavily overshadowed right now.

Dallas finished the season on a seven-game winless streak (0-5-2), losing to five non-playoff teams and allowing a historic comeback at home against the Vancouver Canucks. The Stars have not looked like a Stanley Cup contender in quite some time, and the fan base is worried.

So, let’s go through what’s on my mind on this sunny Thursday in DFW.

Jason Robertson & Miro Heiskanen

Jason Robertson was injured in the ugly 5-1 loss against Nashville on Wednesday after taking a low hit from Justin Barron.

Robertson was not putting much weight on his right leg, took some time to stretch it on the Dallas bench, then went down the tunnel and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

Obviously, the Dallas faithful hoped Robertson was just being kept out for precaution because the game was meaningless. No reason to risk it ahead of Game 1 of the playoffs.

But then…

Now, Robertson wearing a brace could mean a lot of things. But it’s hard to believe any of those things are best-case scenarios resulting in the top-line forward being ready to go on Saturday night. Especially when you hear how Stars coach Pete DeBoer addressed it after the game.

“The idea of resting people down the stretch was to try to avoid injuries,” DeBoer said. “And unfortunately, we didn’t do that either with the [Jason] Robertson injury… so, tough night… We’ll have to wait until we get back and see exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Yikes.

Miro Heiskanen has been ruled out for Game 1, but his status for the remainder of the series is up in the air. The team has repeatedly said they are hopeful to get him back in the first round. However, I have a hard time believing that is true, and think there is no shot the top defenseman returns before Game 6 or 7.

Tyler Seguin skated on his own for a few weeks, then with the team in non-contact form for another couple weeks before beginning to take contact and becoming a full participant. Heiskanen is coming off a serious knee injury and surgery and has yet to skate with the team once. He has been skating on his own for a week or two now.

With all that, it is really hard for me to trust that Heiskanen is going to go from skating on his own to playing an intense Stanley Cup Playoff game against the Avalanche in 10-12 days. The Stars will likely play Saturday, Monday, then either Wednesday/Thursday and Friday/Saturday in Denver for Games 3 & 4.

Maybe there is a two-day break in there somewhere, but even with that, we are looking at Games 5-7 starting the week of April 28 and the series wrapping up no later than May 3. 16 days from now. Not a lot of window for a player to get up to speed and jump in the lineup in a series that is already well underway between two teams who know each other very well.

And even if he does, will he really be the Miro Heiskanen we remember right away?

You also have to think about the future a little bit here. Heiskanen is your franchise defenseman. You cannot risk him hurting his future whatsoever. If he is not fully ready to play, he should not play. Simple as that.

Tyler Seguin

Alright, let’s get at least a little positivity in here, eh?

Tyler Seguin returned Wednesday for the first time since undergoing hip surgery in December. It was important to Dallas to get him in a regular-season game rather than wait for the playoffs to start. The Stars sent down Lian Bichsel and Alexander Petrovic to make room in the salary cap, and those two will now rejoin the team for the playoff run.

Seguin took all of 16 seconds to make an impact on the game, and of course, it came playing on a line with his good buddies Mason Marchment (who returned to wearing a normal visor for the first time since his facial injury) and Matt Duchene. This was the best line in hockey for long stretches over the past two seasons, and I loved seeing it put back together and clicking immediately.

Seguin was also probably the best player for Dallas in the game.

The 33-year-old played 14:48, went 71.4 percent on faceoffs, got nearly three minutes of power-play time with Robertson out, and was the only Stars skater who finished with a plus rating (plus-1). Most importantly, he had jump in his legs, energy, and didn’t look to be favoring anything while skating or back on the bench.

It will be very important to see how he feels Thursday and Friday, as the soreness after skating was the biggest concern during his recovery. But Seguin certainly seemed to feel good after the game.

“I would call it a relief for sure,” Seguin said about feeling good physically in the game. “No matter what, when you’re coming back from anything, there’s a question mark… so yeah, I’ll take it and run… Obviously not a playoff game. I’m not happy, obviously, because of the game, but also happy knowing I’ve got stuff to build on and I’m going to be able to be a part of this starting Saturday.”

Good signs, and a massive relief and boost to have No. 91 back.

Let’s talk about the on-ice play quickly

I don’t want to harp on the on-ice issues too much because, well, we and everyone else have for a month now. But it still needs to be addressed.

This team is in a tough way right now.

Dallas has seen all of its numbers fall in the wrong direction; they are consistently being outplayed for large portions or entire games, their biggest strengths (penalty kill, power play, elite scorers, goaltending) have drifted off, and their team-identity structured defending has been leaking and exposed.

Is that too harsh? It sounds harsh, but none of it isn’t true, either.

I am not going to say I fully believe the Stars will flip the switch and look like Cup contenders in Game 1… especially knowing they have lost their last seven playoff Game 1s dating back to just after the 2020 bubble. It’s hard to flip a switch in general. But when you have a laundry list of problems, many of which are foundational issues that the team is supposed to excel in, it’s even more challenging.

Fundamental issues or strengths?

What worries me most is the intensity and drive I am seeing.

The Stars have always been more of a quiet team. They don’t run around and hit — they are usually near the bottom of the league in hits — their captain, Jamie Benn, is a show it, not say it type of captain most of the time, and they have had a quiet swagger for a long time.

That can all be good. It has kept the team even-keeled at times and helps them not ride the waves of emotions that come with an 82-game season.

But it can also be bad.

When your team is struggling, completely blowing coverage, not focused, and being run out of arenas by teams near the bottom of the standings, you sometimes need someone to react in a loud and likely vulgar way. That can be a leader, a coach, a GM, really doesn’t matter. But without the ‘Roy Kent’ freakouts once in a while, it can be hard to get the room’s attention enough to have them understand the severity of the situation.

This situation is severe.

If Dallas plays anything like they have for the past two weeks and even month, they will get trampled by Colorado. That’s no secret. And I worry sometimes that the calm coaching style of DeBoer, leadership style of Benn, and fundamentals of this organization can combine to underwhelmingly react and adapt when needed.

What I don’t want to see is this team knocked out in the first round, talking about things they should have done differently. Saying they should have adjusted more, they needed to stop the bleeding earlier, things like that. That would honestly break my heart because it has felt clear to the public that there is something wrong for quite a while.

But on the flip side, and this is something I have said for weeks now… if this club comes out and beats Colorado and goes on a deep playoff run, I will be the first to praise the calmness and understanding of the staff and dressing room. They are the ones with all the experience being paid millions of dollars. Maybe they know and believe something we don’t. I want to make that very clear.

Or maybe they don’t.

But for now, that is where my hope will lie because negativity is not a good color on me. Plus, whether it’s four or 28 games for Dallas, I want to enjoy every moment of the ride that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Bring on game 83!