Dallas Stars Never Returned To Form After Game Seven Loss

The Dallas Stars have not been their regular selves this season and have taken a severe drop. Game seven of the Western Conference semifinals may be to blame.

Whether you’re six or 60, you’ve probably heard the song “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s the song at the end of Night At The Museum as well as in a variety of other movies and TV shows. Overall, it’s a timeless classic.

The song starts off with the verse, “Do you remember the 21st night of September?” and goes on to talk about all of the wonderful things that happened that night.

As I was listening to the song the other day, I thought about changing up the lyrics a little bit. Instead of 21st night of September, I was focused on the 11th night of May. Sure the syllables don’t necessarily match the tune, but it’s a valid question nonetheless: do you remember May 11, 2016?

Instead of wonderful and majestic things happening, it was a time of peril and depression for the Dallas Stars and their fans. That was the night that the Stars suffered a 6-1 beating on home ice in a crucial game seven setting against the St. Louis Blues. The loss officially knocked Dallas out of the playoff race and sent them into the offseason.

Dallas Stars

Despair and ruin. These are probably the strongest feelings that reverberate from that night for the typical Stars fan.

On that night, the Stars’ world turned upside down. They  had built up so much hope and promise over the course of the regular season that ended in winning the Central Division title and obtaining the first overall seed in the Western Conference.

It finally looked like it might be the year. The 2015-16 season rode closely on the coattails of a five-year playoff drought which had lasted from 2009-2014. No one had expected the Dallas Stars to be as powerful as they were, and this power looked as though it could go unmatched.

But then they met up with the Blues in the second round. Through a furious goaltending battle and defensive efforts, St. Louis scavenged four wins off of Dallas and left them hanging in a game seven that everyone would like to forget. So close yet so far at another step towards the Stanley Cup.

The reason I brought it up was in regards to answering the lingering question that has consumed the Dallas Stars’ fan base for the entire 2016-17 season.

What happened to the Dallas Stars and why did it happen?

It’s obvious that the Stars have yet to check in this year. At a record of 28-33-10, they are quickly moving towards ending the second worst season in Dallas Stars franchise history and enduring yet another early offseason.

More from Blackout Dallas

• Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
• Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
• Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
• Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
• Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs

But why did it happen? Last season, the Stars won 50 games and broke all sorts of records along the way. In the offseason, they did not lose any critical pieces (besides Alex Goligoski), but replaced him with veteran Dan Hamhuis. To some, Dallas actually grew more powerful over the 2016 offseason. So why did they drop?

The main excuse that people like to use is the mass number of injuries at the beginning of the season. But that excuse really only carried the Stars to late December or so. Since then, they have only been missing two or three players at a time, which every team deals with at one point or another.

If there’s anything that threw the Stars off the rails, it was probably game seven.

Put yourself in a player’s shoes (skates) for a minute and remember back to the Western Conference semifinals last year. The Stars had dug into the fight and come back from a 3-2 series deficit to tie it up. Things were intense. Dallas had home-ice advantage for game seven, a sold out crowd to cheer them on, and a chance to go back to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in almost a decade.

And then it all went downhill. Think about having to recover from a humiliating loss like that. It can’t be easy. Those kinds of losses stick to you and can be hard to shake, especially for a young team like the Stars. That was the first time that players like Jamie Benn, Cody Eakin, Antoine Roussel, Radek Faksa, and John Klingberg had to deal with a devastating playoff loss that carried a lot of weight.

They were right on the cusp with victory in sight. It can’t be easy to shake off.

Next: Thinking About What It Means To Be A Stars Fan

It’s probable that the loss is still somewhere in the recesses of their minds, and that sucks. Maybe this season was simply needed to purge that loss out of their minds entirely. There has been plenty of bad things that have happened to the Dallas Stars this year, but that last game of 2016 is probably what spurned it all.

The Stars take on the San Jose Sharks tonight at home as they look to close out this season with some sort of positivity. Let’s hope they find it.