Dallas Stars Learn Difficult Lesson About Progress
By Josh Clark
It was a tough night in the city of Dallas as the Stars dropped game five in overtime in front of their home crowd. This is all part of an ongoing lesson for them.
It was a beautiful effort, but such a hard and depressing fall.
The Dallas Stars welcomed the desperate Minnesota Wild to the American Airlines Center for game five on Friday night with hopes of closing out their Western Conference quarterfinals matchup. The Stars had defeated the Wild once on the road and twice at home already to obtain a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
The Wild could have hit the skies tonight, planning their offseason vacations while traveling back home for a long summer. But they had different plans, even though the Stars tried really hard to push them to the golf courses and beaches.
After the throwing of punches back and forth on the scoreboard and on the ice and the bloodying of noses, the Dallas Stars found themselves on the short end of the stick, losing 5-4 in overtime in front of a quickly deflated home crowd.
That sucks, huh? But just think about this: at least you’re not a Washington Capitals fan! The Capitals took 44 shots on net last night at home while trying to eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers from the playoffs. The Flyers took 11 shots throughout the entire game, and somehow escaped with a 2-0 victory that narrowed the series deficit to 3-2.
Unlike in that game, the Dallas Stars actually put up an impressive fight against the Wild. Yet, somehow, they were not rewarded for it.
The statistics from last night’s game are rather alarming. In the 64 minutes and 55 seconds that were played, the Dallas Stars gave one of their best efforts so far this postseason. They limped out of the gate in the first period and were obviously not ready for the level of desperation that the Minnesota Wild showed. The Wild, in a gritty effort, scored two quick goals in the first 5:16.
Johnny Oduya chopped the deficit in half as the first period neared its end, putting the Stars in a 2-1 hole going into the second period. After a scoreless second, the Stars and Wild lit up the scoreboard in the final 20 minutes of regulation. Jamie Benn scored to tie the game up, followed by a Nino Niederreiter lead-taker, which was negated by goals from Jason Spezza and Alex Goligoski. Mikko Koivu scored late to tie the game at 4-4.
What a rush of events it was. As the game got started in overtime, it was clear that the Dallas Stars had abandoned the ghosts in their closet from the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs that were centered on decomposing in overtime on home ice. Strangely enough, the Stars still lost, even after outshooting the Wild 41-24 and outhitting them 35-21. They also won the face-off advantage 57-43 percent.
Things were not pretty, but it is all a part of a painful but necessary process for the Stars to learn from. This process yields progress, but not until it has run its full cycle.
The Dallas Stars are a relatively new club in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, having qualified only one other time in the last eight years. That being said, their playoff “completeness,” so to speak, as a club is rather jumbled and strayed. As a complete unit, this is their first run through the playoffs together.
Right off the bat, that poses plenty of problems. If a team cannot gel together in the postseason, they may as well hold up the white flag. So far, the Dallas Stars have had little trouble in terms of molding together into a single, threatening force.
But they have picked up some lessons along the way throughout this playoff race so far. In game three, the Stars tried sitting on an early 2-0 lead on the road in Minnesota against a team hungry for a win. Needless to say, the Stars did not come out victorious in that game. Last night, the Stars may have learned their most significant lesson of the playoff run so far: nothing will be easy, and they have to accept that.
The Minnesota Wild played their most desperate brand of hockey last night that they have throughout this series. With their backs against the wall and lives on the line, they had nothing to lose and had no trouble in pushing the Stars to the limit.
Dallas did something that was very impressive though, and that was that they fought back into the game. Falling behind multiple different times in the game did not seem to bother them, and they simply pushed a little harder and more ferocious until they tallied the next goal.
In the end, it was depressing to see the Stars go out on a sour note. But losses are only meant to make a team stronger so they can cherish the wins even more and be sure to make each one memorable. So for all of the Dallas Stars’ faithful that are in a fit of rage because of this or that which “caused” the team to lose, cool your jets.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a process. Some teams, such as the Chicago Blackhawks, have endured the process and are now graduates of the postseason glam. The Stars, on the other hand, are still struggling along in learning the ropes. It is a gradual process, and Dallas has definitely learned some important lessons about the postseason so far.
The thing is, the Stars cannot experience true progress without first enduring heartbreak. It’s just not how the NHL postseason works. Progress cannot be made without sacrifice.
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It was a significant loss in the fact that it proved to them that advancing in a series will not be easy. The Wild will play just as desperate and passionate of a game as they did tonight on Sunday afternoon in their home barn. The Dallas Stars have an opportunity to cut Minnesota’s lifeline, and do it in front of a hateful opposing crowd.
This process will continue to work on the Stars throughout the rest of the postseason, tearing them down only to give them another opportunity to build themselves up from the rubble. It’s what every team has to go through, and the Stars just suffered through a lesson tonight. How much do you want to bet they don’t make the same mistake now that they are educated?
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The Dallas Stars play tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in St. Paul in game six against the Minnesota Wild. The process continues to work on them, and they continue to prove that they are ready for it to run its course so they can be playoff-weathered juggernauts. Will it give them a chance to make a positive impact tomorrow and officially move on to the next enemy? Who knows.