Dallas Stars Being Made Into Villains By Photo Angles

The Dallas Stars outdid the Wild for the fourth and final time yesterday in a heated battle and will move on to the second round. But it looks like they may not be receiving a lot of support.

No superhero is perfect. By that I mean that not every superhero is fully supported.

Each and every caped crusader has their oppositions. Batman has The Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor, Spiderman has The Green Goblin, you get the picture.

It is through these negative counterparts that the superhero is usually able to show his or her true self and prove that they can handle the enemy threat and restore order in society.

So far throughout this season, the Dallas Stars have played the role of superhero for their intrigued and mesmerized fan base. The Stars soared high above the clouds for the majority of the year, and finished on a strong note as the best team in the Western Conference. They claimed the top spot going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western bracket and squared up against the last place Minnesota Wild in the first round.

But, as it always is in the NHL, seeding means very little once the playoffs actually start rolling. Just yesterday, the Atlantic Division champion Florida Panthers were knocked out of postseason play by the New York Islanders, a wild card team.

This tradition held true, and the Dallas Stars did not receive a cakewalk through the first round. While many were expecting the Stars to take a 4-0 sweep or a 4-1 series win, the Stars endured everything they could from the Wild in what eventually turned into a six-game series. The first two games were a breeze for Dallas, until Minnesota cracked down on them in game three, followed by a strong Dallas effort in game four and a disappointing overtime loss in game five.

Going back to Minnesota with a 3-2 series lead but a one-game losing streak, the Dallas Stars had their backs to the wall just as much as Minnesota did. Game six turned out to be all that people expected it to, and then some. While the Stars were fighting a hostile crowd and trying to extinguish Minnesota, the Wild were trying to impress their home crowd and take momentum back to Dallas for a pivotal game seven.

What happened in game six could turn out to be one of the most entertaining, yet controversial moments of this entire 2016 playoff run. Going into the third period with a 4-0 lead thanks to goals from John Klingberg, Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, and Jamie Benn, the Stars looked destined to close out the series.

But the Wild were ready to strike back against a completely unsuspecting Dallas squad. The Wild scored two quick goals in 16 seconds to slit the Stars’ lead in half. A power play goal from Jared Spurgeon with 11:21 to go in the third made it a one-goal contest.

The Stars, who had been thrown onto their heels at that point, put together one meaningful and significant rush to score a fifth goal and regain the two-goal barrier. But less than five minutes later, Jason Pominville answered to make it a 5-4 game.

The final minute of play lasted somewhere between 8-10 minutes (or at least that is what it felt like). Things were definitely as heated as they could be. The Wild had emptied their net and put everything they had into their search for a tying goal. With about 35 seconds to go, Mikko Koivu made a pass to Nino Niederreiter on the doorstep of the Stars’ net.

What happened from there will be a play that will forever haunt the dreams of Minnesota Wild fans as they now hang up their jerseys for a longer than hoped for offseason. As Niederreiter tried to jam the puck home on a wrist shot, Kari Lehtonen managed to kick the puck to his glove for the cover. Immediately after the play, the officials made their way to the penalty boxes to review if the puck had crossed the goal line or not.

Here is the video of the shot and save, along with the cover up immediately after.

As the shot was put up on the big screen in Xcel Energy Center, it was clear that Wild fans were expecting a 5-5 tie and overtime just moments later. Instead, the referees made the correct call and let the ruling of “no goal” stand.

It might help to know exactly what the rule is. For those of you don’t know, a good goal in the NHL requires that the puck must completely cross the red goal line behind the crease for it to be counted. As you can tell in the video, about 80% of the puck is across the line, but there is still a sliver that is outside the net. That is why the officials left the play as it originally stood.

Did that settle well with the Minnesota Wild fan base? Of course not. Why should it? Because of that call, the Wild are now cleaning out their lockers and heading home until September. Sure we can say that they should have given a stronger effort for the 60 minute frame and that they should not have allowed themselves to be buried in a 4-0 hole. But they will always retract to calling this shot as the decisive factor of the game. They are not entirely wrong either.

For some reason though, a few Wild players could not help but continue to press the issue. Last night, Wild forward Jarrett Stoll tweeted out a picture to his teammate Nino Niederreiter from the scene in front of the net, and it looked a bit different than what was shown during the game.

From the angle Stoll portrays in his tweet, it is clear that there is a sliver of white between the puck and goal line, which would mean that it truly is a goal.

Only problem is, that photo is incorrect. Whether it was edited or the different angle simply causes it to look another way, it doesn’t matter. The photo is not viable and therefore cannot be used.

But that has not stopped a lot of people from getting up in arms against the Dallas Stars and the validity of their win. And it’s not just Wild fans who are complaining. Just from Stoll’s one tweet, over 1,000 people retweeted, favorited, and replied to it. Luckily, there were Stars fans mixed into those replies that set the record straight.

More stars: Stars Win Game Six, Moving On

NHL fans were pretty upset about it as well. From people accusing the Stars of not being well-rounded enough to be in the playoffs, to others saying that the Wild deserved the win more. It was a rather large debate that is still raging on today.

But this one tweet has not settled well for the Dallas Stars. It is causing a lot of people to jump up against them because they believe that the Stars moved into the second round through an unfair avenue. There are people who are already calling that Dallas gets swept by whoever their second round opponent turns out to be.

Yes, all of this is childish in the end. But it just goes to show you what one tweet can do. The Dallas Stars are receiving a lot of backlash from people who either did not watch the game or simply did not care enough to look at the replays and see the true shot. All in a day’s work in the playoffs, I guess.

Next: The Stars Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat For The Rest Of The Ride

So the Dallas Stars may be a bit of a villain in the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now. It’s not like we were going to receive any support from Minnesota anyways, right (insert still salty remark here). But as long as they continue to be our hero, that’s all that matters, right? A hero is only strong if they prove that they have no villainous intentions. Some people may think that they advanced on an unfair play, but we know the correct call.

It’s no worries. The Dallas Stars are enjoying an off day today and will begin practice tomorrow in preparation for the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let’s hope they can avoid the self-destructions, considering how much anarchy one has already caused.