I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure my heart can handle the kind of hockey the Dallas Stars are playing these days. I wrote a few days ago that “ugly wins still count,” and I certainly hold to that opinion. The Stars keep finding ways to grind out points. And maybe, just maybe, that’s all that REALLY matters. I will take ugly wins all the way to the Stanley Cup. That is…if my heart holds up that long.
With the exception of the Minnesota Wild game on Monday, we’ve witnessed back and forth, overtime, shootouts, and at least one game (last night) where the score absolutely did not reflect the intensity of the matchup. The Stars are bending, but not breaking, and you just hope that it’s refining them for the playoffs. Time will tell.
After Wednesday’s win over the Edmonton Oilers, Coach Pete DeBoer was unhappy – justifiably so. His team was playing a McDavid/Draisaitl-less Oilers team, and the Stars came out flat. Then they went up 4-0. Then they went flat again. Here’s DeBoer’s words from Wednesday:
“I haven’t had many disappointing wins in my career, but this would be one of them. I thought we played a really immature, sloppy game tonight, especially in the first and third. It’s concerning. It’s late in the season, playoffs around the corner. It’s a concerning trend here lately.”
So Coach DeBoer, and the entire Stars fanbase, looked ahead to Calgary to see if they could redeem themselves. I’m leaning on a couple of articles from Robert Tiffin, and here’s the response from last night on whether or not last night’s game was an unfortunate repeat:
If DeBoer said he was disappointed by the 4-3 win last night, you would imagine he would be downright despondent after this one. But after the game, it turns out you would be wrong to suggest this game was a repeat of last night’s performance.
“Not really. I disagree with that,” said DeBoer of the comparison to the Edmonton game. “For a back to back, getting in at 3:30, 2:30 in the morning, I loved our first period. I thought we ran out of a little bit of gas tonight. I don’t think it was a compete issue at all. We had more detail to our game, goalie gave us a chance. When you look at the schedule the last week and the travel, and this game, there’s not many teams coming and grind out a win. We did that, and our guys deserve credit for that.”
Either way, the Stars continue to find ways to win. And we’ll keep trying to manage our pulse.
Dallas Stars Stuff
This goal from Wyatt Johnston last night might be getting lost in the conversation. BUT IT SHOULDN’T…
We hope you go to bed still thinking about this. pic.twitter.com/OOhyE0mw94
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 28, 2025
Hey, Happy Birthday Colin!
Happy Birthday, Colin! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/44t4FyVadQ
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 28, 2025
I mean, what else is there to say?
Another day, another @DallasStars goalie playing out of his mind 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9uXf4EKpdF
— NHL (@NHL) March 28, 2025
Elsewhere in the Central
It was a busy night in the NHL last night…and the Central was all over it.
- Poor Utah HC got absolutely ripped by the Lightning last night, losing 8-0. Woof. [RECAP]
- The Wild got back in the win column against the high-flying Capitals after dropping a couple of ugly ones. [RECAP]
- The Blues and Preds had the inter-divisional matchup last night, and the Blues improved their win streak up to 8. [RECAP]
- The Avalanche have a winning streak of their own (4) as they blanked the LA Kings last night. [RECAP]
Around the NHL
The Flower farewell tour continues…
This won’t be weird at all…
Greetings from Scenic Cedar Park and Beautiful Boise!
Things are still rolling for the Texas Stars!
Hellberg earns second shutout of the season ✅
— x – Texas Stars (@TexasStars) March 27, 2025
Chisholm scores first professional goal in debut ✅
Blumel tallies 36th of the year ✅
Stars earn third straight W ✅
Check out the highlights from tonight's 4-0 win over Grand Rapids presented by @texasorthopedic 🎥 pic.twitter.com/P0cMwQcZxH
Unfortunately, the Idaho Steelheads lost on Wednesday, so we’re going to focus on something nice instead.
Finally
If your heart wants even more stress, you could always follow college hockey, too….
UMASS STUNS MINNESOTA IN OT AFTER SCORING THREE GOALS IN THE THIRD PERIOD‼️
— ESPN (@espn) March 28, 2025
The Minutemen advance to the second round of the NCAA men's hockey tournament 👏 pic.twitter.com/8W4FCMsAgI