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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Time To Turn It Around

With Dallas now down 2-1 in the Western Conference Finals, attention turns to their biggest stars to help turn this series around.

Posted on by George Delanjian
Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

It’s been quite the turn of events for the Dallas Stars since their exhilarating third period comeback in Game 1. Since that game, the Edmonton Oilers have outscored the Stars 9-1. It inherently has me thinking, was our victory in Game 1 a fluke? Keep in mind, the Stars were down 3-1 entering the third period in a game where Edmonton was dominating. Anyway, the past is the past and the Stars are looking ahead to tonight’s tilt in what is a crucial game. They will need more from their top players, who have seemed non-existent this series.

Dallas Morning News writer Tim Cowlishaw published a piece yesterday calling on Mikko Rantanen to return to the form we got used to earlier this postseason to help the Stars get past the Oilers. Cowlishaw mentions in his article that Rantanen only has to two assists in this series and just three assists in the past six games.

As Rantanen figures out how to get back to put the puck in the back of the net, the Stars need some of their other top players to rise to the occasion. Miro Heiskanen has been nothing short of extraordinary since returning from his knee injury, and Tyler Seguin has made an impact I think more than most Stars fans were expecting from him. That begs the question, who are we looking at to help out? According to Cowlishaw:

“Matt Duchene was a 30-goal scorer this season but has one in 16 playoff games. Wyatt Johnston, the 21-year-old the Stars will be paying more than $8 million per season the next five years to be among the top scorers, has four goals and eight points. Not terrible, but he looks like he’s charging up the Byron Nelson leaderboard with that minus-17.

Jamie Benn? He led the league in scoring back when I had dark hair. He has one goal, three points and 24 penalty minutes.

Not mentioned was Jason Robertson, who also returned recently from an injury himself hasn’t played at the level Stars fans are used to seeing, but he could also not be 100%. Then there’s Roope Hintz who the Stars hope to get back tonight, which would be a huge boost but he likely won’t be 100% either. Last but not least is Jake Oettinger, who probably feels like he is looking back into the net more frequently than looking forward which is hard to do when Dallas is playing defense most of the game, despite what shot counts show. It doesn’t bode well when a goaltender has to be on guard in the zone for extended periods of time, even if there are not a lot of shots. Having said that, he’s the player I’m least concerned about since I feel the problem lies beyond him. Dallas in general needs to be more physical, registering 47 less hits than the Oilers through three games. The Stars are getting banged around is what that boils down to and the scorecard is indicative of that.

You can read the rest of Cowlishaw’s take here.

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