Eight. That seems to be the magic number right now. Its the number of games the Dallas Stars have lost in a row. Coincidentally, its the same number of playoff series in which the Stars have lost the opening game. In a row. After game one, I jokingly tweeted about it:
Problem is this isn’t a joke anymore. And every Stars fan can agree that losing isn’t fun. Especially when the team played so well for the first 70 games of the season. It wasn’t until the final stretch that things started to sour and go bad. There is hope, though. First off, as Robert Tiffin points out, despite losing the first game of a series, the Stars have been really good at winning those series. Going back to 2019, the Stars have eight series wins.
Second, even though the score looked lopsided, the Stars had their chances in Saturday’s game. And they looked better than they have in a long time. The first two goals were kind of fluky in nature, too. The puck gets kicked in the net on the opening tally (I don’t care what the officials say. I saw a distinct kicking motion). The second goal was deflected off the chest of a defender and floated past Jake Oettinger like a knuckleball.
Couple that with the plat at the net on the offensive side, I think the Stars did a lot better job in the game. They had plenty of chances to even the game, but Mackenzie Blackwood was phenomenal in net.
How to watch: Puck drop at 7:30 p.m. from the AAC. Watch on Victory+ and TNT. All playoff games can be heard on The Ticket.
Getting back to basics
The Stars are trying to figure out how to play without their leading goal scorer, Jason Robertson. This means shuffling lines and moving pieces around. There is one thing I trust, though. Head coach Pete DeBoer will get this figured out. I don’t know how, but I don’t get paid to figure it out.
During this losing streak, the Stars puck handling has been exposed for the most part. We are so use to seeing Miro Heiskanen handle the puck that we’ve been spoiled by how good he is at it. This is another area Dallas needs to keep improving on if they want to get a win tonight and even the series.
Dallas Stars Lineup
Mikael Granlund (64) – Roope Hintz (24) – Evgenii Dadonov (63)
Mason Marchment (27) – Matt Duchene (95) – Tyler Seguin (91)
Jamie Benn (14) – Wyatt Johnston (53) – Mikko Rantanen (96)
Oskar Bäck (10) – Sam Steel (18) – Colin Blackwell (15)
Thomas Harley (55) – Ilya Lyubushkin (46)
Esa Lindell (23) – Cody Ceci (44)
Lian Bichsel (6) – Alex Petrovic (28)
Jake Oettinger (29)
Casey DeSmith (1)
Colorado Avalanche Lineup
Artturi Lehkonen (62) – Nathan MacKinnon (29) – Martin Necas (88)
Jonathan Drouin (27) – Brock Nelson (11) – Valeri Nichushkin (13)
Joel Kiviranta (94) – Charlie Coyle (10) – Ross Colton (20)
Parker Kelly (17) – Jack Drury (18) – Logan O’Connor (25)
Devon Toews (7) – Cale Makar (8)
Samuel Girard (49) – Josh Manson (42)
Erik Johnson (6) – Ryan Lindgren (55)
Mackenzie Blackwood (39)
Scott Wedgewood (41)