Stars must work overtime to overcome weakness

By David Mullen

The Dallas Stars are amidst the most difficult challenge in professional sports: winning the Stanley Cup championship. The team is on the right track, but many conditions need to fall into place for the Stars to raise their second Stanley Cup since moving to Dallas in 1993.

To win the NHL’s grand prize, a team must endure weeks of punishment on and off the ice. The play is noticeably faster in the playoffs. The hits get harder. The stakes are higher. In the playoffs, there are no 4-on-4, five-minute overtime periods or game-deciding shootouts. Typically, officials are more lenient, old-time hockey rules return, and games are a race until the last team scores with no time restrictions in place.

In the early days of the NHL, no pro team existed south of Chicago. In this season’s second-round games, playoff contests will commence in Dallas, Las Vegas and Miami. While playoff hockey is visibly taxing on the ice, the toll on a team over traveling long distances in a short playoff series is immeasurable. 

Today, despite advances in air travel, 32 teams must factor brutal regular season road games into an 82-game schedule. Additionally, they often play games played on consecutive days. A team enters the Stanley Cup playoffs “rode — and road — hard and put up wet.”

After Dallas dispatched the Minnesota Wild in a testy six-game series, the Stars face the Seattle Kraken in round two. Seattle upset the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games to advance to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.  

Even though Seattle is in the same conference and Dallas is in the center of the U.S., the Stars must travel to their furthest destination for hockey games except when they play Vancouver. And regular season games in Vancouver are typically offset by stops in Calgary, Edmonton or The Emerald City. A tired body prefers to recover lying down among whirlpool jets than sitting up at 40,000 feet in a widebody jet.

Seattle, a lesser team in the regular season, plays with an obvious drive to prove that they belong.

The Kraken is just in their second season of existence. They were built extensively through an expansion draft of NHL players, meaning the team is a collection of players that other teams felt were extendable. In most cases, they are players that were at the bottom of depth charts. Kraken management had the daunting task of building team chemistry with a collection of castoffs. 

But the Seattle players shared a common trait. They were all told they were unwanted, having been let loose by their previous employers. Revenge is a strong motivator, and the Kraken play like a team on a mission as evidenced by their 5-4 overtime win over Dallas at the AAC on May 2 in the first game of the second-round playoffs. Seattle is scrappy, playing like they have something to prove to the rest of the NHL.

After the Stars took an early lead, the Kraken scored three goals in 52 seconds in the first period when the Stars defense and goaltender Jake Oettinger displayed a rare sign of vulnerability. But Oettinger and the defense toughened up, and the Stars roared back with two third period goals to even the score and send the game to overtime.

The biggest knock on the Stars 2022-23 regular season was the inability to win in overtime. Dallas had 14 regular season overtime losses, tied with Phoenix. Only San Jose and Calgary were worse, and of those four charitable teams, only the Stars made the playoffs. 

If the Stars had turned just half of their overtime losses into wins, they would have been the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. And with the Boston Bruins shocking loss to the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Dallas would currently be the No. 1 seed in the entire NHL. The march to claiming the Stanley Cup would go through Dallas. 

Dallas is built for a long playoff run. They entered the playoffs playing their best hockey of the year. With the reappearance of team leader Joe Pavelski, knocked out of game one against Minnesota only to return with a four-goal performance in game one against Seattle, the team is healthy. They seem to have the proper mix of veteran players, youthful exuberance and strong goaltending to advance.

But first, the Stars must beat the rebellious Kraken. Seattle is as gritty as Minnesota, but much faster. Dallas appeared surprised by Seattle’s speed throughout the first game, but coach Pete DeBoer will make the proper adjustments.

In game one, he teamed the returning Pavelski with Mason Marchment and Max Domi on the front line, leading to the 38-year-old’s four goal record-setting performance. Pavelski became the oldest player in NHL history to score four goals in a playoff game, breaking Maurice “The Rocket” Richard’s mark set in 1957.

There is no reason for the Stars fans to panic. The circumstances were right for Seattle, taking on an injury-riddled Avalanche team that was a shadow of their championship team. If the Stars can avoid overtime games, they should be able to advance. 

But in hockey, a team can’t look ahead. They must keep their heads up and stay focused, or they can be upended faster than an oncoming blindside check. That’s what happened to the Bruins and Avalanche in their game seven, first round home losses. The Stars will not be KO’d by the Kraken.