Stars lose series and team leader

By David Mullen

On June 2, when the final horn sounded and the Dallas Stars lost Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals 2-1 to the Edmonton Oilers, it reflected more than the season’s end. The horn was a jarring cue that a storied career was probably over as well.

After 18 years, playing in 1,332 regular season games, 201 playoff games and scoring 1,211 regular season and playoff points, Stars players and fans could sense that the career of Joe Pavelski was over. On June 4, Pavelski, 39, said he won’t play next year but didn’t formally retire.

“I don’t want to say this is official,” Pavelski said, “[but] this was it for me.” 

Despite two Stanley Cup Finals appearances — in 2016 with the San Jose Sharks and in the 2020 COVID bubble-year with the Stars — Pavelski never got to lift the Stanley Cup.

With the Stars young core only getting better, the likelihood of Dallas being in the Stanley Cup Finals soon are strong. As a key part of the 2023-24 Western Conference Champions, this finally seemed like the year for Pavelski. But against the Oilers, Pavelski looked like his best days were past him.     

Pavelski should not be remembered for being shut out in the six-game series with Edmonton. Blaming Pavelski for the Stars not advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, like Pavelski’s series, is pointless. The Stars would not have made the Western Conference Finals without Pavelski’s skill and hockey acumen.

The Stars lost to the Oilers for a number of reasons. And lack of team effort or a lack of Pavelski’s leadership were not two of them. 

The Oilers’ Connor McDavid is the best player in the NHL. He had 100 regular season assists. Only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr had more in one season. Linemate Zack Hyman is his ideal complement. Every Green Hornet needs his Kato. Add Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers have plenty of speed, puck handling and scoring power.

Against Edmonton, the normally powerful Stars offense didn’t go completely dark but definitely turned grey. Pavelski wasn’t the only player to lose his scoring touch. Veteran Stars Jamie Benn, Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene and youngster Logan Stankoven couldn’t find the back of the net, scoring just two goals in the series.

The power play was a dreadful 0-14. Few things in hockey are more irritating than trying to fix a broken power play in a playoff series. Frustration sets in, players get too perfect with their passes and lose focus on other aspects of the games. The Oilers scored more short-handed goals (one) than the Stars had power play goals (zero).  

Edmonton got hot at the right time. Unheralded Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner was a force in Game 6. The Stars peppered Skinner with 35 shots and he stopped 34. From the 13:30 mark in the second period of Game 4, when the Stars still had a 2-1 series lead and a 2-0 lead in the game, Edmonton outscored Dallas 10 goals to 2 and won the series 4 games to 2.

At one point in the 2023-24 season, the Oilers were tied for last place in the NHL. They came in as the second-place team from the Pacific Division, beat the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks and Dallas, and now face the Florida Panthers on Saturday, June 8 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Stars will recover, but lament the loss of Pavelski, a team leader. “Since Day 1, since he’s been in here, he’s meant everything to our group — on the ice, off the ice, all our golf games,” Stars 14-year veteran (11 with the Stars) center Tyler Seguin told The Athletic. “He’s improved all of those. Just an amazing person to have in here.” “An all-time teammate,” said Benn.  

According to The Athletic, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer called it “the absolute privilege of my coaching career to coach a guy like that [Pavelski].” Like Pavelski joining an elite group of the best players never to win a Stanley Cup, DeBoer may be the best current coach never to win an NHL championship. 

“What matters to me is, honestly, the journey when you get to go deep in the playoffs,” DeBoer told NHL.com. “I obviously haven’t won the whole thing, but whether [going deep means] a conference final or a Final, you galvanize with a group and a team and bunch of men together through that journey, because it’s so hard and it takes so much sacrifice, both personally and on the ice. That’s the juice that we coach for, and there’s nothing better.”

Like Pavelski, DeBoer has gone to two Stanley Cup Finals, in 2012 with the New Jersey Devils and in 2016 with the Sharks, and never lifted the Cup. He has also coached Florida and the Vegas Golden Knights. There is no reason to believe that DeBoer, 55, won’t return to the Stars. He is signed through the 2025-26 season.

“Hockey’s hard, you know?” Seguin said. “You need a lot of things to go right.” Things will go right for the future Stars, but it appears Pavelski won’t be there to give the team, and the Stanley Cup, a lift.