I’d like to think Pete DeBoer was just as baffled by the Stars’ Game 4 performance in the Western Conference Quarterfinals as I was. Based on the photo above, he looked every bit as confused and incredulous — maybe even more so.
Last night was simply not good enough in so many ways.
It was clear from the moment the puck dropped to when the final horn sounded that the Avalanche had more to give than the Stars did yesterday evening in Colorado’s 4-0 win in Denver. That was exactly what Colorado needed, of course, given that it was down 2-1 in the series — and going down 3-1 would have been catastrophic to its chances of moving on. As such, the Avalanche proved to be the much more decisive, quick, and ready team because of their pure desperation to win.
It was a shame that the Stars couldn’t match that energy. Dallas had the opportunity to grab this series by the scruff of the neck, but instead, Colorado reclaimed some momentum as the series heads back to Texas for Game 5 on Monday. It’s now a best-of-three, and luckily for the Stars, they still maintain home-ice advantage, which is so crucial this time of year.
The Stars were down 2-0 at the end of the first period, but they probably deserved slightly better than that. When both sides played 5-on-5, it was pretty evenly matched, with Dallas maybe even outplaying the Avalanche to a certain extent. Special teams, however, were where the Stars left a lot to be desired.
Mikko Rantanen drew a high-sticking call at the 13:29 mark of the first period, giving Dallas a man advantage early in the game. While nothing came of that power-play opportunity, the Stars did manage to put some pressure on the Avalanche and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. Unfortunately, there was nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.
About five minutes later, Colorado defenseman Devon Toews put a puck over the glass in his own defensive zone, drawing a delay-of-game penalty that put the Stars back on the power play. Given how the initial two minutes of the Stars’ power play went earlier in the period, it was safe to assume they’d be able to at least keep the score deadlocked at zero. Nope. Thomas Harley mishandled a pass near the blue line, and Logan O’Connor — who’d been in the penalty box for the high-sticking call on Rantanen earlier in the game — pounced, racing the length of the ice and beating Jake Oettinger blocker-side to give Colorado a lead it would never relinquish.
The rest of the man advantage resulted in absolutely nothing for the Stars, and even-strength play resumed for nearly the remainder of the period with no further damage allowed.
That was until the Mason Marchment experience kicked into gear.
As I chronicled in the Game 3 recap (and as Robert Tiffin of Stars Thoughts wrote last Wednesday night), the Marchment experience is something like no other. He was the sole reason the Stars were on the power play heading into a do-or-die overtime in Game 3, and he was also the reason the Stars won that game after he beautifully set up Tyler Seguin to bury the game-deciding goal.
Last night, he was also the reason the Stars went into the first intermission down 2-0 instead of just one. But should he have been?
After a rush allowed Marchment to put a shot on net (Blackwood smothered it with ease), he “elbowed” Cale Makar in the face.
You tell me: Is this elbowing?
Regardless, Dallas was on the penalty kill for the first time, and while it took a while for the Avalanche to capitalize on the Marchment “mistake,” they eventually did via a beautiful Nathan MacKinnon one-timer that skirted through Oettinger to put Colorado up 2-0.
Given that Dallas didn’t score a goal last night, any deficit would’ve been a decisive one — but that goal in the waning seconds of the first period felt like a gut punch. When MacKinnon fired that puck on net, there were just four seconds left on the penalty and 24 seconds remaining in the period. Who knows how the game turns out if Dallas heads into the break just down one instead of two? It probably still ends in defeat given how poorly they played in the second period (don’t worry, that’s what I’m talking about next), but that’s not a certainty.
OK, let’s talk about that disastrous second period. I have one word to describe that 20 minutes of hockey: bad.
Terrible.
Awful.
Lousy.
Dreadful.
Atrocious.
Careless.
Unacceptable.
Maybe I have more than one word to describe it. (Yes, those are the results when you type in “bad” into an online thesaurus.)
Colorado outshot Dallas 22-5 in the second period and maintained control of the puck for what felt like the entire frame. When a team dominates possession, hockey people like to say that the “ice is tilted.” Well, that adage certainly felt right last night, as it seemed that any time the Stars attempted to regain control of the puck, they were skating uphill while the Avalanche were going downhill. In other words, the Stars were skating a 0.5x speed while the Avalanche were going 1.5x. It was tough to watch.
If not for a herculean effort from Oettinger, the Stars could’ve easily found themselves trailing 7-0 — or worse — by the end of the second period instead of just 3-0. He turned aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced, standing tall as the Avalanche furiously swarmed. By the time the horn sounded and both teams took the walk into their respective dressing rooms, he looked gassed and defeated. He gave his team everything he had. His teammates didn’t return the favor.
Stars head coach Pete DeBoer opted to sit Oettinger for the third period and gave backup goalie Casey DeSmith the reins. On its face, it’s a questionable decision to sit a goalie who had been standing on his head for most of the game. At the time, the score was 3-0, which is obviously a big deficit in hockey but not an insurmountable one, especially in the playoffs. But DeBoer wanted to give his starting goalie a rest heading into a crucial Game 5 on Monday. And given how the team was playing, it was probably obvious to him — and to everyone else — that a three-goal deficit was going to be too much to overcome.
It, of course, was, as the Avalanche added another tally midway through the third period to bring the score to 4-0. Colorado was the more determined team from start to finish. That’s pretty much the end of the story.
If I’m looking for any silver linings — as I’m prone to do sometimes — it’s that the Stars would’ve absolutely taken a 2-2 series split at the start, especially since Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson have not been available. Despite being down arguably their two best players, the Stars have still been able to compete with a fully healthy Avalanche team that even got Gabriel Landeskog back after 1,039 days of missed time.
Side note: Landeskog’s story is objectively pretty cool. Prior to last night, he hadn’t scored a goal since June 20, 2022, which was Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final — a series that Colorado ended up winning. Because of multiple knee surgeries — all stemming from a knee injury he suffered in 2020 — Landeskog hadn’t been able to play in a game since that series. But he returned in Game 3 to a raucous ovation from the Denver crowd last Wednesday evening. When he scored last night, man, that place was roaring. Once I took my Stars-tinted glasses off, it was a pretty amazing and emotional sports moment.
Nobody said that winning a Stanley Cup was going to be easy. The Stars, more than most teams in the league, should know this. The road is filled with potholes, and it’s bound to give teams bumps and bruises — both figuratively and literally — as they attempt to reach ultimate glory.
Losing in that fashion last night was obviously not ideal, but I encourage everyone to take a step back and look at this series from a 10,000-foot perspective. Dallas is in a good spot. Now it’s their job to capitalize on it.