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The first priority for Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill is to put team owner Tom Gaglardi in a straight jacket so he doesn’t make a slew of irrational decisions in the wake of his team’s putrid performance that warrants a hockey stick through the TV.
What the Stars “submitted for your consideration” on Thursday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton is one of the most inexcusable postseason performances this area has ever witnessed. And we have watched deeply offensive playoff games this century.
This includes, among others, the Dallas Cowboys home playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers in 2023. The pitiful performance by the Texas Rangers against the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2016 divisional round. The “Rajon Rondo-led” quit job by the Dallas Mavericks against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2015 NBA playoffs.
All three embarrassments deserve a shelf in the Texas Sports Hall of Horrible. What the Stars did on Thursday night merits a wing. This was fan abuse.
If you must know, the Oilers won 6-3 to earn a rematch against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.
Down 3-1 in the series to Edmonton, the Stars were going to need any and all powers up to and including the influence from this American Pope just to maybe, possibly, force a Game 7. Game 5 wasn’t 10 minutes old and the Stars trailed 3-0, coach Pete DeBoer overreacted and pulled his All-Star goalie.
The panic move was understandable. It was on pace to become the first “run ruled” game in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Name the Stars player, and they were asleep.
This was another one of those playoff finales this franchise has mastered: The demoralizing home blowout.
In Game 6 of the 2008 Western Conference Finals against Detroit, the Red Wings scored three first period goals en route to a 4-1 win at the American Airlines Center.
In 2016, the Stars hosted the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the second round, and were hammered, 6-1. The Blues scored three first period goals.
In 2023, the Stars hosted the Golden Knights in Game 6 of the conference finals and lost, 6-0. Vegas scored three first period goals to end that one.
And in 2025, the Stars did it again.
After falling behind 2-0, DeBoer used his timeout to yell at his team.
“Pretty much wake up and to start playing,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said of his DeBoer’s message.
They promptly went out and allowed another goal. Pulling Oettinger may have felt necessary in the moment, but Casey DeSmith is the guy who plays in the regular season.
“Any time you pull a goalie it’s to spark your team,” DeBoer said. “I didn’t blame it all on Jake. It was partly to spark our team to wake them up, and partly knowing that status quo had not been working. That’s a pretty big sample size.”
Unlike the aforementioned playoff toilet bombs, the Stars did make an effort to rally on Thursday night. After they trailed 3-0, the Stars played with an edge, punch and fight that was painfully absent for most of this series.
They cut it to 3-2 with less than eight minutes remaining in the second period. They cut it to 4-3 early in the third.
DeSmith kept allowing goals, and Edmonton forward Connor McDavid proved again he’s the best player in the game.
The Stars insistence on falling behind was going to get them. Against a team like Edmonton it ended them.
The Stars fell behind 1-0 in 15 of their 18 playoff games. A team that trails that often is begging to lose. You can’t fall behind 3-0 in the first 10 minutes against a good team and expect to win.
What made Thursday night so depressing is that this is not your standard playoff-ending defeat. The Stars knew what they had in front of them, and that chance is gone.
It’s one of the reasons why Stars GM Jim Nill made the mid-season trade to acquire All-Star Mikko Rantanen from Carolina; Nill gave up a lot to get him, and in return the team expected Moose to be the postseason scorer to carry them to a title.
In Rounds 1 and 2, Mikko was magnificent. Against Edmonton, he vanished along with the rest of his teammates.
The Stars can’t say it, but they all know the odds of reaching the Western Conference Finals for a fourth straight season are terrible. They may get here again, but it won’t be next year. The West is too deep.
This has been a wonderful period in the history of the franchise, similar to the late ‘90s when the team had Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Ed Belfour, Derian Hatcher and a cast of characters that won a Stanley Cup.
And there is the difference. Those ‘90s team won a Cup.
In this three-year run to the conference finals, they were out-played by Vegas in ‘23, and Edmonton in consecutive seasons.
The Stars were sure that they were better than the Oilers last season, and they just didn’t play well enough to win. It turns out the Stars are not better than the Oilers.
The Stars gave themselves a chance to do something special, and reaching three straight Western Conference Finals is an accomplishment, but this is a team whose mark will not feature a single banner.
