Amid injuries to key players, a season-ending skid and a losing streak in Game 1’s, Dallas is excited to get going and prove doubters wrong
If you want to truly complicate the Stars’ approach to the playoffs, it’s pretty easy.
After all, the team went 0-5-2 to close the regular season, has lost Game 1 in seven straight playoff series, and will be missing leading goal-scorer Jason Robertson (who is week-to-week with a lower-body injury) to open the postseason run. That’s some heavy stuff.
That said, we’re still talking about a team that finished with 106 points and owned the best record in the NHL for much of the second half of the season.
“The message to our team is: Who are we?,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Friday as the team prepared for Game 1 against Colorado. “Are we the team that limped into the playoffs the last seven, eight games or are we the team that for 75 games faced adversity and found a way to grind out wins? I know the answer, but we’ve got to show the hockey world which team we are.”
Pete DeBoer speaks to the media after practice.
Dallas has its back to the wall a bit, but the vibe in the dressing room seems very positive. Robertson suffered an injury in the final game of the regular season and is listed as “week-to-week.” The 25-year-old led the Stars in goal scoring this year with 35 in 82 games. Even more impressive, he went on a heater in the 2025, tallying 26 goals in the final 46 games. That ranks fourth in the league since Jan. 1.
And while that will be missed, the Stars believe they can overcome the adversity.
“I think next man up, it’s that time of year,” DeBoer said. “We’re not going to be the only team either starting without somebody or losing someone at some point. That’s playoffs. You’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
The Stars have had some experience with this all season. Tyler Seguin went out in December with hip surgery. Mason Marchment missed more than a month with a fractured orbital bone and Miro Heiskanen has been out since February with knee surgery. Losing Robertson is big, but the Stars are also getting Seguin back (he played his first game in over four months on Wednesday) and added Mikael Granlund for depth at the trade deadline. On Friday, Granlund and Evgenii Dadonov flanked Roope Hintz in a new look “top line.” Granlund had 22 goals split between the Stars and San Jose Sharks and Dadonov had his first 20-goal season since 2021-22.
“I think we have more creativity in our depth than last year,” DeBoer said when asked if the team is built to cover for the loss of Robertson. “This year, we have more scoring depth. You’ve got Dadonov that’s got 20 goals and he’s been third, fourth line. There’s no good injuries to the right guy, but we probably, if you’re talking about an injury to a key, key player, we’re probably better able to absorb that in that position than probably some others.”
And that is the positivity the team is seeking right now. Late season slump? They were pretty much locked into a series with Colorado for weeks and didn’t have much to play for against a group of teams playing for nothing more than pride. Previous slow starts in the playoffs? It’s a new year.
“Every year is different, every group is different,” DeBoer said. “I know there is a real history of starting slowly, but this is a new group, new people, new year. They’ve got to write their own chapter.”
The playoff history between Dallas and Colorado
The Stars were shuffling lines around on Friday and making adjustments. There is a chance that Thomas Harley moves back onto the top power play and Esa Lindell quarterbacks the second unit. There is a chance that rookie defenseman Lian Bichsel plays beside his minor league partner Alexander Petrovic to garner some chemistry on the third pairing. Seguin will go back with Matt Duchene and Marchment, but they have to find their chemistry.
The Avalanche look largely healthy and might be getting captain Gabriel Landeskog back after an injury absence of three years. In the meantime, Stars forward Mikko Rantanen will be going against former teammates like Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar – players with whom he hoisted the Stanley Cup with back in 2022. Rantanen was traded to Carolina and then Dallas this season, and now he will play against his old friends in a huge playoff series.
“It’s business,” Rantanen said. “The trade didn’t happen two days ago, it’s been a while since I played with the Avs. I think it’s all behind us now. I’m a part of a new team now and it’s time to execute.”
Mikko Rantanen speaks to the media after practice
Again, there are simple answers out there and the Stars don’t want to complicate things. Bottom line, the puck drops in Game 1 on Saturday and Dallas need to be ready.
Asked about the consecutive losses in Game 1, Duchene said the team has discussed that problem.
‘I brought it up. It’s something captain] [Jamie [Benn] and I have talked about a lot,” Duchene said. “I think this team has a tendency to test the waters first, lead with wisdom rather than energy. I said, ‘Screw that, it’s time to break that streak.’”
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.
