April 24th, 2016
The grass is green, the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Everything is beautiful as the Stars go up 4-0 on the Wild after two periods. This lead is squandered early in the third. Nearly the entire Stars fanbase is sent to the hospital with heart attacks thanks to the Stars surrendering 3 goals in the first ten minutes of the third.
The Stars received a holy trinity of puck luck. First, Kari Lehtonen turned the puck over to Jason Zucker, who couldn't fill in an empty net from a tight angle to make it 4 all. The Stars were then gifted with a wacky own goal thanks to Devan Dubnyk, this put the Stars up 5-3. Finally, Demers almost tied the game up by scoring on Kari, it was a hair from being across the red line. It didn't cross the line so most importantly, Minnesota Wild fans became educated on a phenomenon called the parallax angle.
The Dallas Stars eliminated the Minnesota Wild from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 4 games to 2.
The Dallas Stars are in the business of proving people wrong this season.
Before the season started, most talking-heads counted the Dallas Stars out of the playoffs due to the fact that the defense core is mediocre and the goaltending duo is overpaid. Most had the Stars on the outside looking in on the playoffs. Hitting the links in mid-April or helping fill out World Championship rosters.
Well, they were wrong.
As the Stars offense picked up from where it left off in the 2014-15 season, the defense and goaltending became better. The "overpaid" netminders found ways to keep their team in the game. When Lehtonen would show signs of slowing down, Niemi could pick up the slack for him.
Would the Stars be better off if they had a goalie who could play 60+ games? Absolutely. However, the 1A/1B two-headed Finnish Monster between the pipes each had 25 wins, a stat typically attributed to 'team play' rather than goalie play. To me? The Stars players were able to have confidence with either goalie in the net. In the previous three seasons, Stars back-up goaltenders were only able to win 21 games.
They said that the Dallas Stars couldn't win low scoring games in the playoffs. Well, they did.
Now they're discounting those wins because they were against the "bad" and "banged up" Minnesota Wild.
They say that the Dallas Stars can't get the job done without Tyler Seguin in the first two games.
They say that the Dallas Stars offense will be smothered by the St. Louis Blues Defense.
They say that the Dallas Stars can't match the grind of the St. Louis Blues.
Now it's time to prove them wrong, again.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Dallas Stars
vs.
St. Louis Blues
☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂BETWEEN THE PIPES FOR THE STARS: KARI LEHTONEN☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂
VS
|
14 Benn - 20 Eakin - 10 Sharp
|
★
|
17 Schwartz - 12 Lehtera - 91 Tarasenko
13 Janmark - 90 Spezza - 18 Eaves
|
★
|
20 Steen - 26 Stastny - 36 Brouwer
21 Roussel - 12 Faksa - 83 Hemsky
|
★
|
15 Fabbri - 21 Berglund - 42 Backes
27 Moen - 38 Fiddler - 22 Sceviour
|
★
|
9 Ott - 28 Broadziak - 10 Upshall
||
33 Goligoski - 3 Klingberg
|
★
|
19 Bouwmeester - 27 Pietrangelo
47 Oduya - 28 Johns
|
★
|
6 Edmundson - 22 Shattenkirk
2 Russell - 4 Demers
|
★
|
4 Gunnarsson - 55 Parayko
||
32 Lehtonen
|
★
|
1 Elliott
31 Niemi
|
★
|
34 Allen
||
Jordie, Nichushkin, Oleksiak, Nemeth
|
X
|
||
Seguin
|
IR
|
-
The Road to the Stanley Cup begins again.
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