Facing their biggest game of the season on Sunday, the Dallas Stars withstood early fights and took a 3-0 lead in Nashville.
NHL scores 2017: It’s time for a Dallas Stars culture change
The latest collapse signals the end. Or, it should.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Five unanswered goals and a 5-3 loss later, Dallas’ playoff hopes are effectively done. Or, they should be.
The collapse will seem stunning to those who haven’t followed the team closely. And many will try to tell you that this means the Stars require a goalie trade for the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury or Ben Bishop to fix what ails them.
That’s a simple, short-sighted and wrong solution to a more poisonous problem. It’s easy to say “this one move will right the ship.” It’s much harder to accept the ship needs to be sunk.
The truth is that goaltending has been decent for the Stars this year; a strange culture and mindset of self-defeat has torpedoed their playoff hopes. When they get a lead, they stop skating. In the 16 minutes since Dallas took their 3-0 lead, Nashville scored four goals and outshot the Stars, 19-2.
Maybe that’s a brain thing; years of watching themselves crumble late in games started making them sit back on their heels waiting for their opponent to launch an assault. For two-thirds of the game, Kari Lehtonen was the only reason the Stars were hanging in there.
Yet he’ll absorb the blame because that’s the easy conclusion to reach for and the easiest to solve.
General manager Jim Nill gets paid to reach further and make the hard decisions. As he watched the Stars limp back to their locker room in defeat (the worst of the season), he had to be wondering the same thing fans were: What more can coach Lindy Ruff say? What could be said in that locker room to change the self-defeating nature that’s inexplicably set in on one of the league’s most promising rosters?
Now there’s a question with a tough answer. And one that’s hard to swallow, especially just a year removed from almost winning the Presidents’ Trophy. Maybe nothing can be said. Maybe nothing will be said.
Maybe the solution is finding new people in that locker room to say it.
Scores
Predators 5, Stars 3
Three Things We Learned
1. Zdeno Chara can dangle
The Bruins captain is the most nimble giraffe ever to wield a hockey stick.
2. The NHL is here to fill your violent sports needs
No football on Sundays for the better part of a year. So the NHL stepped in and dropped the gloves across the board.
Gotta draw in those casual fans.
3. NHL team Twitter accounts are willing to make fun of the NBA
So the NBA is prohibiting teams from antagonizing each other on Twitter. The Kings and Hawks mocked their own league soon after.
And then the Stars and Predators decided to mock those teams AND the NBA. As usual, an early lead came back to bite Dallas.
Impact Moment
Gustav Nyquist is going to get suspended six games or more for this vicious spear on Jared Spurgeon. He’ll have an in-person hearing this week with the NHL Department of Player Safety.
Stat of the Night
CONTHPIRACY!
Soundbite of the Night
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