FRISCO, Texas — If the Stars actually needed added motivation Tuesday for their Western Conference final game against the Golden Knights at American Airlines Center, there’s also this:
Only four NHL teams have rallied from a 0-3 deficit to win the series, and one of those came after the opposing coach got suspended for punching an official.
Maybe Pete DeBoer should consider instigating a similar type incident.
“You can’t afford to go down three-nothing,” DeBoer said.
“So that desperation has to kick in.”
How desperate must the Stars be? The playoff success rate when you’re down 0-3 is a little less than 2%. The Los Angeles Kings were the last team to overcome the odds, rallying to knock out San Jose in 2014 before going on to win the Stanley Cup over the New York Rangers.
Probably best not to test those odds, and the good news is, they’ve got others in their favor. The Stars have been good at bouncing back in these playoffs. In fact, Sunday was the first time they’d lost two games in a row.
Nothing’s happened in this series to make you think they couldn’t flip that script.
“They won two games at home,” injured defenseman Jani Hakanpaa said. “Now it’s our turn to do the same.”
In order to do that, the Stars must simply play more like they did in the Game 2 overtime loss. Except for the losing, that is.
For the most part in this series, the Stars have gotten everything they’ve needed in the net from Jake Oettinger; drought-busting goals from Jason Robertson; and good defense.
What they haven’t done: exercised what should be a decided advantage on the power play.
The Stars have been among the best teams in the playoffs with a man advantage, and Las Vegas has been one of the worst. Yet the Stars have just one goal in two games on the power play. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. The Stars were 0 for 8 in three regular-season games against the Golden Knights with the man advantage. Las Vegas doesn’t give Dallas much room to breathe, especially with their penalty kill. Instead of shriveling up around Adin Hill, the Knights get up in your grill.
The Stars haven’t been the more physical team in any of their postseason series, and nothing’s changing now. They don’t need to change. They could certainly ratchet up the intensity level a bit, a recurring problem throughout the playoffs, especially early in each series. They started slowly again in Game 1 against Vegas.
But that’s not been the case since Friday’s first period. They’ve scored the game’s first goal in each of the conference finals games. Sunday’s defense was excellent, allowing just 14 shots on goal until the final nine minutes.
They lost Game 2 because Ryan Suter made an ill-advised pass behind his own net near the end of regulation, then let his man loose for the game-tying goal.
And before the Knights won it 72 seconds into overtime, the Stars had an even better shot at ending it when Wyatt Johnston missed a point-blank shot at goal.
The series, which should be 1-1, comes back to Dallas with the Stars expecting a bounce from the home crowd.
For the first time after a loss in the playoffs, DeBoer’s message to his players isn’t what they need to fix.
“We’re not asking for a response to a poor effort or a below-average effort,” he said. “We’re asking for a response to the fact that you’re down two-nothing.
“I think that desperation will be there.”
Not only does it need to be there Tuesday, they need to be feeling it Thursday, as well. A seven-game series is a race to three wins, then letting the odds take over.
Another rare example of a team beating those odds: In 1942, Detroit jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Toronto in the Stanley Cup Final. In fact, the Red Wings were leading Game 4 by a score of 2-0 when the Maple Leafs finally stirred. Bob Goldham, a Toronto defenseman, reportedly credited the Leafs’ good fortune to a chicken wishbone he sported during the playoffs.
Seems more likely the turnaround might have had something to do with the fact that Jack Adams, the Red Wings’ coach and the man they named the Adams Trophy after, was suspended for the playoffs after getting in a fistfight with an official at the end of Game 4. My guess is no such thing happens Tuesday. But if it does, I’m asking to write more hockey.
