EDMONTON, Alberta — It was the kind of day where Jason Robertson was pressed up to the top line by Roope Hintz’s injury and scored the Stars’ only goal, and when asked about it afterward said, “Oh really? I’m sorry, I didn’t even know.’’
It was also the kind of day where Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he “loved our game” right up until Connor McDavid scored his second goal of the afternoon to make it 3-1 on the way to being 6-1. DeBoer said there were plenty of building blocks “for us to start winning games.’’
Better work on those blocks through the night and overtime tomorrow because Game 4 is Tuesday night here at Rogers Place, and the Stars need to compete in a road game before it’s too late. Their last three road tests, they’ve lost 4-0 and 4-0 to the Winnipeg Jets and now 6-1 to the Edmonton Oilers, to go down 2-1 in the Western Conference finals. It’s the first time Dallas has lost consecutive playoff games this spring, a trait that had been keeping them afloat until Sunday afternoon when goalie Stuart Skinner and the Oilers took charge of the series. Now Dallas has to win two in a row including one of the games on the road, where the club is 2-5 this postseason, or this story ends in the same place for the third straight year.
It’s not DeBoer’s fault that he doesn’t have a single line he can count on right now. Whatever happened to the team with scoring depth? It’s a weird problem for a high-flying team that was shut out once in 82 games this regular season and has already been blanked four times in seven defeats. DeBoer bristles when he‘s asked about his team’s poor 5-on-5 play but I don’t know what else to call it. Dallas is minus-10 at even strength in the playoffs and Edmonton is plus-14. You think that doesn’t make a bit of a difference?
Sure, the Stars could even things up here Tuesday night, but my bet is if it happens, it will be on the power play where they are awfully good and the Oilers have the weakest penalty killing unit left in the playoffs. If it’s up to just beating them straight up, there‘s too much McDavid and too much Leon Draisaitl and not quite enough Mikko Rantanen this round for the Stars to thrive.
At least Rantanen was honest in dealing with his team’s struggles to score at even strength.
“At 5-on-5, we‘ve got to find a way to finish our chances a little more. Skinner’s making some big saves, but we‘ve got to make life harder for him,’’ Rantanen said.
The Stars had 31 shots on goal Sunday at even strength and scored once. It was on a shot from defenseman Lian Bichsel where Robertson was credited with knocking the puck past Skinner. One out of 31 isn’t going to work. Meanwhile, the Oilers scored five times on 19 even strength shots against Jake Oettinger, who has not been a force this round. He has allowed 12 goals in the three games while Skinner, who finished the Vegas series with back-to-back shutouts, has held Dallas to one goal in the last six periods.
It’s a messy situation and no one knows if the return of Hintz Tuesday night could fix things. He skated in pre-game warmups but stayed about five minutes, then went back to the dressing room. DeBoer said he “wasn’t close” to being ready but added that he should be regarded as day-to-day for Game 4. At least Hintz appeared to be walking fine leaving the arena as opposed to wearing a walking boot after Darnell Nurse‘s slash in Dallas on Friday night.
Without Hintz, DeBoer turned to Robertson despite the fact he had just two points (both assists) in the first eight playoff games after coming back from injury. Robertson has been good, not great in the last two playoff runs and his numbers over the last four postseasons don’t come close to matching his regular-season totals, where he has led Dallas in scoring. Robertson averaged 1.09 points per game the last four seasons and was a plus-82. But in four postseasons entering Sunday, Robertson averaged .78 points and was a minus-6.
He got credit for Dallas’ only goal Sunday but was a minus-1 because his line was on the ice chasing McDavid on both of his goals. In fact, in the third period when DeBoer sent the new Finnish-Filipino combination out for face-offs, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch regularly answered with both McDavid and Draisaitl. DeBoer had said Saturday that the Stars’ top line was the only one he trusted to defend McDavid, and Knoblauch was all too happy to present him with that challenge.
The Oilers don’t often win in the playoffs when they get outshot, and Dallas had a massive 34-24 advantage Sunday. Yet it wasn’t even a contest, just like all the rest of the Stars’ defeats. Dallas isn’t losing because of any bad bounces or puck luck this spring. The Stars haven’t lost a single game by fewer than three goals.
That’s about as puzzling as Robertson having no clue that he scored the team’s only goal Sunday. The Stars need to solve a lot of puzzles in a hurry.