Even six months removed from the most recent Stars home game with the team playing in Edmonton, the light posts outside the American Airlines Center are adorned with the faces of the team’s most recognizable figures.
The pictures represent who the franchise pinned their hopes for another championship on, an idea that was diminished by a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night, giving the Lightning a 2-1 series lead.
The portraits have hung since the beginning of the season a year ago, and during Wednesday’s blowout loss, many of their subjects were at fault as the Lightning’s poster boys ripped through the Stars.
Tampa Bay received goals from Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat. Among that group is the entire Lightning top line, their captain, a Hart Trophy winner and a Norris Trophy winner. The Stars received their first goal from Jason Dickinson, the fourth-line penalty killer who scored nine goals this season. Their solid second-year defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, added Dallas’ second goal in the third period.
In the biggest game of the postseason — thus far — the Stars’ best players were swallowed by the Lightning’s. And all the mistakes were magnified given the scale of the game.
Heiskanen was guilty of an egregious turnover in the first period, falling to the ice and whirling an ill-advised cross-ice pass directly onto Kucherov’s stick. Rid of obstacles, Kucherov made easy work of Anton Khudobin.
Esa Lindell was burned by Stamkos racing up the right wing, attempting a hit but instead missing entirely. Stamkos picked the far corner on Khudobin to make sure that Lindell’s error counted on the scoreboard. In the game’s opening seven minutes, both of the Stars’ best defensive defensemen were torched.
Tyler Seguin whiffed on a rebound chance in the first period, extending his goal drought to 12 games, a career-high in the postseason. Tampa Bay received a goal from their electric No. 91 in just one period of action. Dallas is still waiting for their No. 91 to snap out of a slump at the worst time of the playoffs.
Jamie Benn missed a golden opportunity in the second period, with the game still in reach, by nailing Point with a shot as Andrei Vasilevskiy scrambled to recover from his own turnover. Benn was a force for the Stars in the Western Conference final, but is pointless through three games in the Cup Final and spent the majority of the third period in the penalty box after a tussle with Jan Rutta resulted in a 10-minute misconduct.
Alexander Radulov was called for two hooking penalties, one ironclad and one questionable. The Lightning scored on one of them, as Hedman’s goal gave Tampa Bay a three-goal lead early in the second period.
John Klingberg was caught up ice on Point’s goal in the second period, as the rest of his teammates behind him changed. That left Lindell to fend off a 3 on 1. He couldn’t.
Other poster boys? Roope Hintz was scoreless for the 11th straight game. Ben Bishop was hurt for the 10th in a row, as Anton Khudobin made 24 saves on 29 shots in two periods of work.
In the big picture, these errors would not be terribly worrisome. There would be another game to fix the warts. There would be time to refocus and flush a loss. The odds that all those players would play as poor again? They would be low. The Stars could move past Wednesday night.
But not now.
The Stars season could be over on Saturday night. Games 4 and 5 of the Cup Final will arrive quickly, first on Friday and then again on Saturday. Dallas is two games away from spending two months in an Edmonton bubble — sans family and friends, filled with concrete and boredom — and coming up empty.
Dallas has experience flipping a 2-1 deficit. They did so last year in the first round against Nashville. They did so this year in the first round against Calgary.
The top line of Benn, Seguin and Radulov led the Stars past the Predators. It was Heiskanen and Joe Pavelski who shined brightest against the Flames. To come back against the Lightning, the Stars need their best players to check back in.
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