3 Thoughts-Fade To Black; Stars Eliminated

Edmonton hangs on to clinch series at home as Dallas' attempt fell short without goals

It won’t be this year.

As difficult as it is to accept, the Dallas Stars will not win their 2nd Stanley Cup in 2024, either. We thought it might happen in 2000, 2003, 2008, 2016, 2020, 2023, and 2024. And we were wrong each time.

Each time, there is a different an unique reason, but the fact is this: we now have a much greater appreciation for 1999 because everything broke right, everyone stepped up, and every moment delivered with that band of brothers. It would inspire every thought since and it would make us believe it was possible – even if we were dreaming.

This year, I was pretty sure this was a team capable of a Stanley Cup, mostly because it was. It was very capable of winning it all, but even a capable team still needs one of the better scenarios to occur for its dream to come true. That did not happen here as the Stars lost three straight games and fell to Edmonton in the Western Conference Finals.

Despite feeling like it as the better team, it was unable to prove it. And because of that, they will have to settle for another Conference Finals loss. This one, because they dropped a very hard-fought Game 6 in Alberta, 2-1, and therefore lose the best-of-seven series which offered a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals, four-games-to-two. Edmonton will now advance to the Cup Finals to battle with the Florida Panthers while the Stars will return to the drawing board yet again.

These are My Final Three Thoughts of the Campaign:

–We see the season end because the Dallas Stars could not score goals. Plain and simple, we can certainly look at the defense tiring and the goalie not carrying the piano on his back, but just about all available evidence points to Dallas unable to put the puck in the net. If you cannot score, you cannot win – especially this deep in the playoffs.