Dallas Stars run their streak to ‘Magic Eight’ — in the worst direction

Whatever happens for the remainder of these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Dallas Stars will always be able to proudly proclaim that they did not trade Luka Doncic.

Unlike the Dallas Mavericks, who missed the playoffs, their tenant partner at the American Airlines Center started their postseason on Saturday night, and it went just about as well as their last seven Game 1s. And about as well as their last seven games of this regular season, too.

No team in these Stanley Cup playoffs needed a good Game 1 more than the Stars, who instead of playing well maintained their steady pace of tumbling face forward into a sheet of ice.

On the strength of two fluke goals, and then three other ones, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Stars 5-1 on Saturday night to win Game 1 of their first round Stanley Cup playoff series. Game 2 is Monday night in Dallas.

Given their playoff success in each of the last two seasons, the following does not seem possible but the Stars have now lost their last eight Game 1s in the postseason. Seven of those are under current head coach Pete DeBoer.

Given the way the entire month of April has gone for this team, the following seems entirely possible: The Stars have now lost eight straight games. Their last win came on April 3.

The Stars were built for a Stanley Cup run, and rather than everything lining up at the right time to win their first title since 1999, it’s not only not coming together but rather falling apart. For Stars fans who are sure that 2025 is “Their year,” my advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

“We have a lot of experience down 1-0,” Stars forward Wyatt Johnston said after the game.

That reads well on a season-ticket brochure.

Despite what their head coach says, the Stars are not a confident team. No team on an eight-game losing streak feels great about themselves.

They missing two key players from their lineup, and look dangerously like a great regular-season team that won’t make it to the second round of the playoffs. The Stanley Cup playoffs always has one or two of those teams every year.

All-Star forward Jason Robertson is not available because of an injury he suffered late in the regular season; All-Star defenseman Miro Heiskanan, who has missed months because of injury, is skating and he may be back in time for this series.

Losing Robertson hurts, but missing Heiskanen for too much longer and that will end the Stars’ shot at a Stanley Cup. No team can be without a player of his caliber and expect to win a title.

Against Colorado, the Stars did return veteran forward Tyler Seguin, who had been out since Dec. 1, 2024 due to hip surgery. That Seguin came back is one of those modern medical marvels, but he can’t be expected to carry too much. He played 16 minutes on Saturday night and had three shots.

In the last two long playoff runs by the Stars, both in 2023 and 2024, they repeatedly came back from deficits in the series to advance to the Western Conference finals. A team that continually falls behind in a series is not playing with fire, but a lighter, a tank of gasoline and an aerosol can.

In Game 1, Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was good. Good. Not God.

It helped tremendously the forwards he faced did nothing for a good portion of the evening. By the time the Stars forwards decided to join in on the fun, it was the start of the third period, and they trailed 2-0.

The Stars made it 2-1 on a power play goal with a little more than 13 minutes remaining in the game, but this was just another Stars’ Game 1 playoff loss. Colorado added three more goals late to bury a team that for most of this month looks buried.

“We’ve been here before,” Stars defenseman Thomas Harley said. “Being down 1-0 in a series is never fun.”

And, they didn’t trade Luka.

Dallas Stars run their streak to ‘Magic Eight’ — in the worst direction | Opinion

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