Aside from one period, the Western Conference Finals is a snore fest blowout, and the Dallas Stars don’t belong on the same sheet of ice with the Edmonton Oilers.
This 2025 Western Conference Finals looks pretty much the same as the 2024 version. Name your position, player, skill or facet, and the Stars continue to be whipped by the Oilers in every area.
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On Tuesday night in Edmonton, the Oilers scored a pair of power play goals to defeat the Stars 4-1 in Game 4. The Oilers added two empty net goals in the final minutes of the third period to bury the Stars, who head back to Texas searching for anything that resembles the team that played so well in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Oilers lead the series 3-1, and can close it out on Thursday night at the American Airlines Center. Barring some dramatic reversal, which would be historic, the Stars will finish one round short of reaching the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight year.
The Stars started playing in 1967, in Minnesota, and have never won a series after falling behind 3-1.
And if that doesn’t give you an extra boost of confidence, the Oilers have not lost three straight since their five-game skid to end the month of … February.
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Other than the Stars five-goal third period of Game 1, which pushed them to a 6-3 win, they’ve done nothing offensively. The Stars have scored two goals in the last three games combined. You might win a game during the regular season with a stretch like that, but in the playoffs it’s death.
The Oilers have out-scored the Stars 16-8.
This is not just a one-player issue; the entire roster has been exposed. The team has been pushed around, veteran Jamie Benn looks finished, and the lack of physical play is alarming.
But, Mikko Rantanen, where are you?
The Stars went out of their way earlier in the regular season by adding a dynamic, expensive player to avoid this specific issue: Playoff scoring, either 5 on 5 or the power play. They knew this could be a problem, in the playoffs.
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That’s why team owner Tom Gaglardi approved GM’s Jim Nill’s bold deal with Carolina to acquire the winger Rantanen before the trade deadline. The Stars gave up a lot to add Rantanen, and to secure the trade they handed him an eight-year, $96 million contract.
In a tight series, Rantanen should be the scorer to avoid this sort of a slump. Before this series against Edmonton, he has been one of the most productive playoff scorers in NHL history.
He was the darling of the Stars’ series wins against Colorado and Winnipeg in the first two rounds. In the third round, Moose has been meek. He has been thoroughly out-played by Edmonton All-Star forward Connor McDavid.
In 17 playoff games, Rantanen has 21 points, including nine goals. He is still tied for the NHL lead in goals during these playoffs.
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He has amassed these stats without doing much of a thing against the Oilers. Against Edmonton, Mighty Mikko has two assists. He has no goals in his last 6-plus games, tied for the second longest drought of his All-Star career.
The Stars were built specifically to move beyond what they had done the previous two years, and it again looks like they still don’t have enough. Even with Rantanen.
They have one more game to give themselves a chance to achieve something they’ve never done before, but everything they have done thus far in this series says they don’t belong on the same sheet of ice with the Oilers.