(Jerome Miron/USA TODAY NETWORK)
The Dallas Stars are doing an admirable job of lying, and playing, their way through their first round playoff series.
They’re lying because they can’t admit how much of an underdog they are against the Colorado Avalanche. An NHL team playing without two of the best players at their respective positions in the league should not be ahead of a first round series, 3-2.
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That’s where the Stars find themselves after playing their best game of this first round series, a 6-2 win over the Avalanche on Monday night at the American Airlines Center. The Stars can close out the Avs in Game 6 on Thursday night in Denver.
“We have to play how we played tonight,” Stars forward Roope Hintz said. “It’s a simple game.”
They have not played like this all month. Even their head coach admitted this was their best 60-minute effort in the month of April.
The Stars are one win away from advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third consecutive year. They are one win away from being the favorite to win the Stanley Cup.
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The Stars, who combined for seven goals in the first four games of this series, found religion after leaving Denver following their Game 4 loss.
“I knew we’d respond,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I didn’t know we’d win 6-2. I didn’t know we’d win.”
Starting with Wyatt Johnston’s goal nine seconds into Game 5, the team ripped off five goals in their first 17 shots. Johnston’s goal was the ninth fastest to start a Stanley Cup game in NHL history.
“Just a little opening; I figured, ‘Why not?’” Johnston said after the game. “Just try it. You never know.”
Don’t ask questions. It’s the Stanley Cup playoffs, where logic has no place in the dressing room, a seat on the bench, and certainly not on the ice. These things never make any sense.
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Don’t be surprised when the Avs win Game 6, 17-2.
If the Stars had their complete lineup, this would not be a close series. But they don’t have their complete lineup, and that’s why we’re here.
Remember, the Stars had collapsed their way into the playoffs no like other team in the postseason. Monday was only the fourth time the team won in the month of April.
The Stars have done all of this without their top defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, who has been out since Jan. 28 when he suffered a knee injury that required surgery. He has not played since; the original prognosis was “month to month.”
The Stars never said which month; looks like May is your answer.
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That they have succeeded without an All-Star, All-World player at that position speaks to their depth, and the development of Thomas Harley.
And winning one playoff series without Heiskanen is all about anyone should ask of this team. His absence puts so much pressure on Harley to run their power play; Harley is basically the only other guy who can do it.
Heiskanen has been skating with the team, and the high-end optimistic hope was that maybe he could return late in the first round series. The Stars have some, not a lot, of room to breathe; they don’t have to push Heiskanen back into the lineup earlier than they want.
Best case scenario: The Stars finish this series in six games, Heiskanen has a few more days to skate his way back into playing shape, and he is ready for the Western Conference semifinals.
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Worst case scenario: The Stars revert to their ugly form, have their breakfast/lunch handed to them in a Game 6 loss, and Heiskanen is pushed into Game 7 by DeBoer who has no choice but to throw everything out on the ice in the hopes that it works.
When Heiskanen is ready to return, this is a Stanley Cup team.
They need him more than they need their other injured All-Star, forward Jason Robertson.
Robertson has been out since suffering a knee injury in the regular-season finale, and there is no sign that his return is imminent. We won’t know the specifics of the injury until the playoffs are over, and he has yet to return to skating.
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The mid-season trade acquisition of forward Mikko Rantanen, who scored a goal in Game 5, changed everything about this group of forwards.
The Stars can win a game, or another series, without Robertson.
The Stars are not going to win another series without Heiskanen.
Win one more, and they’re a Stanley Cup favorite.
