With Game 3 of the Western Conference Final set to kick off Tuesday between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk take a look at what the Stars need to do to get themselves back into the win column and avoid going down 3-0.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s switch gears and head out West, where the Dallas Stars are looking to avoid a similar fate to the Carolina Hurricanes. The difference is Dallas hasn’t lost on home ice yet, and tonight’s Game 3 becomes that much more pivotal. To me, what Dallas needs to do is eliminate one mistake per game. You go back to Games 1 and 2, both going to overtime with [Brett] Howden and [Chandler] Stephenson winning it for Vegas, but at the end of Game 2, they had that thing. The Stars seemed to fumble the bag late in that hockey game. When you look at this series so far, what does Dallas need to do to get back into it?
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, that was definitely a senior moment for one of the NHL’s senior citizens there, Ryan Suter. Unforgivable, really, especially given his experience.
When I look at this series and how razor-thin the margin is, this is going to sound more critical than it should be, but they need a stop from Jake Oettinger. You can see the series save percentage; you can see the save percentage for the playoffs as a whole .901 isn’t going to get it done. When you get to overtime, and you get late in games or are trying to hold on to a lead, you need your goalie to bail you out once in a while when you make a mistake like that.
I feel like that has been one of the true difference makers in this series because think about what the conversation was like heading into this round. “Need more from Jason Robertson.” OK, well, he scored in each of the first two games of this series. Pick a player; for the most part, they’ve gotten it. While this hasn’t been high-scoring by any stretch of the imagination, it’s not like I’m sitting here saying that what they’re left needing is more offense. I think you nailed it perfectly by saying they need to cut down on the mistakes they are making, as that’s what biting them in the ass.
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