Stars Burn Out in Third Straight Conference Final Loss

After the Dallas Stars acquired Mikko Rantanen on March 7, they seemingly gave themselves their best chance yet at winning a Stanley Cup in this era. Unfortunately for them, it led to the same end result as before.

The Stars' season came to an end Thursday night with a 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. Dallas has now lost in the Western Conference Final in three straight seasons, becoming the first team to do so since the NHL realigned to more geographical conferences in 1982.

Furthermore, head coach Peter DeBoer has now lost in the third round in six of the past seven seasons - once with the San Jose Sharks, twice with the Vegas Golden Knights and now thrice with the Stars.

It doesn't take a detective to figure out why the Stars lost this series, they simply couldn't score. They had just 11 goals all series - five of which came during a third-period outburst in Game 1, the only game they actually won. They didn't have a lead at any point between Games 2 and 5, all of which they lost by at least three goals.

Ironically, those offensive struggles fall in large part on Rantanen. The Finnish superstar had an incredible six-game stretch earlier in the playoffs, recording 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) between Game 5 against the Colorado Avalanche and Game 3 against the Winnipeg Jets, but only managed four assists in 13 games after that stretch. He only had three assists in this series.

That said, other key forwards, such as Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston, struggled to score as well.

Additionally, Jake Oettinger did not play at the level he usually does in the playoffs. After a strong showing in the first two rounds, but had a save percentage of just .853 against Edmonton. DeBoer also pulled him just 7:09 into Game 5 after he allowed two goals on as many shots, making for a brutal end to his postseason.

After this defeat, the Stars have some big questions to answer. They have the least amount of cap space in the league at just under $5 million and they have several key players about to hit free agency on July 1, including Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund. Additionally, they decimated they traded a ton of draft assets for Rantanen, and now only have one pick in the first four rounds for each of the next two years (third-round pick in 2025, second-round pick in 2026).

Simply put, the Stars have some things to figure out if they want to win a Stanley Cup in this era.