Backup goaltender Casey DeSmith gave Dallas a chance to win, but their similar struggles persisted for a fourth game.
![]()
Stars coach Pete DeBoer doesn’t always hide his emotions, and Thursday night after Dallas' 3-2 shootout loss to Tampa Bay, he put them all on the table.
His tone in the postgame press conference bore resemblance to a memorable one during the Western Conference finals where he issued a feisty response to a certain Dallas Morning News columnist.
Thursday’s didn’t boil over to the point of profanity, but DeBoer wasn’t happy, to say the least.
“I’m really disappointed in our effort, so I don’t have much more to say than that,” he said. “They were harder, hungrier and heavier than us, which was inexcusable this time of year.
“We’ve been leaking a little bit the last couple of weeks, and tonight, I think, was probably about as bad as it’s been.”
His team did surge back from a 2-0 deficit to earn a point against a Vezina candidate in Andrei Vasilevskiy and force a shootout. His backup goalie Casey DeSmith was magnificent, making 36 saves on 38 shots including three in overtime. His rookie defenseman Lian Bichsel helped turn the tides with seven hits, and his fourth line kicked off the scoring with a well-earned goal.
But even those facts were a problem for DeBoer.
“When you’re talking about your fourth line and the youngest defenseman on the team being the bright spots this time of year, that’s not good enough.”
He’s not wrong. For a team that just traded four draft picks, including two first-rounders, for a top-10 scorer in the league, the message was that the Stars are “all in.”
Dallas has lost four of the six games since and looked far from a team ready for the playoffs, let alone a Stanley Cup contender.
Against Winnipeg, Colorado and most recently Tampa Bay — three teams that could eventually stand in Dallas' way to claim the NHL’s top hardware — the Stars looked uninspired.
With the playoffs just the month away, that’s the last thing DeBoer wants to see from his group.
After dropping the Winnipeg game, the Stars largely lost their chance to play for first in the Central Division and the conference. They hold a three-point cushion with two games in hand over Colorado, so they’re not imminent danger of losing that second seed either.
But the Stars need to find something to motivate them in the next month.
Some players have. With Jake Oettinger struggling as of late, DeSmith won six straight starts entering Thursday with a .914 save percentage and 2.42 goals-against average on the year, both numbers better than Oettinger’s.
“He was exceptional,” DeBoer said. “I felt bad that we didn’t give him a better effort.”
He made one save in the shootout against Brayden Point after Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene scored on Dallas' first two tries. But when it came down to a fourth round, Mikko Rantanen couldn’t find the net, and Gage Goncalves did for Tampa Bay.
The Stars had their chances well before the shootout to show up. They found themselves down 2-0 early in the second period after a slow start.
A breakdown in Dallas’ own zone allowed Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel to score on a wide open net. His line continued to pose a problem for Dallas early in the second period when Hagel beat Esa Lindell down the ice. DeSmith stopped his initial shot, but Anthony Cirelli followed it up to double the Lightning’s lead.
The two-goal deficit was a wakeup call, as just 38 seconds later, Colin Blackwell threw a shot on net that Oskar Bäck got a piece of for a tip-in goal.
Not long after that, the Stars’ first power play of the game turned into the equalizing goal with Mason Marchment poking in the puck on a scramble in front of the Tampa Bay net.
But in overtime, the Stars didn’t put a shot on goal. The effort and energy weren’t there.
Since arriving in Dallas, DeBoer hasn’t been easily irritated, nor does he often try to walk out of press conferences the second there’s a space to do so. He’s coached a team that went to back-to-back Western Conference finals and one that’s a favorite to advance even further this spring.
He has a lot to be happy about and to look forward to. But that’s why Thursday night’s performance left him feeling the way he did.
The Stanley Cup may be the hardest trophy to win in sports. The pieces seem to be there for the Stars.
But they’re not putting them together at a time when their best game is expected.
