My negative take:
As nonecks said above, we are VERY fortunate to be in the position we are in. We could easily be getting swept tonight. Saturday was an OT coin flip and Monday we stole one. This whole season, despite a division title, has felt like one big stress and very little fun.
My attempt at finding a sliver of hope:
No matter how ugly the loss was tonight, we are still pretty much right where we want to be. It doesn't matter if we lost 10-0 or in 3OT, it still counts as one loss. All I wanted was to get a split in Dallas, and we did that.
After losing game 1 at home, if you had told me we would be coming home this Saturday tied 2-2 I would have gladly taken it.
When we were sitting in Bridgestone Saturday night in OT, one shot away from going down 2-0 in the series, if you had told me we would be 2-2 after 4 games, I would have gladly taken it.
And that is exactly where we are. There are numerous examples of teams getting blown out in a playoff series and it winding up being just a blip on the radar.
Saturday will tell the tale, and after tonight it will be absolutely fascinating to see what happens. If this doesn't light a fire under our butts, then this whole sorry team truly has no heart and deserves to get bounced. If we don't come out and play our best game of the entire season it will be bitterly disappointing.
I will go so far as to say even if we win- if it is one of our patented 2-1 hold on for our lives games where we are outplayed?? I will be bitterly disappointed in that EVEN IF WE WIN.
That's all I got- I have no confidence whatsoever anymore in this team- but let's see what happens Saturday.