What happened to the once high-powered Stars offense?

[SimpleJack]

10 SOG through 2 periods at home in a crucial game 5?!?!?

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey or elite goaltending either…

And it’s been like this pretty much the entire series….Dallas just looking completely inept offensively. The same team that had like 10 players put up 50+ pts during the regular season, and they looked pretty scary at times against VGK and COL too.

Very strange. Bad time to start sucking offensively. Series isn’t over but still….I’m honestly SHOCKED at how poorly the Stars have played as this series has gone along. Thoughts? Solutions?

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[eviohh26]

Who knows. Maybe Central wasn't as good as people say. They are making for a boring WCF. This entire site was dissing both Van/Edm who ever won about having to go get dominated by the Stars. They don't look like the team HF chopped them up to be. HF is wrong once again. Who would have thunk .

 

[MessierII]

They ran into the best team they’ve played yet by a landslide.

The only team that beats the oilers is the oilers. When they are at their best they are the best team period. They aren’t at their best all the time but when they are no one in this league can stop them.

 

[voxel]

10 SOG through 2 periods at home in a crucial game 5?!?!?

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey or elite goaltending either…

And it’s been like this pretty much the entire series….Dallas just looking completely inept offensively. The same team that had like 10 players put up 50+ pts during the regular season, and they looked pretty scary at times against VGK and COL too.

Very strange. Bad time to start sucking offensively. Series isn’t over but still….I’m honestly SHOCKED at how poorly the Stars have played as this series has gone along. Thoughts? Solutions?

Huh?

Game 6 against the Nucks

Game 5 against the Nucks

 

[syz]

Sensing a pattern among teams who have played the Oilers this year.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Fatigue. The Stars didn’t even have the jump right at the puck drop and this was in front of their own crowd. They went to the final 4 last year and again this year. That’s a lot of hockey in 2 years. Plus going 7 against Vegas and 6 plus 2 OT games vs Colorado takes a toll.

 

[eviohh26]

They ran into the best team they’ve played yet by a landslide.

The only team that beats the oilers is the oilers. When they are at their best they are the best team period. They aren’t at their best all the time but when they are no one in this league can stop them.

. Yea no one can beat the Oilers but the Oilers. What a take.

Lets say the Oilers make the cup final and lose to lets say Florida. Its only because the Oilers beat themselves? What a homer take.

 

[voxel]

Also look at the last three games against the Stars. Stars maybe had 2-3 great periods and whole lot of meh.

 

[LTIR]

10 SOG through 2 periods at home in a crucial game 5?!?!?

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey or elite goaltending either…

And it’s been like this pretty much the entire series….Dallas just looking completely inept offensively. The same team that had like 10 players put up 50+ pts during the regular season, and they looked pretty scary at times against VGK and COL too.

Very strange. Bad time to start sucking offensively. Series isn’t over but still….I’m honestly SHOCKED at how poorly the Stars have played as this series has gone along. Thoughts? Solutions?

Oilers did the same to LA and VAN as well.
They really aren't a run and gun team this year. Knobloch is the best coach in NHL this year no matter who was declared finalists or winner.

 

[HockeyWooot]

This is the Oilers at their best win based on aggressive defensive play, 50/50 puck battles, blocks etc rather than simply overpowering offensively.

Very reminiscent of the last series GM 6 and 7.

 

[MichaelFarrell]

Evan Bouchard is just a defensive dynamo I guess. Looks like Adam Foote out there. Either that or the dynamic fast-paced offensive line of Marchment-Duchene-Pavelski has just been unlucky.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Robertson is a streaky scorer. Hintz and Pavelski peaked last playoffs. I knew their run last year was very unlikely to be repeated. Hintz and Pavelski were lights out last years playoffs, not so much this year. Pavelski looks like he’s ready for retirement.

 

[MessierII]

. Yea no one can beat the Oilers but the Oilers. What a take.

Lets say the Oilers make the cup final and lose to lets say Florida. Its only because the Oilers beat themselves? What a homer take.

Here’s some facts. Oilers pk is the best ever in playoff history so you more or less have to score all your goals at 5 on 5. Guess who scores the most 5 on 5 goals? The oilers. Guess who has the best pp in the playoffs? The oilers. Just right there makes for a tough situation. Only time the oilers have been taken down is when they completely stop skating or the goaltending falls apart.

 

[Kcb12345]

There's an entire series thread discussing this.

Lot of guys have been no shows though. Other guys are too slow and Edmonton has been handling them well. Stars also seem to be changing their gameplan because they're so worried about McDavid/Draisaitl. Dmen aren't getting involved, forwards are worried about getting caught up ice, etc. They just need to play their game cause McDavid and Draisaitl are still doing their thing. It's almost impressive how the Stars basically go the entire game without a dman going below the faceoff dots every once in a while in this series. If they do, every forward drops back defensively lol

They dominated long stretches of play against Vegas and Colorado and throughout the regular season, but in this Edmonton series they've dominated maybe 10-15 minutes in game 3 in the 2nd period. Rest of the series has been all Edmonton or pretty even.

Edmonton has some underwhelming players on paper but their team defensive game is very strong. Just look at the way they transition or the way they defend the front of their net when a rebound occurs.

You also have Hintz refusing to shoot the puck I suppose due to injury, Duchene refusing to shoot the puck for whatever reason, Pavelski just being too old to do anything now, and guys like Marchment and Robertson are too slow to be truly effective at 5v5 consistently.

Also, doesn't help when your powerplay does absolutely nothing on a nightly basis. It was decent in the previous 2 series'. Credit the Oilers for some of that too, Stars PP really struggles under pressure and always has. Too slow to react in time

 

[eviohh26]

Here’s some facts. Oilers pk is the best ever in playoff history so you more or less have to score all your goals at 5 on 5. Guess who scores the most 5 on 5 goals? The oilers. Guess who has the best pp in the playoffs? The oilers. Just right there makes for a tough situation. Only time the oilers have been taken down is when they completely stop skating or the goaltending falls apart.

Oilers are a very good team. Doesn't take away what you said was bizarre . It's like if I said as a Van fan back vs Boston that we only lost to Boston because we beat ourselves. It's just a bad take.

 

[syz]

Yea I was going to mention the PP as well. Don't know what their numbers looked like in the first 2 rounds but they've run into a bit of a brick wall PK. That'll bring your goals per game down.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Deboer loves and prefers playing his vets. He doesn’t like injecting kids like Bourque into the lineup. He keeps putting Pavelski out on the #1PP unit and has done no adjustments to the PP. He will likely be fired if they lose on Sunday.

 

[SimpleJack]

Who knows. Maybe Central wasn't as good as people say. They are making for a boring WCF. This entire site was dissing both Van/Edm who ever won about having to go get dominated by the Stars. They don't look like the team HF chopped them up to be. HF is wrong once again. Who would have thunk .

Dallas truly was outstanding offensively during the season. Not just cuz people on some website were claiming them to be. They legitimately were…again just look at the #s. They had essentially 3 “1st” lines plus Heiskanen/Harley all putting up big #s and producing at a high level.

 

[Bizz]

Pete DeBoer happened.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Dallas truly was outstanding offensively during the season. Not just cuz people on some website were claiming them to be. They legitimately were…again just look at the #s. They had essentially 3 “1st” lines plus Heiskanen/Harley all putting up big #s and producing at a high level.

Harley is a rookie and has been way overplayed in this playoffs. He’s still young but man he’s be exposed over and over in this series, he’s been a huge liability. Stars really should have tried to get both Tanev AND Hanifin at the deadline. Their weak depth on the blueline is showing now. Hieskanen is being played into the ground, Tanev is counted on too heavily. Suter should be your #7D guy who only plays when injuries happen.

 

[The Nuge]

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey

Because people haven’t been paying attention, and talk out of their asses about how “the Oilers can’t defend”. This isn’t 2010 anymore. Just because we have the best offensive 1/2 punch in the league doesn’t mean the team can’t defend

 

[soothsayer]

10 SOG through 2 periods at home in a crucial game 5?!?!?

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey or elite goaltending either…

And it’s been like this pretty much the entire series….Dallas just looking completely inept offensively. The same team that had like 10 players put up 50+ pts during the regular season, and they looked pretty scary at times against VGK and COL too.

Very strange. Bad time to start sucking offensively. Series isn’t over but still….I’m honestly SHOCKED at how poorly the Stars have played as this series has gone along. Thoughts? Solutions?

They literally are an elite shut-down team.

 

[MessierII]

Dallas truly was outstanding offensively during the season. Not just cuz people on some website were claiming them to be. They legitimately were…again just look at the #s. They had essentially 3 “1st” lines plus Heiskanen/Harley all putting up big #s and producing at a high level.

You take away the rush and they don’t score all that much. That’s what they’ve done. On top of that the oilers PK is the best ever in the history of the playoffs so you get no momentum from that at any point.

 

[SimpleJack]

Because people haven’t been paying attention, and talk out of their asses about how “the Oilers can’t defend”. This isn’t 2010 anymore. Just because we have the best offensive 1/2 punch in the league doesn’t mean the team can’t defend

This

This must be the case, from everything im gathering. The Oilers were simply underrated in that area of the game. Extremely underrated.

What were the #s saying during the regular season im just curious?? Were they this tough to play against all season long and people just weren’t paying attention??

 

[LTIR]

Pete DeBoer happened.

Is he supposedly one of the best coaches in the league?
Maybe Knoblauch happened?

Dallas got plenty of chances tonight and things could have been much different if Skinner wasn't very good.

It's a game on inches... Dallas got close plenty of times.