In the first round, road teams won two out of three Game 7’s including the Kraken eliminating the defending champs. The Stars have won two out of three home games, and their only loss here came in overtime, so you would give some small credence to home-ice advantage, even in a league where home teams have losing records in the playoffs. Both goaltenders have been wobbly at times. This thing could go either direction Monday night. Louis and Ben Bishop was enjoying his finest moments as a Star, but a 2-1 overtime win sent the Blues down the path toward their one and only Stanley Cup. Fans were more hopeful three years later when Game 7 was played in St. Louis to bring a second-round series back to AAC that could have delivered Dallas to the conference finals but lost 6-1 and spelled the bitter end for Kari Lehtonen. In 2016, the Stars had captured Game 6 in St. It felt wrong, just from the storybook perspective, it seemed another chapter was there to be written for a team that had been so good all year in Ken Hitchcock’s first full season as head coach. In ‘97, the 4-3 loss to Edmonton in double overtime came at the end of my second season on the Stars’ beat. Beyond that, the Stars have only lost Game 7s, and some remain brutal, even deep in the memory banks. They made their name with the back-to-back Western Conference finals wins in 19 and - in a much more forgettable affair - beat Colorado in a second-round seventh game in the Edmonton bubble three years ago. Weirdly, the Stars have a rich history in Game 7’s but ONLY against Colorado. After taming Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, no one on the Stars is ever going to look too fast or too skilled to the Kraken. Seattle just won a Game 7 at Colorado, which I thought was a scary proposition when this series began.
It would be nice to say the Stars have history on their side, but it isn’t really the case. Jason Robertson, the club’s record-setting leading scorer, continues to be adrift at sea, catching the occasional post but floating on the perimeter of a battle he is in danger of missing entirely if the Stars can’t pull out a victory Monday night. Roope Hintz was great in the first round, and Joe Pavelski was fantastic returning from a concussion at the start of this series. The Stars still have the superior top line, but that’s more of a statistical case study of an entire season than an examination of the last two weeks. Still, it’s scary to suggest a goaltender nearly bleeding out with a four goals per game trend is your best weapon. He does have a history of not losing consecutive games (23-2-3 since the start of last year’s playoffs), and that’s the best thing the Stars have going for them Monday.
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