The Dallas Stars were stomped 6-1 by the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, laying an egg in Game 7 of their second-round series. The Stars finished atop the Western Conference with 109 points, but unfortunately, goaltending issues with Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi tanked the team’s effort in the playoffs. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters after the game that losing was a “huge disappointment” but he’s not quite ready to assess blame.
“Right now is not the time to assess blame,” he said. “You’ve got to look at the whole picture. You’ve got to take the fact that we didn’t score in some situations (when) you need to score. If you’re going to beat a good team, you need to score too.” (H/T to theScore for transcribing)
He’s got a point. While the Stars gave up a whopping six goals, scoring only one isn’t going to win a deciding game of a series. Although it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Brian Elliott was impressive with 31 saves and the Stars only gave up 18 shots against. Lehtonen and Niemi are to blame, but Ruff won’t admit it.
Ruff said the loss is a learning experience for the Stars, even though nobody is thrilled with having to go home unexpectedly early in the playoffs.
“Sometimes, you have to learn from losing,” Ruff said. “We learned from the disappointment of not making it, (made) some adjustments on how we played, and (it) took us a lot further down the road … (but) there’s no consolation. Nobody’s happy in that room.”
It’s ultimately a bummer for Ruff and his Dallas roster. They were favorites to win the Stanley Cup and their poor goaltending cost them a chance. If the team doesn’t want disappointment to follow again next season, the position needs to be addressed. That might prove to be difficult considering the bloated contracts weighing down both netminders.
[theScore]
