What's wrong with the Stars? Nothing, they've just run into the defending champions

DALLAS — Coach Pete DeBoer addressed the media Wednesday night following a second straight playoff game in which he felt his top-seeded Dallas Stars played well, and yet the Stars trail their first-round series against the Golden Knights 2-0 as it shifts to Las Vegas.

“They’re the Stanley Cup champions. They’ve got everyone figured out,” DeBoer said despondently after the 3-1 loss. “They figured out everyone last year, too, so we’re not alone on that boat.”

The Stars began Wednesday night’s Game 2 with the desperation you’d expect from a team in their situation.

Dallas forward Mason Marchment laid a crushing blow on Zach Whitecloud behind the Vegas net in the opening minutes. Moments later, Jason Robertson sent Vegas captain Mark Stone whirling to the ice violently with a big reverse check. In total, the Stars dished out 24 hits in the opening period alone and 53 in the game.

The sold-out crowd at American Airlines Center rocked the building, especially when Robertson gave the home team an early lead with a power-play goal.

None of it fazed the defending champs.

Vegas absorbed the punishment with composure, weathered the early storm and escaped the first period with a 1-1 tie. Then the Golden Knights found their game, completely shut down the Stars’ high-powered offense and closed out a 3-1 win to take a commanding 2-0 series lead as they head back to Vegas.

“It’s typical when you win the first one on the road and you’re feeling good about yourself, and all of a sudden they’re punching you in the mouth a little bit and then you had better get going,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said after. “We did respond well to that.”

After an impressive 113-point regular season, the Stars entered the playoffs as one of the favorites to win it all. They’re one of the most complete teams in the league, with four lines of forwards who are legitimate scoring threats, a world-class defenseman and a stud goalie.

The Stars haven’t choked. In fact, they believe they’ve played relatively well in the opening two games of their first-round series. And yet, they find themselves in a 2-0 hole, heading to one of the most difficult venues to play in the NHL.

Dating back to last year’s Western Conference final, the Golden Knights have beaten the Stars in five straight games and nine of their last 11 meetings. At this point, the Dallas players appear to be out of answers.

“We played good enough to win the game and just didn’t do it,” Stars forward Jamie Benn said. “Maybe we’re hitting too much. Maybe we need to go for pucks more. I don’t know. Maybe we were just being frustrated by last year, and knowing how good of a team they are, especially at five-on-five.”

Perhaps the most disheartening part of the start to the first-round series for the Stars is the fact they’ve played well.

“I loved our first period,” DeBoer said. “We make one mistake at the end of the first. (We) probably deserved to be up. That was probably a critical point in the game. The wrong guy gets in behind us at the wrong time, and that’s what they do. They make you pay. You come out of the first having played a great period and you have nothing to show for it.”

Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev stole the puck and found Jack Eichel with a long stretch pass near the end of the opening frame. Eichel drove to the net with Stars defenseman Ryan Suter draped on his back, deked to pull goalie Jake Oettinger to the left, then dished the puck against the grain to Jonathan Marchessault, who crushed it into the wide-open net.

“You go into the intermission 1-1 and we know we haven’t been at our best but we got through it,” Cassidy said. “Now it’s like, ‘OK let’s build our game and get to our game,’ and I think that’s what happened.”

After generating 11 shots and five high-danger chances in the opening period, Dallas had only 10 shots in the final 40 minutes. Their third-ranked offense which averaged 3.59 goals per game in the regular season was completely pacified by the Golden Knights’ stout defense. Protecting a one-goal lead in the third period, Vegas didn’t allow a single shot on goal over the final five minutes of the game. It was a defensive clinic eerily similar to Game 1 on Monday. Needing goals late, Dallas has generated only four total high-danger chances in the third period over both games.

“They were physical, but I think that fits into our style of play pretty well,” said Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin, who scored the game-winning goal. “We’re a big team and can play that type of game as well. I think we handled it and we were really poised. We made plays, and everyone was talking and communicating out there.”

It’s a shocking start to the postseason for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, heading on the road without a win, but this isn’t a typical wild-card team the Stars are facing. These are the defending champions, healthy at exactly the right time of year. The Golden Knights are deep at every position, partially because they added Hanifin, Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha at the deadline using the cap space cleared by placing Stone on long-term injured reserve when he lacerated his spleen.

Vegas has come under a lot of criticism for its utilization of the LTIR space and the timing of Stone’s return for the second straight year. It’s not the first team to use LTIR to its advantage, and considering it’s within the current rules, it likely won’t be the last.

The result is an incredibly deep roster with a wealth of postseason experience playing at the top of its game.

Eichel leads a center group loaded with talent. Hertl has already made his presence felt and plays a heavy style of hockey that thrives this time of year. William Karlsson is one of the best lockdown centers in the NHL, and Nicolas Roy is a big, powerful fourth-line centerman with the skill to finish around the net.

They’re strong on the wing as well, with Stone, Barbashev, Chandler Stephenson and Marchessault — last year’s Conn Smythe winner and this year’s leading scorer. The defensive group has an embarrassment of riches with Alex Pietrangelo, Hanifin, Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb and Whitecloud.

In goal, Logan Thompson has played well in his first two games of playoff hockey. He made a crucial save late in the second period, stuffing Wyatt Johnston’s drive to the net with his left pad to keep it 1-1. Moments later, Hanifin gave Vegas the lead. Waiting in the wings is Adin Hill, who backstopped last year’s Cup run.

“They’re a very good hockey club for a reason,” DeBoer said. “I think they’ve got a deeper roster than they had last year if you look at their entire lineup including their scratches.”

For a good example of that depth, look no further than the replacement for defenseman Nicolas Hague, who was injured near the end of Game 1. In comes three-time Cup champion Alec Martinez, who played in every playoff game in last year’s run and scored the Cup-clinching goal for Los Angeles in 2014. He filled in on Wednesday and the group didn’t miss a beat.

Dallas has outplayed Vegas for stretches in each of the first two games, but the details have cost the Stars. A momentary lapse in focus lost the lead at the end of the first period and flipped the entire momentum of the game. It’s that attention to detail the Golden Knights have mastered over several deep playoff runs.

“There’s an understanding of what it takes to win in this league,” Cassidy said. “We’ve been through it this time of year. You can’t get loose. You can’t relax. You have to stay on your toes and try to attack.

“I think our guys really matured through the run last year. I wasn’t here the year before, so I can’t speak to what happened on previous runs, but I just like what’s said on the bench. I like our professional approach.”

The Stars won the West in the regular season for a reason. They were one of very few teams to rank inside the top 10 in both goals for and against. They finished with the second-most points in franchise history, behind only the 1998-99 team that won the Cup. They had eight different players with at least 20 goals, and nine with at least 50 points. This team is really good.

The Stars fell behind Vegas 3-0 in last year’s conference finals, but did win two straight to make it a series before falling in Game 6. They also had the best road record in the NHL this season, so hope isn’t lost.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourself,” DeBoer said. “I like a lot of the things we’re doing. We have to find a way to find an extra goal or two a night at five-on-five and keep an extra one out a night at five-on-five.”

Still, to play as well as Dallas has with a 2-0 series deficit to show for it is frustrating, and it’s showing.

Asked how he and his teammates can put these losses behind them heading to Las Vegas, Stars forward Tyler Seguin responded, “I don’t know, read a book? Do what you have to do. I don’t know.”