May 4th, 2008
Dallas Stars don't inspire confidence entering playoffs
Not to join the nabobs of negativism, but there is very little on paper that makes you think that the Stars can win this first-round series with the Ducks.
Some of the key numbers surrounding goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere are just amazing. Bottom line, Giguere wins in the playoffs. He is 31-13 in three years in the postseason. He is 8-0 in overtime games. Meanwhile, Marty Turco is 11-18 and 2-8 in overtime games. Now, that’s not all on Turco, because he has done a wonderful job of stretching some of those games out to triple and quadruple overtime before losing, but it just goes to show you the difference between the teams and organizations.
Randy Carlyle has coached in two postseasons and taken the Ducks to the Western Conference finals one year and the Stanley Cup the next. He is 7-1 in playoff series. Dave Tippett has coached the Stars for four postseasons and is 1-4. Chris Pronger has been on two different teams the last two seasons, and both have gotten to the Stanley Cup Finals. There’s something special there when that happens. There’s a calm and a comfort in the postseason.
The Stars don’t seem to have that calm.
The Stars work as hard as any team out there, and they do a thousand things right. But they haven’t had the killer instinct in the playoffs when they have had a team down, and they haven’t had the poise to close out close games when the playoff pressure has been highest. That might be the defense, that might be the forwards, that might be Turco. It might be Tippett and his coaching staff. But the bottom line is that somebody somewhere has found a way to make the last mistake.
Tags: dallas, radio, stars