Edmonton-Dallas Game 5 (5/29/2025)
Before I lose steam with this whole updating the website kick I'm currently on I want to share a few thoughts on the games I've seen in this series so far. First, McDavid is a demon, a man possessed, striving every shift to finally get that sixteenth win and hoist the Cup. Draisaitl isn't far behind, their one-two punch being favorably compared to the two-headed monster that still is Crosby and Malkin by this Penguins fan. Rantanen has been nearly invisible, though I'm happy to see Jason Robertson scoring as I've been somewhat disappointed by his run to this point. Hintz clearly wasn't at 100% when he returned to the playoffs and that was mercilessly exploited by Edmonton. Nurse viciously slashed Hintz in the laces and likely aggrivated whatever was ailing him prior to his return, making him ineffective so far in this series. Johnston too has been quieted by Edmonton, a team, who, on paper, don't look like much of a threat outside of their superstars but who find ways to win, often in stunning fashion.
I don't know what to expect tonight but Utree's utterance of "You don't win Cups with Pete DeBoer" is always bouncing around in the back of my mind any time Pete's face pops up on the TV. It's looking like this will be another winless season for old Pete, unless Dallas figures out how to win three in a row against a stacked Edmonton team real soon. What should the Stars do if they lose tonight? Do they stick with DeBoer and tweak other parts of the lineup? Jim Nill is going to have some difficult decisions during this offseason. The team SEEMS so, so close. They have depth, they have goaltending, they have solid defense. The only thing they don't have is a superstar of McDavid's caliber which, let's face it, could only happen if the man were cloned. Rantanen, Hintz, Johnston, and Robertson are all capable of scoring in bunches but nobody else in the world is Connor McDavid.
If I feel like it maybe I'll write up a post-game summary with my thoughts on the game itself, my thoughts on a rematch in the Final assuming Edmonton wins tonight, and what Dallas should do in the offseason. I want Dallas to make a series of it so The Hockey Guy has at least one of his teams left to root for.
I popped in and out of viewing the game through this evening. I saw the three-nothing drubbing that Edmonton administered in the first period and realized I could safely walk away without much worry of things changing drastically. And I was right. Edmonton kept a lead the entire game. Any time Dallas scored, Edmonton answered. This game was more open than Game 4 with Dallas having lots of quality scoring chances and their forecheck looking like in Colorado. Robertson showed up but too little, too late. And you expect more than ONE assist from Rantanen. This is still a good team with great depth but Hintz playing injured and Rantanen getting shut down really sunk their chances. Sometimes them's the breaks in the playoffs. The Penguins had multiple years where Crosby, Malkin, or both were injured before the playoffs started and fell out early because of it. It wasn't until both learned to play a less risky style of hockey and were surrounded by fast, skilled depth players that the Cup wins came. Sometimes guys just get unlucky and there's not much that can be done about it. The playoffs are about depth, depth, and more depth. The Finalists both have depth that rivals the Mariana Trench. It's going to be another bloody war of attrition and I have no idea who will come out on top this year.