BCE

Over the last five seasons, only one team has made the Stanley Cup final multiple times: the Tampa Bay Lightning. But the Dallas Stars are five wins away from joining that club, having made it to the final in 2020 before losing to the Bolts in six games.

Dallas keeps a low profile. Its stars don’t attract the same publicity as some of their peers. Media people don’t generally invoke the term “dynamic” when discussing their style of play. But since bringing in coach Peter DeBoer in the last off-season, the team certainly has a more offensive bent while maintaining its smothering defensive play. With the conference finals a win away, DeBoer’s Stars have hit on the right balance.

The inimitable NHL analyst Mike Kelly had a revealing stat on Twitter, where he highlighted that Dallas has 48 shots on net from the inner slot in the second round while limiting the Seattle Kraken to 18, the fewest of any team. It is a perfect distillation of Stars hockey: Fight your way into the middle to receive a pass or produce a tip while defensively preventing your adversary from doing the same.

Dallas Stars at Seattle Kraken Saturday, May 13 – 7 PM ET

Can the Kraken stop the Stars’ offence when Miro Heiskanen plays a full game? Through five games, we haven’t seen it. In Game 3, Heiskanen got hit in the face with a puck, removing him from the game, and the Stars imploded, losing 7-2. But in each of the four contests in which Heiskanen didn’t leave the game with an injury, the Stars scored at least four goals.

The Stars can score in myriad ways. Their offence thrums from the forecheck, cycle, or rush, and on the power play it is formidable. Their defencemen can goose their offence by spearheading the rush or finding shooting lanes for