Across the nine-plus weeks that the Stars were in the Edmonton bubble, before Monday night’s 2-0 loss in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final eliminated the Stars, the 51-person traveling party at the JW Marriott grew closer.
“We’ve been together here now for what is it? 70 days?” John Klingberg said. “Everybody’s been away from their families, girlfriends, wives. I mean it’s a second family. We spend a lot of time during the season together, as well. We’re on the road a lot. We’re brothers. We’re having a great time together, and obviously, this one stings a lot. It hurts. It hurts a lot. This is the dream to play on the biggest stage in the world, and you end up losing. It stings. It’s hurting.”
The Stars fell two wins short of lifting the Stanley Cup in the most unusual circumstances, so close to delivering Dallas its second championship in franchise history.
Tyler Seguin said the last two months were “the biggest grind and hardest time of our lives as professional athletes, and also the most fun.”
“I think we had so much fun kind of up until this point on this run, and it’s fun being on this stage,” Seguin said. “A lot of guys in this league or in this business don’t have that opportunity to feel this pressure, and we had a lot of fun with it. So it was great, but other than that, there’s nothing positive you’re really going to take from bubble life. It definitely sucked, and I think we’re all looking forward to seeing family and friends now.”
Goaltender Anton Khudobin, who started 24 games for Dallas in the playoffs, reflected on the Stars' resiliency across the entire season.
“We were down one goal, we were down two goals, three goals, we never quit on each other,” Khudobin said. “We never doubt ourselves that we can quit or we can’t win. We just kept going. Unfortunately, it is what it is right now. We’re not the winners, but the character in this room was unbelievable.”
Trouble exiting: The Stars had trouble leaving their own zone on Monday night, leading to Tampa Bay holding an 18-5 edge in 5-on-5 shots on goal through the first two periods. Down two goals in the third period, Dallas outshot the Lightning 11-6 at 5-on-5 in the final frame.
Klingberg said the Lightning were bringing two players on the forecheck, one in the middle and pinching their defensemen down the boards.
“They got a lot of pucks to get stalled in our own end,” Klingberg said. “They executed their game plan pretty good. It was tough, it was a tough series. The two best teams, probably, in the league if you look at the regular season as well. They were up there and we were up there. We gave it all. Two wins away from the Stanley Cup.”
— The Stars took two tripping penalties in the first period, one by Andrew Cogliano and the other by Klingberg. The one on Klingberg resulted in Brayden Point’s power-play goal that ultimately served as the game-winner.
After committing only one penalty in Game 5, the Stars were bit early by going to the box.
“If we can just keep our feet moving and keep our sticks on the ice, you find yourself taking a lot less penalties,” Bowness said Sunday.
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