It was not a good night for the Dallas Stars as the Tampa Bay Lightning cruised to an easy 5-2 win in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Steven Stamkos returned for Tampa and scored a goal. Braden Pointe scored his 11th goal of this post season. Victor Hedman had a three point night and Stars’ goalie Anton Khudobin was pulled after trailing 5-1.
Tampa got its game in full gear and made Game 3 look easy.
Dallas cannot win making the mistakes they made in Game 3.
There were intervals when the Stars moved the puck, but for the most part they were not good. Trailing 5-2 in the third period they went on the powerplay with a chance to get back into the game somewhat. The Stars pretty much responded with the worst powerplay I’ve seen yet in these 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was two minutes of pure hell. I could see Mike McEwen in my mind screaming….”Make a f–king pass!”
Then the Stars best player Jamie Benn allowed himself to be removed from the ice for ten minutes by losing his composure in a scrum.
I would think Game 4 is pretty much a must if the Stars hope to hoist the most glorious cup in sports at the end of these Finals.
Once one of the truly great sports franchises in American history is an interesting landing spot for Billy Donovan. I honestly can’t remember the last time the Bulls made the playoffs or were relevant as contenders.
They do have few nice young players and one would assume their front office is going to be very agressive pursuing players in free agency. Much easier to attract veteran black players to a great city like Chicago versus the Trump Hee Haw attitude in Oklahoma.
If I were a black free agent there’s no way in hell I’d play in Oklahoma. No way. If I were a white free agent stud hoss there’s no way I’d play in Oklahoma either.
I’m like Pau Gasol…I need the opera, culture,and great restaurants. Although I will say this the food in Oklahoma City is getting pretty good. I might do my top ten Oklahoma County restaurant list later this week.
Does this mean Chris Paul ends up in Chicago?
I don’t know.
I don’t consider Billy Donovan an elite NBA coach, but he’s okay.
Super nice person and someone who will represent his city in a class manner.
I’m happy for him and his family.
Class guy and Mike Gundy wishes he had Billy Donovan’s hair. BTW..it appears Breitbart Boy has shaved his mullet of late.
Dallas didn’t come out ready to play in the first period. They weren’t skating. That’s a problem for a hockey team.
Within a nine minute span the Stars took three bad penalties, gave up two power play goals, and three goals in total as the Tampa Bay Lightning led 3-0 after one period of lopsided play.
To the Stars’ credit they came back from the first intermission and turned Game 2 into a barnburner which went down the last seconds of the final period.
The ice evened out and the play was fast and furious on both ends of the ice.
On the night the Lightning outshot the Stars by a slim 31-29 margin.
Tampa was 0-15 in the power play in its last three games heading into Game 2. The Lightning went 2-4 on the power and that probably was the difference in Game 2. Dallas cannot send Tampa on the power play as they did in this first period.
Dallas was 1-4 on the PP and had multiple high quality looks in both the second and third periods.
The glass half full take for Dallas is that they hope to build on the last two periods and stay out of the penalty box in Game 3.
Little things add up in a hockey game bewteen two evenly matched teams. Staying out of the box, winning face-offs, and and executing on specialty teams just to name three come to mind.
The Dallas Stars have to be that hockey team in the first period the next game.
Thank goodness Anthony Davis got out of New Orleans. For the first time since his one year at Kentucky when he won a national championship… he’s relevant in NBA post season play.
In last year’s playoffs the Dallas Stars pushed the eventual champion St. Louis to a Game 7 before losing in overtime to the Cinderella Blues. Perhaps it was a harbinger of things to come for the North Dallas hockey club.
Don’t look now but the Dallas Stars are three wins away from winning their second Stanley Cup in Dallas hockey history. The first coming in 2000 when the Stars defeated the Buffalo Sabres in a Game 6 overtime thriller when if my memory serves me correct Brett Hull scored the game winner.
It’s all about goaltending in playoff hockey. Does your guy in net get hot and make the players in front of him feel invinceable. It’s a beautiful thing to witness when a hockey team feels it can’t lose with their goalie playing out of his mind.
Such was the case again for the opportunistic Stars as Anton Khudobin made 35 saves with 22 of them coming in the third period as the Stars iced Game 1 by a 4-1 count over Tampa.
The Stars first two goals and game winner were scored by defensemen jumping into the play. Every one on this team is chipping in and making plays at just the right time. Every guy at some point pulling his link on the chain.
It’s fun to watch.
Maybe nobody saw this coming, but maybe we who follow hockey should have considering how close the Dallas Stars came to beating the St. Louis Blues in last year’s Western Conference Semi-Finals.
My little grandson turns one-year old on September 22nd. What do you give your grandson who already has two dogs..Perk and Tucker and a Boston Bruins jersey?
I think I’m going to give him this song from his old granddad Mike.
You need a dog, a Bible, a woman you can love, a sense of humor and the refuge of a home you can always come home to when the world gets tough….among some other things.
Not really a surprise to me. Miami is a team which flew under the radar screen most of the season. Their lineup is a mixture of experience and youth which has been managed beautifully by coach Erik Spoelstra.
I can’t go as far to say they could beat the Lakers, but of the three teams left minus the Lakers I would say they would have the best chance to derail LeBron in the Finals.
But given the Cinderella nature of what Denver has done to date in this post season…I should probably hold off just automatically advancing the Lakers into the Finals.
A Lakers-Heat finals given that Lebron won two rings playing for Pat Riley and Spoelstra would seem fitting as we head towards our Bubble NBA Finals.
As an NBA fan in general… I can’t wait to see if the lights in this LA series will burn too bright for the young Nuggets to make it a compelling Western Conference Finals.
I’m very excited to watch Jerami Grant’s role in the series. This why Denver made this trade. I’m not sure why Oklahoma City made the trade.
Football can wait–we now have a Dallas Stars vs. Tampa Lightning Stanley Cup Finals and a possible LeBron vs. Miami Heat reunion.
This is the singer who broke through with Peter Gabriel on his world wide tour way back when.
As our country has imploded during the last six months or so with the pandemic and other issues as well…’In Your Eyes’ for some reason has been a pillar of inner strength and peace for me. It’s my pandemic song. I close my eyes…listen to it…and it puts me into a Jonathon Livingston Gull mode and helps me ignore all this shit happenong around me.
Paula the diva black lab even commented on it recently…”Mike–you seem at peace with yourself. I’m proud of you.”
Music has been a savior for me during the last seven months or so.
I love this scene from the movie “Her”. This is the final scene of the movie when this guy finally starts coming to terms with himself. We as men all need an Amy Adams character in our life even if she’s a black lab who weighs seventy pounds and wears a hot pink collar.
An incredible night of sports both in the NBA and NHL bubbles. As far as bubble double dips—this may have been the best night so far for those of us who are passionate double dippers.
So much for the much anticipated Lakers vs. Clippers showdown. That’s not happening because like the Dallas Stars, the Denver Nuggets are making everyone tear up their NBA bracket sheets this morning.
The Clippers did the unthinkable…they blew a 3-1 series lead against the youthful yet determined Nuggets and now find themselves holding the mantle of still being the choking Clippers who can’t even get to a conference final…let alone win a title.
Hard to believe the Sacramento Kings actually fired coach Michael Malone at one point—but that’s why they’re still the Sacramento Kings kind of like in Cleveland the Cleveland Browns are still the Cleveland Browns.
Now we get to see the two best offensive big men in the game in AD and Jokic go at it in the Western Conference Finals. So I’ve quickly gotten over not getting to see LeBron vs. Kawhi.
Both Kawhi and Paul George were absolutely brutal in this game. It looked like they were throwing the game. They were terrible.
I would think we in Oklahoma will get to see Jerami Grant try his hand at defending LeBron some in the upcoming Western Finals. Good to see Jerami finally with a contender in Denver. He was one of my favorites while he was here in Oklahoma City.
Here’s a thought…if Billy Donovan went heads up against Doc Rivers in a series would either team win the series? Or would they just flounder into eternity with their owner making excuses for them?
Did you see that look on Steve Ballmer’s face late in the fourth quarter?
In the East…Miami showed they’re no fluke in the Eastern Finals with an electric three point win in overtime versus the Boston Celtics.
The Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, and the Dallas Stars are in our hearts for those of us pretty much ignoring football until these two bubble tournaments draw to to a conclusion.
It’s like Tiger King. I swore I wouldn’t watch it, but here I am hooked on both bubbles.
In the NHL…the gritty New York Islanders fought tooth and nail and won 2-1 when Jordan Eberle scored the game winner in the second overtime. Tampa now leads that series 3-2 for those not living in the NHL bubble.
Jordan Eberle actually played some AAA hockey in Oklahoma City back when he was with the Edmonton Oilers. It was nice to see him have this moment in the spotlight.
So the Dallas Stars sit, watch, and rest as the Lightning and Islanders continue to wreak havoc on each other’s bodies.
A night of rest inside both bubbles on Wednesday night. A song would be nice.
I finally finished my Mike Gundy country song…’I Saw the Mullet King’ on the third try. This is the dude I want singing my song when we go to Nashville and record my only country music song to date.
The Dallas Stars behind their thirty-four year old backup goalie Anton Khudobin are returning to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2000.
In a Game 5 thriller the Stars elimnated the Vegas Golden Knights by a 3-2 count in overtime to advance to the Finals to most likely face the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It’s a great story as in eight of their playoff wins they’ve come from behind to win games.
So while the rest of the sports world is primarliy watching the NBA and football… inside the NHL bubble the Dallas Stars have become the story in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.