Is there one thing within the water relating to Dallas sports activities? The Cowboys are in a relentless state of existential disaster, the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic in trade for irrelevancy, and now town’s solely playoff vibrant spot, the Stars, are struggling to work out what’s unsuitable with their ace participant Mikko Rantanen.
Rantanen has been worse than a non-factor within the first two video games of the playoffs in opposition to the Avalanche, he’s actively harm them. The wing has but to register some extent, he’s tried six pictures on purpose with out end result, and is a -3 on ice this sequence. Rantanen additionally rivals the worst younger gamers on the Stars with an abysmal 39.1% Corsi (which measures 5v5 puck management), and his missing protection was already a recognized amount, however has confirmed up this sequence.
What makes this so dangerous is that Rantanen was speculated to be the lacking piece. The star (forgive the pun) who was going to show Dallas into a possible Stanley Cup champion. As a substitute it’s feeling much more just like the clock struck midnight and the Stars received a pumpkin on the worst potential time. Rantanen’s poor play has raised so many questions that the workforce is making an attempt to justify it in essentially the most labored style, saying he’s not used to enjoying with the workforce, and “has numerous distractions” since being traded.
It’s as if this isn’t the life of each participant who has ever been dealt on the deadline. Nonetheless, it’s what Stars coach Pete DeBoer stated about Rantanen’s play that ought to sound alarm bells for Dallas followers.
“He performed in a single place for nearly a decade, and he performed with one man (MacKinnon) for nearly a decade. And that man — nobody else within the league has that man, that performs that actual sport. You’ve been working off a sure associate like that for a decade. It’s not a straightforward transition.”
The key concern about Rantanen, and one that also hasn’t been defied — is that his stat-stuffing was a product of Nathan MacKinnon, hockey’s biggest distributor, whose passing brilliance units gamers as much as take the glory. With a staggering 173 assists within the final two seasons, MacKinnon is a game-changing participant, and that led to questions whether or not Rantanen was actually an elite scorer — or a benefactor. It was this inner battle the Avs had once they determined to not give Rantanen the huge contract he wished, as a substitute believing they may discover a new scorer. To date that guess has paid off, with a number of gamers stepping as much as fill the void, even when they don’t have the eye-popping numbers that Rantanen put up.
The Stars merely don’t have time to attend for Rantanen to get comfy. You don’t get that luxurious while you’re being paid as a lot as he’s to carry out. It’s not simply the shortage of numbers within the field rating, however how sluggish and unengaged he’s regarded whereas enjoying. Proper now it’s secure to say the Stars are a dramatically worse workforce than earlier than Mikko arrived, and that’s a tough capsule to swallow — particularly when the man Dallas traded away for him, Logan Stankoven, scored two objectives for the Hurricanes in his playoff debut, and that’s earlier than we speak concerning the 4 draft picks (together with two firsts) the Stars despatched to Carolina.
Whereas it’s completely truthful to acknowledge that this has been a tumultuous 12 months for Rantanen, traded to Carolina, then enjoying in Canada within the 4 Nations, then traded to Dallas — that’s additionally making solely too many excuses for him. In the event you’re a high participant you’re anticipated to step up. Struggling to carry out is one factor, however struggling to present effort is one other solely.
All is just not misplaced this sequence. The Stars and Avs are tied 1-1 because the sequence heads to Colorado, however the expectation was that Dallas would (and may) get out to a 2-0 lead and pretty simply. As a substitute they had been blown out in Recreation 1, and bailed out in additional time in Recreation 2. It’s tough to think about Rantanen will magically flip every part round with the emotional strain of returning to town he referred to as dwelling for a decade.
On some stage we should always have all seen this coming. In the case of sports activities Dallas has been disadvantaged of good issues just lately. Of course the Stars would find yourself with a can’t-miss participant like Mikko Rantanen solely to see him vanish when the workforce wants him essentially the most. It’s par for the course relating to essentially the most down-bad sports activities metropolis within the nation.
A minimum of the Wings have Paige Bueckers.
