Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' season-ending win at L.A.

LOS ANGELES --The Dallas Stars closed out their 2017-18 season Saturday with a 4-2 win over the playoff-bound Los Angeles Kings.
Here are some final thoughts and things from a win that, while impressive on a number of levels, will do little to assuage the pain of missing the playoffs for the third time in the last five years and second season in a row.

1. Going out with heads held high and more than a few regrets

One night after there was some question about whether all Dallas players were pulling on the rope right to the very end of the season following a sloppy 5-3 loss to Anaheim, the Stars stormed out of the gate and blitzed former Vezina Trophy winner and two-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Quick for four first-period goals.
They pounced on loose pucks and forced the sluggish Kings into multiple errors in their own zone in building a lead they made stand up throughout the night.
The win over the Kings was their second on a three-game West Coast road trip that brought the regular season to a close. All three games were played after the Stars were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
"It's tough. These last few games have been tough to play," said netminder Kari Lehtonen, who got the win and was excellent making 34 saves on 36 Los Angeles shots.
"You just have to come out here and do your job, you know? I'm happy we got a win tonight. It doesn't bring too much joy after the whole thing."
The Stars ended up finishing three points behind eighth-place Colorado, which earned the final wild-card berth Saturday in a do-or-die win over St. Louis.
"This is a league of really small margins," Lehtonen said. "Like Colorado last year and this year, they didn't change much personnel, they just tinkered with it little things. Now, they're in the playoffs, so that just shows how tight things are."
Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock was already looking at connecting the dots from this night to the next time the team plays meaningful games.
"I know it's a long time before we play again, but there's got to be building blocks," he said. "We finished three points out of the playoffs, and there is building blocks here -- a lot of improvement in this group, a lot of responsibility in this group. We've got to build on that stuff, we know we've got to be better.
"There's certain elements of our game and certain places, times especially on the road, we've got to get better at. That's for another day, but we improved a lot, took a lot steps and got to continue taking steps."

2. So, how close is close?

How close is this team, really?
The autopsy, as Hitchcock has several times referred to the process of breaking down the team's fall out of what looked to be a sure playoff berth with fewer than 20 games to play, will begin Monday with the cleaning out of lockers, postseason physicals and the beginning of the interview process with management and coaches.
But on this night, at least, something to hang onto moving into what will be a long offseason.
"I don't think we should be in a hurry to do anything, but get away and kind of think things through. There is lots of stuff to think about from everybody, and there is lots of decisions to be made, I think we need to get away," Hitchcock said.
"I'm hopeful that the feeling is that we're a lot closer than further away. We're disappointed -- disappointed for the guys that couldn't participate in the last couple of months because they probably would have helped us a lot. But we'll think about that stuff in the next couple months."
The Stars finished 16-20-5 on the road and they'll need to be .500 or better next season. But after a franchise worst eight-game winless streak, they finished up going 4-2.

3. In praise of the captain

There was a stretch of time in February where things were not going well for Stars captain Jamie Benn.
He had one goal in 14 game, seemed unable to get shots on net and generally speaking looked out of sorts. Stuff happens.
But even as the Stars were sliding out of playoff contention, in the last month, Benn has played some of his best hockey of the season. And on this trip, he bookended a mediocre outing in Anaheim with two dominant performances in wins in San Jose and Los Angeles, scoring six times, including a first-period hat-trick Saturday as the Stars blazed to a 4-0 lead in the season finale.
He finished the season with 36 goals and 79 points, as well as now holding the distinction of recording the fastest hat-trick in franchise history, erasing a mark set by Bill Goldsworthy.
It took Benn just 5:17 to establish the mark -- not that Benn was doing much celebrating after the game.
"It's tough, obviously. You know, done for the year. I don't know. Not much to say. We tried to play for each other today, and it was nice to finish the year off with a win I guess," Benn said.
Being close, as the Stars were, is a relative thing. And certainly no one in the Stars' room was taking any solace from onlybeing three points removed from a playoff berth.
In some ways, it makes it worse.
"It's obviously tough. You hate to look back and wonder what you could have done different," Benn said. "We played some pretty good hockey most of the year, and then we didn't raise our level when it needed to be raised.
"Here we are out of the playoffs now."

4. Lehtonen's swan song?

As noted Lehtonen, who sat in favor of journeyman Mike McKenna on Friday night in Anaheim, was stellar in beating the Kings at Staples Center for the second time this season.
He was especially busy in the second period when the Kings out-shot Dallas 18-2. And as the team gathered to congratulate Lehtonen on the ice, it seemed as though his teammates lingered a little longer than usual, given that there's every possibility that this will be Lehtonen's last game as a Dallas Star.
The 34-year-old is coming to the end of his current contract, and given the team's slide out of playoff contention after starter Ben Bishop went down with a left knee injury, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which Lehtonen will return to the team.
But, as if often the case with the thoughtful netminder, his focus was elsewhere.
"You know today, today just felt like another road game, and then just especially what happened with that junior team (in Humboldt, Saskatchewan), things are not really in your own things and what you maybe sometimes would think about," he said.
"Yeah this could be my last game as a Dallas Star, but you know, when you have other things like that happening, your own things really don't cross your mind that much."
Benn and Lehtonen have been teammates since Benn joined the league back in 2009 and Lehtonen joined the team in a trade with Atlanta during that season.
"I've been his teammate for ever since I came in the league. We've been through a lot together," the captain said. "He's worked hard all year and every year I've played with him. It's nice to see him get a win here in the last game, and we'll see what happens."

5. And who else?

No doubt the future was on the minds of a handful of other Stars players at least as they prepared for Saturday's game.
Change is inevitable in the salary-cap world of the NHL, and when you miss the playoffs for the eighth time in 10 years and third time since general manager Jim Nill took over, that change is likely to be even more pronounced.
And so, it will be interesting to see what the Stars do vis-a-vis a couple of hard-working defensemen in Greg Pateryn and Dan Hamhuis, who shouldered a significant load as a surprise shut-down pair for much of the season.
Even if they looked like they'd been worn down as the final quarter of the season approached, both were very pleasant surprises this season. They are both scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this summer. Pateryn is 27 while Hamhuis is 35, and with top defensive prospect Miro Heiskanen coming to North America next season, it's hard to imagine there will be room for both Hamhuis and Pateryn.
Also heading toward unrestricted free agency is Antoine Roussel, who did not score a single goal after Dec. 23 and who ranks third in the NHL in penalty minutes.
Not a great mix.
And finally, while he's not an unrestricted free agent, Jason Spezza has found it difficult to find a role under Hitchcock and finished the season with eight goals -- his lowest total in a full NHL season in his career. He has one more year left on his current contract with a $7.5 million cap hit and there has been discussion about a possible offseason trade and/or buyout.
We asked Spezza after last Saturday's home finale if he'd thought about the possibility it was his last home game as a Star, but he was not interested in entertaining that line of questioning. But there is little doubt there was more than a little bittersweet emotions for the players as they left the ice Saturday.
"You think about it for sure. I've enjoyed my two years here and would like to be back," Hamhuis said. "Teammates are great, it's a great city to play in, it's a great organization -- so many great things. I'd love the opportunity to come back.
"Certainly that's something that we'll discuss with management after this season. But, yeah, when you don't have a contract for next year as a free agent, you think maybe this is the last game. So, you maybe look down at the jersey a little bit, and hopefully not though."
Added Hamhuis, "We've got a really good group of guys in this room that put a lot work in this year. Right through training camp, starting with summer training camp, we put ourselves in a really good spot through 60 games to make the playoffs, and it wasn't easy. It was hard. Certainly disappointing that a week ago, we found ourselves out of the playoffs. So, we wanted to enjoy this road trip. And the best way to enjoy it was to play well and try and get some wins.
"Certainly nice to get two against tough teams."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Scott Burnside is a senior digital correspondent for DallasStars.com. You can follow him on Twitter @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his podcast.