Challenging clichés: With series even, Stars can find comfort in past experiences

My favorite cliché is the one that says clichés are clichés because they are true.

It’s an acknowledgement that, yeah, you didn’t come up with this and it might be trite, but there is comfort in what you’re saying because others have lived through it. Probably the most repeated hockey cliché is that: “In the playoffs, when you win, you think you’re never going to lose again; and when you lose, you think you’re never going to win again.”

That’s playing out for the Stars right now, but the good thing is it has happened dozens of times before.

The Colorado Avalanche played a fantastic game on Saturday. They are, after all, a fantastic team. They were great last season and beat the Stars in Game 1 of the 2024 Second Round. They won Game 5 in Dallas after getting down 3-1 in that series. Likewise, the Stars got behind 2-0 to the Vegas Golden Knights. That was real pressure. The Golden Knights forced overtime in Game 3. Talk about pressure…and the Stars responded.

In other words, Dallas has been through this before. They know how hard it is. That’s what makes it fun.

Every season has a story of its own, and so does every playoff series. Already in this one, we have seen the Stars go from media darlings a month ago to playoff afterthoughts in April. We have seen Colorado go from a “kinda nice” story to potential tearjerker for the hockey romance novelists because of the return of Gabriel Landeskog. We have seen some amazing twists and turns and we’re only four games into it.

That’s the beauty of sports. That’s why we keep watching. You really don’t know what’s going to happen.

The Stars have lost seven Game 1s in a row under Pete DeBoer and have come back to win four of those series (with no. 7 still in the balance). They have done this before, so they remain calm. They’re embracing the cliché because it does offer comfort. They get it, they understand the negative vibes, they understand the panic that you’re feeling. And, truth be told, they have a little themselves. But that’s natural, that’s a good thing.

You look at Colorado in Game 4 and you hear the word “desperate” thrown around. That fear fueled their best performance of the playoffs. You look at Dallas in Game 2 and know that adversity allowed them to make some clutch plays when the specter of 0-2 was staring them in the face.

You always hear that you can’t manufacture that feeling, and we’ve seen it so far in this series.

As we shift back to Texas for Game 5, Colorado is feeling good. The Avalanche are healthy, they’re clicking, and their best players are THE best players. The power play went 0-for-6 in Game 3. It scored a huge goal in Game 4. Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood has been solid in his first real playoff run, and he’s coming off a shutout in Game 4. That’s positive. He might feel like he’s never going to lose again.

On the Stars’ side, it’s their turn to adjust. Will Miro Heiskanen finally make his return after missing 36 games following knee surgery? Can he make a significant impact in Game 5? Could just getting him back in eventually help the Stars win this series? The mind goes crazy.

That’s good, because the mind is a big part of all of this. Players and coaches get annoyed when the media asks about things like lack of goal scoring, but there is a reason we’re interested. If Mikko Rantanen isn’t scoring, doesn’t that get into his head against his old teammates? If Roope Hintz isn’t scoring, doesn’t that affect how he’s playing? Is Wyatt Johnston starting to feel the pressure in his third playoffs? If Mason Marchment is having trouble walking the line between helpful events and harmful events, doesn’t that keep him up at night?

The cliché is, “The mind is a dangerous place.” That’s probably why no one wants to talk about it, but it’s certainly worth speculating about.

The great thing is we will eventually get answers. The Stars have produced some terrific performances with their backs against the wall. Game 3 was a perfect example of unnerving trepidation turning into complete celebration in just a couple of minutes. It could be even more entertaining in Game 5…or Game 6….or Game 7.

To be honest, it’s what we all thought this series would be when it first was announced.

Just like last year, someone is going to go home very disappointed. Vegas lost in the First Round in 2024 as the defending Stanley Cup champions. As both Dallas and Colorado loaded up at the trade deadline, we all knew one of these teams was going home cruelly early, and that the one that did would be pretty upset. The acknowledgement of not playing games again until fall when you have Cup aspirations is a painful reality.

For the winner, it starts all over again. That in itself is a tough challenge, but it’s what they play for. The Stars have a chance to flip the script on Monday. They know that. It’s cliché to say, but they’ve been here before.

"If you had told me at Christmas we were going to go into the First Round of the playoffs against Colorado, and we were going to be without Heiskanen and Jason\] [Robertson, and we'd be 2-2 coming home with home ice advantage, I think I would have been pretty happy,” DeBoer said on Sunday. “Sometimes, you have to have that perspective that this group has battled pretty hard under some serious adversity and we're in a pretty good spot."

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.