Heika’s Take: Stars wrap up regular season with lopsided loss to Predators

If the Stars want to find their game heading into the playoffs, they’ll have to flip a switch.

They have no other choice.

Dallas ended the regular season on a seven-game winless streak after a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators. The Stars have been one of the worst teams in the league in that stretch in terms of shots against, goals against and penalty killing. After a diligent practice on Tuesday in Nashville, there was a real feeling that Wednesday could be a “step up game” to the playoffs.

“It obviously wasn’t,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I don’t know what to say, all I can say is we’re going to be judged on the playoffs.”

On paper, that seems like a difficult transition. After all, Dallas was outscored 18-34 over the final seven games, and was outshot on average, 26-36. The defensive coverage was shaky, the goaltending didn’t step up, and the special teams were scrambled. That’s a bad sign. So now they will play host in a best-of-seven series against a Colorado team that seems to be clicking, and the leap from standing start to fifth gear could be challenging.

“We’re going to have to,” said forward Tyler Seguin, who played his first game since having hip surgery in December. “We’ve seen teams do it and we’re going to do it.”

The return of Seguin was the bright spot on the night. The talented winger had 20 points in the first 19 games and was playing on a line that had some of the best 5-on-5 numbers in the league. DeBoer put Seguin back on that line with Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment, and they clicked on their first shift. The trio made a pretty tic-tac-toe play to get Marchment a goal 16 second in, and it sure looked like Dallas had found the switch.

But things went downhill after that. Dallas squandered six minutes of power play in the first 12 minutes of the game and went 0-for-6 on the man advantage for the night. In the meantime, Nashville took a 3-1 lead, including a goal in the final 16 seconds of the period. After that, it looked like Dallas didn’t have the energy to make a comeback. Nashville scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the second period, and that was it.

While the feeling of fan panic wafted over the internet, the Stars watched as Jason Robertson left the game with an injury and didn’t return. Robertson leads the Stars in goals with 35 and has 80 points on the season. After recovering from offseason foot surgery, he has been one of the league’s hottest scorers in 2025.

Dallas held Thomas Harley, Esa Lindell and Marchment out of two games in hopes it would allow them to get some energy back. They all three returned for the Nashville game, because the team was hoping to have a playoff preview. DeBoer was clearly dejected after the game.

“I think the idea of resting people down the stretch was to try to avoid injuries,” DeBoer said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t do that, either, with the Robertson injury, so tough night.”

It was indeed a tough night. Jake Oettinger allowed five goals on 22 shots and was pulled to rest in the third period. Casey DeSmith came in and stopped 11 shots on goal, so that was a good sign. But the power play never found its stride, the penalty kill continued to stumble (56.5 percent in the final seven games), and there just was an overall feeling of frustration afterward.

“Yeah, of course, particularly with the injuries,” DeBoer said. “But we’ve got to figure it out. Saturday is the first time in probably three weeks where we’re playing with our season back on the line again. So that desperation level has to be there, our execution has to be there, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.”

Dallas was able to clinch its playoff spot fairly early and went on a run that was best in the NHL for two months. When it became clear the Stars couldn’t catch Winnipeg and would probably play Colorado in the First Round, there was a bit of an emotional drop-off in terms of intensity. Now, they have to find a way to get that back.

The players say they can do it.

“No concern,” said Marchment. “We’re ramping up for the playoffs, we’re not going to worry about the regular season. You hate to lose that way, but it’s over with.”

Seguin said he feels good and can’t wait to play Saturday.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter,” Seguin said. “You’d like to be going into the playoffs in a different way, but we went into the playoffs last year 10-2 and lost the first two games. All that matters is the puck drop on Saturday.”

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.