Bogorad: Reflecting on Stars' unbelievable ride to Stanley Cup Final

It's been almost a week since the Stars magical playoff run came to a close, and it's interesting to think about how time and perspective can shape how you feel about something.

Imagine being told two years ago -- after the Stars had missed the postseason for the second straight year -- that the team would make the playoffs in consecutive seasons, and during that time would win more playoff games than any other NHL team. You likely would have been elated. Or imagine someone telling you last May -- after Dallas was eliminated in double overtime of Game 7 in St. Louis -- that the Stars would get back to that exact same spot the following postseason. Only this time they would be the team to get the series-winning goal, and go on to add double the number of wins afterwards. You would have been over the moon.
However, when the Stars season ended in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final and all of the aforementioned had become a reality, there was no elation. If you watched even a second of the heart-wrenching postgame press conferences involving Rick Bowness and the Stars players, you instead saw the opposite. They didn't want to talk about what they had achieved or what they had won. Guys who are the ultimate competitors, who play through physical and mental obstacles most could never even imagine, aren't capable of immediately looking back fondly when there was still more road ahead to a destination unreached. But even if you can't bring yourself to do it right away, in time there eventually comes a point where you can and should truly take in all of what just transpired.
The reality of sports is that only one team a year gets to win their last meaningful game. For everyone else the ending comes with an element of sadness and disappointment. How and when it ends determines a lot of those feelings. So, it makes sense that this ending hurt -- or still does. Still, as painful as the conclusion was, it cannot and does not overshadow all that led up to that point.
Everyone has their own grieving process. Perhaps you can't allow yourself to feel that way right now. Maybe you already have gotten to a place where you can. Either way, whenever the dust settles from the hard landing, think about the ride that just took place and how incredible it was.

Long before the playoffs began, the 2019-20 season was a roller coaster. The historically bad 1-7-1 start, immediately followed by the historically good 14-1-1 turnaround. Then the surprise coaching change, just before the remarkable Winter Classic. Then the slump in March, which led into the pandemic and pause. That led to months of uncertainty, when no one knew if the Stars would even play another game. It was a decade's worth of twists, events, and drama that you could write a novel about, and that still wouldn't do it justice. Yet, let's somehow gloss over all of that. That story is amazing, but it's also one that evolved over time and was somewhat digested along the way.
The two months of the restart hasn't had the same chance to sink in. Between the breakneck pace, how much was on the line, and the highs that somehow kept managing to one-up the prior ones, it was a bit of a blur. It was insanity of the best kind, bottled in a bubble in Edmonton. And (whenever you're ready) it deserves to be remembered and celebrated.
What we all just witnessed was the greatest Dallas Stars playoff run in more than 20 years. It will forever be one of their best postseasons in franchise history, and certainly among the most memorable. Any time a team makes a run as deep as this year's Stars did, there will be lasting, dramatic moments. This year's team however, took it to heights seldom before seen.
It's possible that some of you may have forgotten about Game 2 against Calgary in the opening round. If so, who could blame you? Down 1-0 in the series, the Stars had a two-goal lead with under 10 minutes to play. They saw that lead evaporate thanks to two late Flames goals, including a shorthanded tally. Suddenly with 2:49 left on the clock, the entire Stars restart -- which at that point wasn't even two weeks old -- was on the ropes. That's when Corey Perry found Jamie Oleksiak sneaking down the left side of the Flames zone for a tie-breaking goal with under 40 seconds to play. In the entire playoff history of the Dallas Stars, they had never scored a later game-winning goal in regulation. It was literally a historic moment and historic finish to a game the Stars had to have. And yet, two months later, it possibly does not crack the Top 10 of highlights from this Dallas run. That's the kind of trip this was for the Stars. One that laughed at the record books, scoffed at the naysayers, and wrote one unimaginable storyline after another.
Three nights after Oleksiak's late heroics, there was another must-win feel to a game. The Stars were now down 2-1 in the series and 4-3 late in regulation. Really late. With only 12 seconds standing between Dallas and a 3-1 hole, Joe Pavelski tied the game. This time it was the latest game-tying goal in Stars postseason history. It was also Pavelski's third goal of the night, marking the first ever Dallas Stars playoff hat trick. Dallas entered this postseason with 26 years and 173 playoff games of history, and that was their first hat trick. Four nights later the Stars got their second. Two weeks after that they added their third. On a goal that came in overtime. Of Game 7. From a last-minute lineup replacement.

That's the kind of playoff run this was.
There was Denis Gurianov's four-goal game -- another Stars first. It was part of seven unanswered goals in one of the biggest single-game turnarounds in Stanley Cup Playoff history, and came in a game that sealed a first round series win. There was a 57-goal epic series against Colorado that set record after record and offered just about the highest entertainment value the sport can reach. There were back-to-back series-winning goals in overtime. First to take the Stars farther than they had been in a dozen years. Then to take them farther than they had been in 20 years. Dallas got their first ever win in a Game 7 overtime. They got their first multiple overtime win since the Brenden Morrow game back in 2008. It came facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Final.
Think about how many times a late goal made you jump off your couch, run around your house, or scream so loud you probably woke the neighbors. It happened time and time and time again. The Stars scored 14 different game-tying or go-ahead goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation or in overtime. That's the second most by any team in NHL history -- trailing only the 1999 Stars.
That's the playoff run that we all just saw.
This was a run that further introduced Miro Heiskanen to the hockey world. He led the Stars in scoring, and finished the playoffs with the fourth-highest point total ever by a defenseman. The same can be said for John Klingberg, who finished second on the Stars in scoring, and led them during the Final. That duo combined for the second most points ever by a pair of defensive teammates. It was a run that showed Jamie Benn impose his will on a heavily favored Vegas team in his first ever trip to the Conference Finals. It saw Pavelski set a new Dallas Stars record for goals in a postseason… And for goals by a player older than 36… And for career playoff goals by an American-born player.

It turned Anton Khudobin and Joel (#$%&*@!) Kiviranta into household names. It saw Bowness -- one of the most respected men in hockey -- shine in the biggest coaching spotlight of his record-long career. It featured the Stars using more players in a postseason than any team in the last four years, and led to moments like Joel Hanley getting his first career NHL goal to open the scoring in the Stanley Cup Final. It turned "We're Not Going Home!" into a nationwide catchphrase.
That is what this postseason brought us.
There are also direct organizational impacts from putting together a playoff run like the one the Stars had. Of the last eight Stanley Cup champions, seven of them had been to the Conference Finals within three years of winning it all. For most of the Stars, this was their first trip there. That kind of experience for younger players and veterans alike should pay dividends moving forward. Their depth was severely tested and passed with flying colors, which will help with difficult roster decisions with an unexpected flat salary cap. The run also further solidifies the Stars as a contender when it comes to being an attractive destination in free agency and trades. Dallas had already been exceptional in this area, but it never hurts to have the title of Conference Champs as a strong Exhibit A. All of this serves as a reminder that there are true, tangible benefits from this run, even if it didn't culminate with a Cup.
Still, when next season rolls around the Stars probably won't be the favorites in the West. That will be fine by them. They just clawed through the conference with the soundtrack of public doubt playing in the background. They'll take the ice as a core knowing what they are capable of. Not just because they believe it in the room, but also because they just lived it. They'll skate below a banner inside American Airlines Center, forever immortalizing the playoff run they put together. There's a reason they hang banners for winning a Conference. It's because it doesn't happen easily. It doesn't happen often. And when it does, it deserves to be celebrated.
The summer of 2020 will always be memorable for a variety of reasons. But when it comes to the Stars, it was 27 games in 57 nights offering some of the greatest theater imaginable. Even knowing how it ended, if you offered up the chance to do it all over again, I'd ask where the line starts.

We went from the middle of a global uncertainty none of us had ever faced before, wondering when or even if we might see hockey again. Then we got launched into a two-month stretch of it that will stand up against any two months they'll ever play. To not be able to eventually appreciate it would be downright criminal.
There were so many terrific parts to this run that it's impossible to mention them all. One of my favorites, however, came between Gurianov's conference-winning goal against Vegas and Game 1 against Tampa Bay. It was seeing all the stories from Stars fans looking back at where they were in their lives in 1999 and 2000 -- the last time Dallas had gone that far. I saw posts and articles. I got calls and texts. They came from people in their twenties who had no recollection of the last trip, and had been waiting their whole lives for this. They came from people in their sixties and seventies who recalled with perfect detail where they were for games two decades earlier. They came from parents who were now passing along to their children the same excitement that was passed to them as kids. People from all over the world were brought together by a hockey team and shared stories from 20 years ago, about how they felt then, and how this team was making them feel now.
Keep in mind this was before the puck had dropped on the Final. Long before they had won or lost. The impact had already manifested. It was really special to see and hear those stories.
Naturally, the hope is that the Stars will make their next trip back to the Final well before 20 more years pass. They have certainly put themselves in position to contend annually. Regardless though, trips like these will always be remembered and talked about because they are rare and they are special. While taking in those stories from everyone recounting where they were around the turn of the millennium, it occurred to me that down the road people will be telling the story of this time, this team, and this run. That's pretty cool to think about. And when they do… Wow, what a story they'll have to tell.
So whether it's now or later, we should all genuinely appreciate the ride we just got to take together. It really was something spectacular.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Josh Bogorad is a contributing columnist to DallasStars.com and the Stars' TV/radio play-by-play broadcaster on FOX Sports Southwest and 96.7-FM and 1310-AM The Ticket. Follow him on Twitter @JoshBogorad.