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Jennifer Floyd Engel 
We're about to see how tough these Stars really are
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Adversity had long been an Achilles’ heel of this Dallas Stars’ team.
Ugly, unfair and unlucky happened. And they capitulated.
Just how much this team has changed is about to be tested. Because what happened to them in a 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose in Game 5 had tinges of ugly, unfair and unlucky.
Sharks forward Joe Pavelski scored 65 seconds into overtime to force a Game 6 on Sunday in Dallas. And the Stars were rightfully furious about all of the little screw ups that turned this nightmare into reality.
“No comment” was how Stars captain Brenden Morrow responded when asked if he felt his team lost or the NHL had taken a victory away from them.
I normally am not one to buy into the-officials-jobbed-us talk which happens way too often in sports.
Save the whine. Find a way to win anyway.
What happened Friday, however, falls under NHL officiating ineptitude. Ugly, unfair, unlucky – all were present and accounted for in a game that included what amounts to a disallowed hat trick for Morrow?
He slapped, kicked and gloved three pucks across the goal line Friday. Only one counted. The kind-of kick is the one up for the most debate. It was the goal that became a non-goal thanks to replay.
Let’s just end that debate, shall we? The NHL embarrassed itself by disallowing the goal and with their logic for doing so. Morrow had scored with 4:29 remaining in the second period, the way he usually does. He was in front of the net, locked up with a Sharks defenseman and the puck went in off of his skate.
This is not against the rules. It is only naughty if the player purposely kicks the goal in. The league ruled he had used “distinct kicking motion”, thus disallowing the goal. They, of course, are idiots.
“Absolutely not,” a very angry Stars coach Dave Tippett said when asked if he saw anything distinct. “He had no idea where it was. How could he kick it in?” Who you going to believe? The same geniuses who changed a rule mid-playoffs? Or your eyes?
If you said the NHL, watch the dang game.
A distinct kicking motion requires intent or at least logic. The NHL's ruling ignored that when Morrow’s momentum carried him forward eventually his legs were going to have to follow.
On-ice officials ruled goal. But all quasi-close calls go to Toronto for review in the playoffs.
Typical NHL, the review lasted way too long. Especially if it was as distinct as they claimed.
Typical NHL, they screwed up the call despite the number of views. And this despite having whatever moron in charge of officiating live and in person at the game.
Typical NHL, they did not explain their logic, not that a biased HP Pavilion crowd cared. This silliness basically saved their season for a couple of minutes. And while Morrow looked big-time angry, gesturing wildly, he bounced back pretty quickly. He scored his goal with 55.3 seconds remaining in the second and his celebratory motions seemed to say “try to disallow this”.
Or else it was: “Yeah, I didn’t kick that one in, did I?”
“We got it back after,” Morrow said afterward. “We still got that second goal.”
This is true but who is to say that wouldn’t have been the third goal thus making his second disallowed goal the fourth goal. And, of course, San Jose benefited from momentum gained by both of Morrow’s disallowed goals.
His second not-goal was immediately waived it off, officials rightly noting it had gone in off his hands. And Toronto rightly upheld the decision to disallow what would have been his third goal and what was his second disallowed goal. Are you keeping up?
What hacked the Stars off – and, again, rightfully so – was that an unwhistled crosscheck had caused this
“I saw it coming. I was going to knock it down and shoot it in but the cross check from behind just pushed my momentum in,” Morrow said. “At that point, I knew I was going to hit it. I assumed I’d get the benefit of the doubt with the penalty call.”
He did not.
And like usually happens, San Jose was energized by Dallas’ misfortune and capitalized by scoring two goals, by Milan Michalek and Brian Campbell, to force overtime.
The Stars deserve to be flogged a little for this turn of events. Neither were especially good goals. Both were a result of screw ups and served to erase what had been a 2-0 lead, thanks to Morrow and a Mike Modano-Sergei Zubov-Jere Lehtinen for a power-play goal.
Because as bad as both calls were, and they were awful, bad officiating happens in the playoffs. Just ask the Mavs about Dwyane Wade in their Finals choke.
Good teams find ways to funnel this anger and win in spite of whoever or whatever ugly, unfair and unlucky has happened.
Like I said, this has not always been a strength for this Stars team. Not in playoffs past. And while they have looked different this goaround, they have not faced adversity like Friday’s version.
This is their first real big test of the postseason.
Yes, the idiots in Toronto had a big hand in this turn of events. And the Stars are rightfully perturbed at them as a result.
Starting right now, though, nobody cares.
It is all about whether they can find a way to win anyway.
