EDMONTON — Eyes moist, emotions raw, Tyler Seguin shook his head as if still in disbelief his team’s playoff run had come to an end.
“Hockey is hard,” said the Dallas Stars veteran, exhaling as La Bamba and chants of “We Want the Cup” echoed through Rogers Place.
“There wasn’t a moment in this series, until the buzzer just now, where I thought we weren’t gonna win, or didn’t deserve to win, or thought we couldn’t earn it. We didn’t.
“That’s what playoff hockey is.”
It’s one hell of a disappointment for 15 teams — a list Seguin and his squad didn’t expect to be on.
His captain, Jamie Benn, said he thought his club had just played its best game of the series, outshooting the host Edmonton Oilers 35-10.
But in the end, they wound up being another footnote in Connor McDavid’s ascent to what may finally be his first Stanley Cup win.
No matter what, and how much, the Stars threw at the Oilers on Sunday, it wasn’t enough to overcome McDavid’s wizardry, as the captain scored a goal for the ages and set up another for a pair of power play goals that were the difference in a 2-1 game.
From there it could really only be deemed a nail-biter over the final nine minutes, after Mason Marchment halved the Oilers’ lead to up the drama.
When No. 97 is dancing around like a Matador it really is like a bullfight out there, and you know how it’s going to end.
Painfully.
Of all the impediments in the Stars’ way, few thought a team that wasn’t supposed to be deep enough, or unable to play defence, would be their undoing.
Hockey is funny that way.
“You need a lot of things to go right,” said Seguin, of a journey that began with wins over the last two Cup winners, Vegas and Colorado.
“You need to have the opportunity. We had the opportunity. We went through a gauntlet and beat some really good teams and knew we had something special.
“We lost to a team we thought we could beat, and sometimes that’s playoffs.
“Sometimes it’s that one bounce, one goal, one save. It’s why we all love it and it’s why this is the hardest damn trophy in the world to win.”
Seguin has won one before, as a rookie with the Bruins, but a big part of why he was dewy-eyed revolved around all the veterans on the team who are running out of time to win their first.
Time is likely up for 39-year-old Ryan Suter, who was caught flat footed and forced to take a costly penalty that led to the game-winner.
It is also likely curtains for Joe Pavelski, another 39-year-old who has been a cornerstone for a team that has built itself back up to be a perennial threat, even without him.
“Since he’s been here he’s meant everything to our group,” said Seguin.
“On the ice, off the ice, all our golf games, he’s improved all those.
“He’s just an amazing person to have in here.”
Benn said Pavelski meant “the world,” sharing an extra special embrace with ol’ Pavs before they left the ice in a rink jumping over the arrival of the Clarence Campbell Bowl and the chance to play Florida in the Stanley Cup Final.
“All-time teammate, person, great leader, good friend,” said Benn.
Wyatt Johnston, the club’s 21-year-old future star, fought back tears at the mere mention of Pavelski, who housed and mentored him.
“I don’t know if it will be Joe’s last game or not, but it’s the absolute privilege of my career to coach a guy like that,” said DeBoer, eyes glistening in a press conference all but drowned out by thousands of euphoric Oilers fans chanting and singing outside the Rogers Place press conference room.
“Our young players are better for being around a guy like that.
“Tonight, for me, Joe Pavelski, five shots on net, turned the clock back.”
DeBoer‘s team pieced together such a gritty effort, only to be beat on two power play goals for the second straight game.
His club had none in the entire series, which was the difference.
“Just gutted,” said DeBoer.
“I feel like we probably deserved a better result there, but that’s hockey.
“Proud of our group, proud of our play, proud of our battle.
“We should be going for Game 7, but we have to give Edmonton credit. Their power play, particularly the last couple games, was good, as was their goalie.”
Favoured to beat the Oilers, the Stars let the series get away midway through the first period of Game 4 when a goal by Ryan McLeod dented a 2-0 lead and kickstarted a run of eight straight goals over two games that turned what looked like an eventual 3-1 series lead for Dallas into a 3-2 Oilers advantage they closed out on Sunday.
On the night they were eliminated the Stars were, in fact, the better team.
But the Oilers had the better power play and a superstar who appears poised to finally start making his argument as the game’s greatest player legitimate with a Stanley Cup ring.
Then again, as Seguin said, hockey is hard.
There are no guarantees, which is a truth the Stars are swallowing hard now.
Can they take solace from the fact they’re armed with a roster likely to be in this sort of position again soon?
“Heck ya,” said Seguin.
“These teams that lose in these moments — you see them over time, the Vegases, the Floridas, the Tampas — unfortunately you’ve got to lose a lot to win in this league.
“I don’t know why it’s like that.
“But learn some lessons, keep this taste and get ready for next year.”