To be fair, it didn’t look like a massacre until the second period. The Dallas Stars proved they could hang with the Tampa Bay Lightning, until they couldn’t – and then the yawning gap between the Stars and true competitiveness was on full display.
In his latest Five Takeaways, Stars digital correspondent Scott Burnside breaks down the differences between the Lightning, who are one of the league’s elite teams, and the Stars, who are not:
Critical goals scored at critical times by players from up and down the Tampa lineup. Sounds like textbook hockey.