Defenseman Ryan Suter has played 1,444 regular-season games, most among active players who have not won the Cup, and 133 playoff games. He’s 39 with one season left on his contract. Before the series, he sat next to Pavelski at a press conference and was asked about chasing the Cup.
“I can’t speak for Joe, but for myself, it’s the only reason I’m playing,” said Suter, who has four kids, ages 6-13. “My kids are at the age now where I want to spend more time with them and be a part of what they’re doing, whether it’s hockey or other sports or school or whatever. But for me, that’s the reason I’m playing.
“You hear so many good stories …”
His voice trailed off.
“And it’s not going to define your career,” he continued. “If you don’t [win the Cup], obviously, it would [stink], but I don’t think it defines you as a player. But that’s why I’m playing.”
Captain Jamie Benn has played 1,112 regular-season and 102 playoff games, all with the Stars, without winning the Cup. He turns 35 on July 18 and has one season left on his contract.
Forward Matt Duchene, 33, has played 1,056 regular-season and 51 playoff games without winning the Cup. He signed a one-year contract with the Stars on July 1, mostly because he thought they gave him the best chance to win.
“You want to win, but you really want to win for those older guys,” said Stars center Wyatt Johnston, a 21-year-old who lived at Pavelski’s house the past two seasons. “Yeah, it [stinks]. You want to win so bad and you want those older guys to get their Cup.”
The Stars believed they could do it. They went 52-21-9 in the regular season, winning the Western Conference and finishing one point behind the New York Rangers for the Presidents’ Trophy. They defeated the past two Stanley Cup champions: the Vegas Golden Knights (2023) in seven games in the first round and the Colorado Avalanche (2022) in six in the second.
But in the conference final, they let a couple of opportunities slip away. In Game 1, they failed to cash in on a double minor in overtime -- forward Jason Robertson hit the right goal post and then the left -- and lost 3-2 in double OT. They took a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game 4 and had a chance to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, but they were outscored 10-2 the rest of the way.
Special teams were a big factor. The Stars went 0-for-14 on the power play. The Oilers went 4-for-11, including 2-for-3 in Game 5 and 2-for-2 in Game 6.
After the Oilers took a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game 6, they sat back, and the Stars carried the play. Forward Mason Marchment cut it to 2-1 at 9:18 of the third period. But despite a desperate push to the final horn, despite outshooting the Oilers 34-10, the Stars couldn’t get the tying goal.
Gutted. As the teams lined up for handshakes, the Stars had to hear the Edmonton fans cheering and chanting, “We want the Cup!”
“Hockey’s hard, you know?” forward Tyler Seguin said. “You need a lot of things to go right. You need to have that opportunity. We had that opportunity. We went through a gauntlet, beat some really good teams and knew we had something special and lost to a team that we thought we could beat, and sometimes that’s playoffs. Sometimes it’s that one bounce, that one goal, one save.
“It’s why we all love it. It’s why this is the hardest [dang] trophy in the world to win.”
