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Dallas Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith (1) hugs starting goalie Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) following their Game 6 loss to the Minnesota Wild in a first-round NHL hockey playoff series in St. Paul, Minnesota, April 30, 2026. The Stars lost the game. 5-2, and the series.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Stars<\/a> general manager Jim\u00a0Nill boiled down what went wrong in Dallas\u2019 first-round series with the Minnesota Wild to a simple statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMinnesota had to win,\u201d Nill said last week. \u201cWe wanted to win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Stars, after making three consecutive runs to the Western Conference finals, fell in six games to the Wild<\/a> \u2014 their earliest exit since 2022. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Wild desperately needed to win a playoff series. Minnesota had spent big on Quinn Hughes without a guaranteed extension to help the team get over the first-round hump. Minnesota hadn\u2019t won a playoff series since 2015 and had lost its last eight first-round series.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Stars felt the fatigue of three long playoff runs and a demanding season where seven of their players hadn\u2019t had a break since the summer because of the Olympics \u2014 and the condensed schedule led to 18 players suffering injuries throughout the season<\/a>, many of which were serious.\u00a0<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Nill said while he was disappointed with the result in the playoffs, he wasn\u2019t surprised based on how the last few weeks of the regular season went.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI got worried when we played Minnesota two weeks before the playoffs started,\u201d he said. \u201cThey came in here, and I thought they sent a statement. They were showing that they could work. We didn\u2019t really play that way. We won the game, so I think the guys said, \u2018That\u2019s OK. We got them.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI noticed three weeks [left in] the season. Is this a fatigue thing? We\u2019re in the playoffs. We know who we\u2019re playing. Are we just kind of going through it? We just never got it going again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Stars were able to go through the motions and still secure home-ice advantage in the playoffs, but their play cost them that advantage quickly. They suffered a blowout loss in Game 1, a blown lead in Game 4 that could\u2019ve put the Stars up 3-1 in the series and a lackluster performance at home in a critical Game 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we came in very excited. I think you have to come in with hunger and conviction,\u201d Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. \u201cIt just seemed like we were excited, but we weren\u2019t ready. We didn\u2019t have that hunger and conviction right off the bat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Stars can hypothesize that injuries, the NHL\u2019s playoff format and fatigue played a role in their lack of hunger in the playoffs, but it\u2019s still concerning.\u00a0<\/p>\n A team that has proven its ability to play into June didn\u2019t even make it to May. Now, the Stars aren’t even guaranteed to have all of the pieces back next season, including their leading goal-scorer Jason Robertson,\u00a0a restricted free agent this offseason<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the Stars didn\u2019t need to win this season, that need certainly builds for next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n