Stars need Seguin out of his slump
Team's highest-paid forward and leading scorer not putting up the points they need
Seen Stamkos? Maybe a better question is whether anyone's seen Seguin.
While the Tampa Bay Lightning are wondering when — or if — their injured captain will join the playoffs before the Stanley Cup gets awarded, the Dallas Stars might as well put out a missing persons report for their highest-paid forward.
Technically, Tyler Seguin has been healthy for this entire post-season. You just wouldn't know it by watching the games.
Seguin has two goals and eight points in 22 games.
He has one assist in the past 12 games. The last time he scored was in Game 3 in the second round. That was almost a month ago.
Fifty-eight players in this year's post-season have more points. Ninety-nine have more goals.
That includes Connor McDavid, whose team was eliminated in the qualification round after playing just four games. Including the round robin, Seguin has played four rounds.
Sure, Dallas will gladly take Seguin's output over McDavid's if it ends up leading to a Stanley Cup. But it's hard to imagine the Stars winning three more games against the Lightning unless their leading scorer in the regular season can find a way to contribute more than he has already.
“He's doing things that help us win the game,” said head coach Rick Bowness following a 4-1 win in Game 1, where Seguin went without a point but was a plus-1.
“He had some really good looks and that's really encouraging, because eventually if he gets those offensive looks the puck's going to get in … there's other ways you have to contribute to help the team win and he was doing those things.
“Bottom line is the team won and he did some things that helped us win that coaches notice and teammates notice. I know everyone is waiting for him to score, but as long as he's getting those looks, you have to stay with it. And he will. He's just got to stay hungry around the net and eventually the puck will go in for him.”
The question is how long can the Stars afford to wait for that to happen?
Dallas got to the final because of the heroics of backup goalie Anton Khudobin and the unheralded play of Joel Kiviranta and Jamie Oleksiak. But the playoffs are not a time for third-liners and stay-at-home defencemen. It's a time when your best players need to play their best.
Look at the recent Conn Smythe Trophy winners.
There's a common thread among them.
When Pittsburgh won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017, it was Sidney Crosby — not Tom Kuhnhackl or Ron Hainsey — who was back-to-back MVP.
Two years ago, it was Alex Ovechkin who led Washington with 15 goals and 27 points in 24 games. It was Ryan O'Reilly who tied for the playoff scoring last year.
With the best-of-seven series now tied 1-1, it's the stars who will decide who gets to hoist the Cup.
The Lightning proved that in a 3-2 win in Game 2, with Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman combining for a goal and four assists. Now, with Steven Stamkos potentially getting ready to join the series, it's time for Dallas' highest-paid player to do the same.
As someone who is making US$9.85 million this season and playing on the top line with Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov, it is time that Seguin start earning his salary. It's time that he scores a goal, or at the very least picks up an assist. After all, it's what he did all season.
Seguin led the Stars with 50 points in 69 games this year. But since the playoffs moved to Edmonton, he has no goals and one assist in seven games. Maybe he's playing hurt. Maybe he's snake-bitten. It sure looked that way in Game 1, when Seguin had three shots in a 4-1 win, but got robbed at the side of the net of what seemed like it was going to be a surefire goal.
For Seguin, this is nothing really new.
In 2013, he managed just one goal and eight points in 22 games when Boston lost to Chicago in the final. Two years earlier, he managed three goals and seven points during the Bruins' championship run. Then again, he was just a rookie back then. And he had played just 13 games.
Now, along with Benn, he is Dallas' No. 1 scoring option.
Only, he doesn't look like it. He looks like someone who's lost his confidence as well as the scoring touch that made him a 40-goal scorer not that long ago.
Luckily for the Stars, they haven't really felt Seguin's lack of production because they are getting offence from all parts of their lineup. But that only lasts so long. Eventually, the stars will need to shine. And if Seguin doesn't start putting the puck in the net, there's only one way that this series is going to go.
After all, as good of a story as Kiviranta has been for Dallas, the third-line winger shouldn't have more goals in 10 games than Seguin has in 22. Oleksiak shouldn't be outscoring Seguin.
And Seguin knows it. “It's all good,” he said.
“I feel like I've been playing a lot better as of late. I'm looking for that one bounce. But good things will happen when you're getting chances and that's what you look at.”
For Seguin and the Stars, they better.