DALLAS — The Chicago Blackhawks ushered in the new year by getting ushered out of Dallas via a two-game weekend sweep.
Whereas Friday’s loss to the Stars was a roller-coaster ride that was settled with 8 seconds left in overtime, Sunday’s 8-1 loss at American Airlines Center was all but a foregone conclusion after a three-goal first period and two-goal second.
The Hawks entered the rematch knowing what to look for: odd-man rushes.
The problem was, the Stars hardly left the offensive zone, so they did most of their damage from below the blue line.
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Craig Smith deflected in Sam Steel’s snipe for the game’s opening goal.
Ryan Suter and Tyler Seguin scored two minutes apart.
The Hawks had a few of their best chances during a second-period push.
Ryan Donato backhanded a backdoor pass to Jason Dickinson but Dickinson couldn’t capitalize. Isaak Phillips had a short-range wrister.
A blast from Lukas Reichel couldn’t find its mark, and Nick Foligno tried a wraparound.
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Nada.
Then the Stars collected themselves and continued the onslaught.
Sam Steel blew through the Hawks defense to score on a roofer, and Mason Marchment scored on the power play to pad the lead to 5-0.
The Hawks must’ve had a heart-to-heart or drew up a play in chalk or something during the second intermission.
Philipp Kurashev scored a power-play goal on a tick-tack-toe from Connor Bedard and Cole Guttman 39 seconds into the final frame.
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But that glimmer of hope faded quickly when Roope Hintz batted in a rebound goal out of midair.
Petr Mrázek got the hook and Arvid Söderblom got the nod.
He didn’t emerge unscathed either. Marchment bagged his second and third goals of the night in the final 5 1/2 minutes.
The Hawks played a dismal first period, allowed 35 shots, committed three penalties and generally looked worse after getting a second crack at the same team.
And they gave up a hat trick to Marchment, just like they gave Roope Hintz a hat trick on Friday.
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[ [Don’t miss] ‘Dumb play by me’: Connor Bedard learns valuable lessons from a split-second decision that led to a Chicago Blackhawks OT loss ]
So what did they learn?
“We have to get stronger mentally and learn to play a little simpler, to the game plan, and getting pucks behind the team, forecheck them well, and then we have to be on top of our checks everywhere,” coach Luke Richardson said.
“We can’t hang behind them,” he said. “We don’t have the wheels for it, the strength for it yet, as individuals or as a team, to play loose run-and-gun hockey.
“We just got to be stronger to sit with our game plan for 60 minutes, not 15 or 45, which has happened lately.”
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Tyler Johnson left in the second with an apparent leg injury.
“He’ll probably be out for a little time,” Richardson said.
Here are four takeaways.
Chicago Blackhawks left wing Nick Foligno tries to set up a shot against Dallas Stars goaltender Scott Wedgewood in the second period on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Dallas. (Richard W. Rodriguez/AP)
Foligno often gives animated postgame gut-check whenever the team has a bad performance, but he was practically apoplectic after an 8-1 beating.
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“That is really, really disappointing,” he said. He expected the same “compete” the Hawks showed Friday and didn’t get it.
“My only hope for a game like today is we just finally hammer it through our thick heads how we’re going to need to play, and that is not it. That is just not who we are, not who we can be. That’s not what we expect in the room, that’s not what our fans should expect.
“That’s what pisses me off. That’s not a winning team, that’s just a team hoping. Hoping, ‘Ah, maybe it’s an easy night. Maybe the other team doesn’t have it.’ Are you kidding me? That team’s record, and we’re going to play like that? I’m sorry, just that one is really, really frustrating with the strides we think we’ve been making.”
Foligno mentioned “easy” again: “Tonight it was just like we were hoping to have an easy game. Who are we to have an easy game right now?”
So what does he mean by “easy”?
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“Just the compete,” Foligno said. “You watch our puck battles, our battles in front, our changes, the way we change.
“Things that sometimes you can get away with here and there, but when a team like that is playing against you that’s structured, that’s older, that has had winning habits and understands the game, you’re going to get picked apart, and that’s what it was tonight.”
Kevin Korchinski broke the puck out, drop-passed to Bedard in the neutral zone and made two Stars defenders bump into each other as Bedard passed to Kurashev.
Kurashev hit Cole Guttman and drifted backward, Guttman passed to Bedard, and Bedard threaded a backdoor pass to Kurashev for the goal.
Richardson said the execution on the power play hadn’t been great to that point, “so Derek Plante talked to them and kind of fine-tuned it a little bit.
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“But that was more their individual skill, making that line rush on that goal and it was a nice goal,” he said. “But a little bit too late for us to play with that kind of fire.”
Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Söderblom and defenseman Isaak Phillips defend as Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz shoots in the third period on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Dallas. (Richard W. Rodriguez/AP)
Tinordi was benched Friday after a terrible night culminated in him getting turnstiled on a third-period goal.
It was worse for Phillips.
He was on the ice for six of the Stars’ eight goals.
He got caught flat-footed by Steel before Steel backhanded a roof shot past Mrázek. Mason Marchment whipped in a power-play goal from the low slot while Phillips wasn’t scrambling to find the puck between his legs.
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Richardson said he told Phillips that he had a strong game on Friday.
“And then tonight, just on the wrong side of guys and not aware,” Richardson said. “I think when things start to go bad, kind of like what we talked about with Tinordi last game, it seemed to go like that with Philly.
“I think he started to guess a little bit instead of just playing and doing his job and trusting everybody else, and when teams and individuals start doing that, it breaks down.”
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic shoots against the Seattle Kraken during the second period on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, in Seattle. (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
It’s the much-maligned plus-minus rating.
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Sure, there’s some fluke factor baked into the stat. But that can’t totally explain away Vlasic’s team-leading plus-10 rating entering Sunday’s game, especially because he’s not exactly a big contributor on offense.
“I was not aware of it,” Vlasic said about the stat. “You know, there’s going to be times where you get lucky and you’re on the ice when your team scores. And then there’s going to be times when you get unlucky and you’re on the ice and the other team scores.
“It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault or whatever, so it’s not always an accurate representation of how people are playing. But I like to take pride in just shutting down things defensively and then trying to contribute a little bit offensively.”
CBS News Texas requested thousands of emails tied to the future of Dallas City Hall after a city report identified more than $1 billion in needed repairs. The city released 649 pages but asked the Texas Attorney General for permission to withhold thousands more, citing security concerns and confidential business negotiations. Critics, including some council members, have raised transparency concerns as discussions continue. The City Council is expected to decide City Hall’s future in June.
Mark Cuban says he has one big regret after cashing out of the Dallas Mavericks — and it’s not the sale itself.
“I don’t regret selling, I regret who I sold to. Yeah, yeah, I made a lot of mistakes in the process and I’ll leave it at that,” the billionaire entrepreneur said on an episode of the Intersections podcast published Tuesday.
He agreed in late 2023 to sell a controlling stake in the franchise to casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her family.
Cuban, who spent nearly 20 years as one of the “shark” investors on “Shark Tank,” said the grind of owning an NBA franchise ultimately pushed him toward the exit, describing it as an all-consuming emotional rollercoaster that wore him down over time.
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Former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he regrets who he sold the team to — and blasted the franchise’s decision to trade Luka Dončić without his input. Intersections Podcast/YouTube
“It’s a big emotional commitment, right? You hear the passion and everything — now imagine going up and down like that every single game. That’s hard,” he said.
The intensity of fan reactions — especially when the team struggled — made him wary of his children working in that environment and being subjected to what he described as abusive treatment, Cuban added.
But while the celeb money-man defended the decision to sell, he drew a line at how things unfolded after the deal — particularly a blockbuster trade involving franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić.
Cuban said he was blindsided when the Mavericks moved the star player, describing a chaotic late-night phone call that left him stunned.
“I got a text from a then-general manager and he said ‘Call.’ And I did and I thought he was asking me what I thought about a potential trade for Luka he was like, ‘No, Mark, it’s done,’” Cuban recounted.
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Casino magnate Miriam Adelson leads the ownership group that bought a controlling stake in the Mavericks, a deal Cuban now says he regrets. Getty Images
“I was like, ‘What did we trade him for?’ And he told me — and no disrespect to Anthony Davis — but I’m like, ‘He’s hurt a lot.’”
The former owner said he immediately viewed the deal as a catastrophic mistake — one he had no power to stop.
“I called the new owner and he started telling me stuff that wasn’t true that he had been told as the reason why he approved it and I’m like, that’s not true — um, this is a mistake but nothing I can do,” Cuban said.
Cuban framed Dončić as a once-in-a-generation talent who should have been untouchable under any circumstances. he added.
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Beyond basketball logic, Cuban suggested the decision was influenced by internal tensions and personal dynamics within the Mavericks organization.
Dallas Mavericks star Luka Dončić was traded in a stunning move that Mark Cuban called a “mistake,” saying generational players like him are untouchable. Getty Images
Cuban also pointed to former general manager Nico Harrison as a key figure in the decision-making process, arguing that personal relationships may have skewed the front office’s judgment.
He noted Harrison had been close with Anthony Davis, the former Lakers star who went to the Mavs in the Dončić swap, since Davis was about 13 years old, while head coach Jason Kidd also previously coached him.
“You talk about confirmation bias, that there’s there was some of that, as well,” Cuban said, suggesting those ties contributed to the decision to trade away Dončić.
The comments highlight a growing rift between Cuban and the new ownership group led by Adelson, whose family acquired about 73% of the franchise in a deal valued at around $3.5 billion.
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Cuban retained a minority stake but has increasingly signaled he no longer holds meaningful influence over basketball operations.
The Post has sought comment from Cuban and Adelson.
The Dallas Stars have been bitten by the injury bug and are slogging through the final stretch of the regular season having lost five of their last six games.
Can they turn it around on Tuesday? To do so, they’ll have to go through a stout Boston team on the road.
Here’s what to know about Stars-Bruins.
How to watch
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When: Tuesday, 6 p.m.
Where: TD Garden in Boston
TV/Streaming: Victory+/FOX 4
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Radio: Sportsradio 96.7/1310 The Ticket
Boston creamed
The Stars took it to the Bruins the last time these two teams met with a 6-2 romp in Dallas, in a game that, funnily enough, ended a losing skid for the Stars. Jason Robertson had a pair of goals and Wyatt Johnston added another.
That was all the way back in January, though. These days the Bruins (42-24-8, fourth place in the Atlantic Division) are rolling, winners of three straight and clinging to the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. It continues the recent pattern of the Stars going up against teams likely to be desperate and hungry in the middle of a playoff chase.
Milestone for Robertson
Robertson has recorded five points (2 goals, 3 assists) in his last four games, dating back to March 24 against the New Jersey Devils. In all, the Stars forward has totaled 87 points (40, 47) in 74 games played this season, leading the team in scoring. Entering play Monday, his 87 points ranked 10th in the NHL and were the second-most in a single season of his career.
If Robertson were to tally three more points this season — and that’s likely a when more than an if — he would become the first player in Dallas Stars team history (since 1993-94) to have multiple 90-point seasons for the club. Robertson’s 40 goals are the third-most he has scored in a single season in his career and were tied for the fourth-most in the NHL entering play Monday.
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Home sweet home
The matchup against Boston wraps up the Stars’ last long road trip of the season. Dallas will return home after Tuesday for a string of home games against the Jets, Avalanche, Flames, Wild and Rangers, and then end their regular season slate on the road against the Maple Leafs and Sabres.
After that? It’s playoff hockey time once again in Dallas.