“I thought we had a lot more guys look a lot more dangerous tonight, up and down the lineup,” DeBoer said. “You know, that’s a credit to our group. We looked at last game, we made some adjustments, and our whole group was more dangerous. We got some great contributions from some unsung heroes. Our penalty kill, I thought Sam Steel was outstanding tonight, Colin] [Blackwell had a couple of blocked shots. A lot of work by guys that don’t get noticed a lot.”

After going 7-10 in 2024, the Dallas Cowboys are hoping to get back on track in 2025. They’ve made some huge changes as they turn to a new head coach in Brian Schottenheimer and added more firepower — including the addition of wide receiver George Pickens.

While they should be praised for being proactive this offseason, they still face a daunting task with one of the toughest schedules in the league.

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There are several tough opponents that Dallas will have to overcome, but according to Pro Football Network’s Kyle Soppe, the toughest challenger will be a team they know well. Soppe says the biggest obstacle for the Cowboys will be heading to Detroit to take on the Lions.

“America’s team has to travel to Detroit to face the team that America has fallen in love with recently. The Lions went into Jerry’s World in Week 6 of last season and won by 38 points. If a healthy Dak Prescott can post a competitive effort on the road against a top-tier team in the conference, it would go a long way toward proving that this team is ready to compete for a playoff spot in a strong NFC East.”

Dallas won in a controversial contest in 2023, but the Lions made a statement last year by humiliating the Cowboys at home. The Cowboys have a chance to erase that awful performance from their memory, while getting revenge in Detroit.

In years past, they’ve folded in the face of such challenges. This test will prove whether or not Brian Schottenheimer’s culture change is working.

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So perhaps I was mistaken about life after Mikko. Seemed like the Stars had shown plenty of positive signs of being able to produce on their own, once he stopped delivering nightly hat tricks or four-point games. Instead, the entire squad was blanked in Winnipeg Friday night, making this a very compelling 1-1 series that continues with a 3:30 puck drop on Sunday at the AAC.

Dallas remains in prime position to keep advancing in this marathon affair called the Stanley Cup playoffs. Just by gaining a split in Winnipeg, the Stars secured the slight edge that is home-ice advantage, although this spring home teams are winning at a better than 2-1 rate — highly unusual for the NHL. Dallas is contributing with a 3-1 record at the AAC. And how things stand makes all the difference in the world when two teams of equal stature are going at it.

But the Stars also lost by four goals Friday night, and even if you want to excuse the empty-net strike from about 185 feet by Nikolaj Ehlers, this was still the fourth time Dallas has lost by at least three goals in the playoffs.

Cause for concern?

“You know what, some of them, the Colorado ones, I did because I thought we got overwhelmed,’’ Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Saturday after the team landed at Love Field. “I didn’t think that was the case last night. When you dive into the analytics and stuff, I think that was the story, too. Couple of those Colorado games were concerning, but I didn’t think last night’s was in that category.’’

Still, with one notable exception (a turning point Game 5 against Colorado), the Stars either win a close game or get drowned in a blowout. No other club has lost four times by three goals. I suppose the good news is that the only other three-time loser by three goals is Winnipeg. The Jets didn’t come close to winning a game in St. Louis, and if goaltender Connor Hellebuyck can be counted upon to resort to those bad performances (he was pulled in each game), Dallas can set its sights on, most likely, the Edmonton Oilers in the next round.

That all seems a little too easy, not to mention a dangerous assumption to make. The Stars forced Hellebuyck to provide at least a few big stops in the second period of Friday’s shutout, and now who’s to say that the game’s best goaltender hasn’t regained his singular focus? For me, Friday’s 4-0 Jets win looked a heck of a lot like Winnipeg’s 4-0 victory at the AAC in the final week when the visitors were nailing down the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stars were encased in a weird late-season slump.

Dallas still looks like that team a little too much, and Winnipeg, which got defenseman Josh Morrissey back into its lineup for Game 2, making the team truly healthy for the first time in the playoffs, looked a lot like the regular season Jets.

“He’s their Miro Heiskanen, you know,’’ DeBoer said. “So that changed things. It slots people for them. It’s a big boost of confidence for their whole group.’’

The Stars could use a similar injection but it won’t come Sunday afternoon. DeBoer said Heiskanen — injured against Vegas on Jan. 28 — won’t play in Game 3 and will return to day-to-day status for Tuesday’s Game 4.

“You know, when he comes back it’s going to be, obviously, a good day, but even then he’s been out for three and a half months. We’re going to have to temper our expectations on what he’s going to bring after that long of an absence,’’ DeBoer said.

For now, it’s back to scratching and clawing and hoping for emergency relief from Rantanen. What do all these blowouts really mean? Not much, maybe, in the sense that Florida won the Stanley Cup last June and lost four games by three or more goals. Of course, the Panthers spread that over two months with two of the losses coming to the Oilers in the Finals after they had grabbed a 3-0 lead. That’s different from losing all of one’s games by three goals.

If you’re looking to local Stanley Cup history, the Stars in 1999 lost seven games in their entire run to the Cup in Buffalo. They lost six games by one goal (four of those in overtime). Their only two-goal loss was a 7-5 defeat against Colorado in Game 5.

Not every Cup winner has to follow the same path. We’re just talking about surviving the second round, anyway. A bounce of the puck here or there, a first postseason goal from Matt Duchene or maybe a second from Mikael Granlund or Jamie Benn could go a long way towards moving the Stars beyond a team quietly waiting for another Mikko miracle.

X/Twitter: @TimCowlishaw

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