The Stanley Cup Playoffs start on Saturday night with the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche headlining the show at 8:30 pm EST, for what is, or at least one of, the most anticipated Round 1 matchups of the postseason.
For the Stars, a lot of conversation has been had about the brutal seven-game losing streak this team had to cap off the regular season. You’ll see the link below to an article that breaks down a lot of this, so we won’t dive into it here. Rather, this is all about the news that came out on Friday. After suffering an injury on Wednesday night in the season finale, Jason Robertson is week-to-week with a lower-body injury, and is ruled out for at least Game 1.
Related: 3 Keys to the Stars Defeating the Avalanche in Round 1
Yes, defenseman Miro Heiskanen’s injury has taken the headlines, but we all knew he was going to miss some time, if not the whole series. Nils Lundqvist is out on the back end as well, but again, we all knew that was coming. Robertson’s injury came as an unexpected and unnecessary surprise, and darkened the clouds that were already hanging over the Stars heading into the playoffs.
However, this is one of the deepest of the 16 teams remaining, and while it’s not good news, the Stars are built to weather this storm. At least, for now.
What the Stars are Missing With Robertson’s Absence
After undergoing a foot procedure in the summer, Robertson started out the season slowly. In the first two months of the season, Robertson had five goals and 13 points in 22 games. He ended up finishing 2024 with nine goals and 28 points in 36 games. Thanks to a hot December, the numbers don’t look so bad, but it wasn’t great.
Call it spite due to the 4 Nations snub, or maybe his foot was finally better. Whatever it was, he started 2025 shot out of a cannon and kept it going for the majority of the remainder of the regular season. In 47 games, Robertson scored 27 goals and had 55 points, both of which were in the top five in the NHL. In total, Robertson had 35 goals and 80 points, playing in every game this season.
In the playoffs, Robertson has 14 goals and 38 points in 45 playoff games, including six goals and 16 points in 19 games last season.
There’s no doubt that losing Robertson is a huge gut-punch. He’s week-to-week but is only being ruled out one game at a time, for whatever that’s worth.
Stars Have the Depth to Survive… For Now
The depth that the Stars own has been raved about for quite a few years now, and it’s no different this season. Robertson is one of eight players who scored 20-plus goals this season, and one of six who had 60-plus points.
Sam Nestler is an excellent reporter for alldlls.com, and he posted his expected lines on Saturday morning. Since they haven’t been announced as of yet, that’s what we’re going to go off of. Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, and Evgenii Dadonov are penciled in as line one on this list. Combined, these three players have 70 goals and 173 points, and all three of them have 20-plus goals on the season. Dadonov, in particular, has been a pleasant surprise, capping off his season with a hat-trick a few weeks ago. He’s proven to be versatile, going up and down the lineup all season long.
The second line consists of Mason Marchment, Matt Duchene, and Tyler Seguin. This one is not penciled in, since it was one of the hottest lines in the NHL before Seguin got hurt, and was put back together in his first game back on Wednesday. Duchene and Marchment have 52 goals and 129 points combined, and Duchene is second on the team with 82 of his own. Seguin had nine goals and 21 points in 20 games this season, but it is fair to temper expectations heading into the playoffs. Marchment had 22 goals and 47 points in 62 games, which stands to reason that both Seguin and Marchment could have posted substantial numbers if they remained healthy.
The third line is made up of Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, and Mikko Rantanen. This might be the craziest third line in the NHL, combining for 81 goals and 208 points. Johnston is coming off the best season in his young career, and Rantanen has slowly been rounding into form as a Star.
Oskar Back, Sam Steel, and Mavrik Bourque round out the projected fourth line, and combine for 21 goals and 66 points, which is just fine for a fourth line. Colin Blackwell will most likely be the first guy pulled from the press box if that time comes. Blackwell has six goals and 17 points on the season. Despite the limited ice time and the limited production, this line rarely takes a shift off. Both on the offensive and defensive ends, this line constantly works hard, and in the Stars’ bad games, they are often their hardest-working line.
It has to be said that head coach Pete DeBoer rolls four lines often, so numbers one to three sometimes don’t matter. Regardless, this team is extremely deep, and if they have to live without Robertson for a significant portion of this season, if not all of it, they are built to do so.
Mikko Rantanen’s Return to Colorado
There are quite a few variables to this series, not the least of which being the return of Rantanen to the city where he won the Stanley Cup and played all of his career before being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in February. Will there be nerves, or will he revert to the dominant playoff performer he’s been for the majority of his career?
Rantanen is known as one of the most consistent regular-season producers in the NHL, and rightfully so. He has 294 goals and 705 points in 652 games. It feels like, outside of Colorado, it’s forgotten that he is equally as dominant in the playoffs. In 81 games, Rantanen has 34 goals and 101 points. Even before Robertson was hurt, Rantanen had to produce at the level. Now, that’s even more true.
Losing Robertson Is Not the End of the World… For Now
You never want to lose one of your best goal-scorers. However, the Stars ended the regular season so poorly that it feels like the energy is even more negative thanks to the news of his absence. If the Stars finished the season with anything other than a seven-game losing streak, the positivity of this team’s depth would be much more front and center. It won’t be easy, but the Stars have the horses to weather the storm.
