Stars’ 2 highest paid players are their best players, which is why they lost Game 1

The head coach thinks it’s too early to “call guys out,” but when you have come this far to reach the Western Conference Finals, you don’t wait for Game 5.

The Dallas Stars are good enough to win the Stanley Cup this spring, but only if their best players play like it.

In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Edmonton Oilers, the Stars top players were Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. Typically, this should be a point of pride for two men on the wrong side of 30, and the two highest paid players on the roster.

And, if the Stars want to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, their best players need to be forward Jason Robertson and defenseman Miro Heiskanen. It’s not fair to throw Wyatt Johnston into this discussion because he looks no more than 9 years old, but his team needs him.

That trio didn’t do too much on Thursday night, and the Edmonton Oilers won Game 1, 3-2, in double overtime.

It is the seventh straight playoff series the Stars have lost Game 1. The Stars are now 3-5 at home this postseason. Lot to be said for consistency.

The Stars had their chances, blew most of them, and the Oilers were the better team. Game 2 is Saturday night in Dallas.

The Oilers won it 32 seconds into the second overtime when forward Conor McDavid redirected a shot from in front of the net past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger. The NHL reviewed the goal, for some reason; the goal stood, as it should.

“We played good enough to win the game,” Seguin said after the game. “Thought it was a great hockey game.”

He’s correct. It was a great hockey game.

He is incorrect that the Stars played well enough to win. They could have won, but were outplayed.

The Stars are the favorites to win this series, but this is hockey. The Oilers have the best player in the world, McDavid, and they can win this series, especially if the Stars are not led by their talented young players.

Against Edmonton, the Stars were 0-for-3 on the power play, in regulation.

Then came overtime, when the Stars were handed a four-minute power play after McDavid was called for a high-stick in the opening seconds of that first extra period.

The Stars narrowly missed a game-winner on a point shot, and that was it.

“You’ve got to score on that double minor (penalty). That’s probably the game there in overtime,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “(The Oilers) played a really good game. They were engaged, and we didn’t take advantage of that situation.”

“That situation” is the fact that the Stars had not played since May 17, their series-clinching win against Colorado. The Oilers most recently played on May 20, their Game 7 win at Vancouver.

The Oilers had to fly on May 21 from Vancouver to Dallas, not a short flight, and play a game on May 23.

To start the game, the Oilers looked crisp and the Stars played as if they just woke up from a 72-hour bender (it’s hockey; don’t rule it out. Lot of Canadians on this roster).

“If it was my choice we would have played two days earlier,” Seguin said.

The Oilers took a 2-0 lead in the second period, and Seguin tied it up late. He scored once in the second, and tied it on a wide open shot from in front of the net with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

He was on the receiving end of one of those lucky puck bounces, but how Seguin is playing right now is not luck. He’s 32, and continues to play well in the postseason.

“Speaking of guys on the score sheet; he’s been our best player,” DeBoer said. “He’s been like that for a while.”

Having Seguin contribute numbers in a playoffs is a gift; the same for Jamie Benn, 34, who was visible all night.

If the Stars are going to win this series, and the next one, their best players can’t be those guys. If the Stars are going to win this series, and the next one, their best players must be Robertson and Miro.

Robertson was credited with one assist in Game 1, but he’s a goal scorer. The Stars had five power plays, and Robertson was on the ice for 6 minutes and 14 seconds in the man advantage. In a game where the margin is often a dumb bounce, he must be a difference. Because he can be.

In the Stars’ first round series against the Las Vegas Golden Knights, DeBoer politely called out his best players to be more visible. Those guys responded, and the Stars came back to win the series in seven games.

DeBoer said after this Game 1 he’s not going to make the same noise.

“We were OK. I didn’t think we were great. I don’t think we were poor,” he said. “We’re Game 1 in this series. I’m not going to call guys out. It’s early.”

It’s the West Finals. Better to be early than late.