For the first time, the Western Conference Final trophy presentation occurred in a building without fans.
Did the Stars notice?
“No, not really,” Tyler Seguin said. “We’ve gotten used to it. We play for each other in here. Obviously, you play for the fans, but at the end of the day, we’re all brothers. We’re all super excited, even if there’s not a lot of noise.”
Rick Bowness said: "I’ve been in a couple rinks where we’ve clinched to go to the Finals, and it erupts and everything. But tonight, you’re so excited that you don’t even notice. We’re so used to playing with no fans, we don’t even notice that anymore. You’re so excited for the moment, you’re so excited for the players that you don’t even notice that there’s no fans.
“Would you love to have them? Yeah, but when it comes right down to it, and you’ve scored that goal and all you’re thinking about then is your team and how happy you are for them, so yeah, we didn’t even notice tonight.”
Goals not shots: In the series, the Stars lost many of the possession statistics, but only one of the games.
According to Natural Stat Trick, at 5 on 5 against Vegas, the Stars had …
… 47.1% of shot attempts.
… 45.7% of shots on goal.
… 52.5% of scoring chances.
… 46.9% of high-danger scoring chances.
… 48.7% of expected goals.
The Stars also became the first team since 1968 to advance to the Stanley Cup Final despite a negative goal differential in the playoffs, including the round robin. Since the start of the first round against Calgary, the Stars have a plus-four goal differential.
“It says analytics are overrated,” Seguin said. “I mean, it just says we find ways. We don’t care. In Colorado it was kind of goal-scoring match, and this in series it’s kind of more of our style of a 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, whatever it may be match. Whatever the game brings to us, that’s how we’re going to play it, and just find ways to get the job done.”
