The Stars need more from Mikko Rantanen

The Dallas Stars are sitting on the brink of elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs after losing Game 5 against the Minnesota Wild to fall 3–2 down in the first round Western Conference series. 

While they’re not done yet, the situation is looking dire, especially with the underwhelming offensive production from a two-way defenseman like Mikko Rantanen, who has one goal through the first five games. 

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Steve Peters to break down the Stars’ struggles and how Rantanen could potentially save them.

Tyler Yaremchuk:  Do you think it’s possible for this Dallas Stars team now to turn this around? Dallas has had some streaks this year where they’ve played well, but when you get these winning streaks during the year, it’s not against a playoff-caliber team every single night, making adjustments. Can they turn this around? What is their potential, and what can Dallas do against this Minnesota team here?

Steve Peters: Jason Robertson has been surprising. He’s got a goal in every game in this series. He’s been great, but he’s been the only player up front. I tell you, what they really need is Mikko Rantanen to be the Mikko Rantanen from last year’s playoffs. You go back to last year, through the first four games against Colorado, Mikko Rantanen had one goal. He’s got one goal right now. But then you look at the last three against Colorado: he had five goals, six assists for 11 points over the next three. They need that Mikko Rantanen right now in this series. I think that’s the only way through it. They need somebody to put this team on their back and get them through offensively and play both sides of the puck like rent, and can do, I think that’s their biggest chance to get back in the series is to get a player like Mikko Rantanen to lead this team into it. 

Right now, they’ve got no spark, they’ve got no energy, they’re not able to get the puck 200 feet up the ice, and they need that if they’re going to get back in the series. 

You can catch the Mikko Rantanen segment and the rest of Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE here.