Lindy Ruff wasn't ready for his season to end.
"It's a huge disappointment," the Dallas Stars head coach told reporters Wednesday after losing 6-1 to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of their second-round series. "It's not our team ... It's not the ending you want."
Dallas starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen was pulled after allowing three first-period goals, and Antti Niemi gave up two more on only 10 shots, but Ruff didn't want to single out either netminder.
"Right now is not the time to assess blame," he said. "You've got to look at the whole picture. You've got to take the fact that we didn't score in some situations (when) you need to score. If you're going to beat a good team, you need to score too."
The Stars dominated possession in Game 7, holding an 87-38 edge in shot attempts in all situations and 66-30 at even strength, according to HockeyStats.ca. Dallas outshot St. Louis 32-19, but went 0-for-3 on the power play.
Still, goaltending was once again the story. Lehtonen's failure to cover up the puck allowed Robby Fabbri to score less than six minutes in, and the Blues then had another bad goal called back because they were deemed offside.
Lehtonen remained in the game, and the Blues scored twice in the final two minutes of the opening frame.
Ruff took responsibility for the way he handled his goalies.
"I think maybe it's on me," he said. "I think with the review, it maybe looked like he got a little bit rattled. I should have taken him out sooner."
Ruff didn't take any consolation in the fact the Stars got within one game of the Western Conference Final after failing to qualify for the playoffs last season.
"Sometimes, you have to learn from losing," Ruff said. "We learned from the disappointment of not making it, (made) some adjustments on how we played, and (it) took us a lot further down the road ... (but) there's no consolation. Nobody's happy in that room."
The Stars haven't advanced past the second round since 2008, when they lost in the conference final to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in six games.
