Gaining perspective: Tyler Seguin’s take on the First Round and what’s ahead

The Stars were given the day off Thursday, so nobody was on the ice and a few players came in for treatment.

Tyler Seguin was one of the few in the building in Frisco and agreed to meet with a small gathering of media to discuss where the Stars are in their best-of-seven series with the Vegas Golden Knights. Dallas is down 0-2 after a 3-1 loss on Wednesday and will play the next two games in Las Vegas Saturday and Monday.

Dallas had the best road record in the NHL this season at 26-10-5 and ranked second in road scoring (3.46) and third in road GAA (2.65). That said, the Stars have won just two of the past 11 head-to-head meetings with Vegas.

A little sleepy and sore, Seguin addressed all of these questions and made some good points along the way:

You are down 2-0 to the defending Stanley Cup champions, does that add anything to the story or is this just another game?

Seguin: The story is you’ve got to get one, you’ve got to start with one. The focus is we’ve been a good road team all season, we’ve taken pride in the bounce back games and not going on losing streaks, overcoming the adversity you face as a group. And we’ve got to find a way to win that first game in Vegas.

Is there anything to that road record? Is there anything you do differently?

Seguin: I think in any road game, you’re definitely simplifying. In the playoffs, I think it’s even more how you have to play simple, you’ve got to defend hard. If you look at Vegas, I was thinking today that with some of their top players, I don’t even notice them until all of the sudden they have a result. They get that one chance and they capitalize on it. We haven’t capitalized on those one chances. It feels different than last year. I felt last year a lot of the games they were dominating and we were trying to sneak one out. This year, we’ve dominated and haven’t had it.

This is going to be their first home playoff game since they won the Cup, so there is going to be heightened emotion. Does that lend itself to playing spoiler, so to speak?

Seguin: I don’t know. I think that’s a lot of thinking, that’s what you guys do. My last comment was dominating, I don’t know that we have dominated, I think we have played good enough to win games. We responded last game. I thought our first was great and with a team like that, they find a way to have it 1-1 going into the second. You give them credit where credit is due, they’re a great hockey club. I was thinking this morning, teams like Washington, they had to get through Pittsburgh to go all of the way. This is kind of our team that we’ve got to find a way to overcome. Even with everything going on with them, we’ve got to find a way to overcome them. That’s just going to spring forward all of the emotion and confidence in the group. They’re playing confident, they’re playing composed, they don’t have a worry to them, that’s what elite teams do, and that’s what we’re trying to get to.

Can you embrace the role of the villain and go in there and enjoy being booed?

Seguin: Sometimes when you get booed, it’s better. When I used to get booed in Winnipeg, for whatever reason, I would have my best nights. Just figure out what gets you to the next level, gets the team to the next level. I think it starts with us as individuals, figure out how to take one step forward, how to not focus on results, but get results. Hockey is hard. but for the season we have had, I feel we deserve better than this. It’s not looking for sympathy, it’s digging down and finding something. All of us, we’ve got to find a way, because we earned the right to that top seed in the West and one point back from the whole league. We shouldn’t be down 2-0, but here we are. Let’s figure out a way to figure it out.

Does your history help you at times like this? You have had to fight through a lot of injuries, so is this just the next step in the fight?

Seguin: I’m fighting now. You try to tap into those situations you’ve been through and experiences and sometimes knowing you might have an excuse but look for no excuses. Just figure it out.

There have been few games this year where you struggled to find goals in the second and third periods. Are you seeing anything different on why it’s been tough to score?

Seguin: When you get a few or you get one as a group or as an individual, you get that extra boost. They have all that swagger, right? They’re defending Stanley Cup champs. They can finish off the year kind of slow, get a bunch of guys back and then have that composure. That’s where their confidence is right now. They’re heading home, but if we get that first game or first few, all of a sudden they start thinking and, all of a sudden, you have a new series. So you need that big moment here and that’s what we’re going to look for.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.