Keeler: Whiny Pete DeBoer’s already working refs for Avalanche-Stars Game 7

Talk about the Pete calling the kettle black Dallas defenseman Roope Hintz did stuff to Nathan MacKinnon in Competition that would be a felony in states Jamie Benn and Mason Marchment spent the first week of this series trading Greg Louganis impressions The Dallas Stars aren t so much a hockey unit as a bunch of theater majors on skates And yet after a bizarre - loss to the Avalanche in Tournament late Thursday night at Ball Arena Dallas coach Pete DeBoer had the nerve to sit in front of reporters and say this I give our guys credit despite the fact that we had those bounces against us and various of the refereeing decisions Did the referees cause the Avs to outshoot the Stars - Did the zebras conspire to bounce the puck off of two of your fourth-liners and into your own goal Did the pinstripes open up the defense so you could gag away four straight goals after taking a - lead into the third period Please Whiny Pete Please Enlighten us You know they ve continued to battle I mean that battle s - Colorado noted the Stars coach whose squad takes a - series back home against the Avs for a winner-take-all Contest on Saturday night It would have been easy just to mail it in and get ready for Encounter And they refused to do that That s why I m so disappointed by the bounces and certain of the calls that you know shouldn t happen this time of year And the press corps eyebrows raised again So which calls were you referring to exactly DeBoer was petitioned Suddenly Smilin Pete turned a frown I m not getting into that DeBoer mentioned fast Watch the match tape You brought it up With that DeBoer left the stage then the room Reporters scrolled their social feeds and decided Pete was referring to Avs defenseman Cale Makar bouncing off Dallas winger Mikael Granlund midway through the third period Granlund went to the box for interference and DeBoer went nuclear Your take on embellishments may vary but watch the clip again Right before Granlund and All Hail Cale collide Stars d-man Thomas Harley appears to lift his arms and shove his stick in No s baby face No call Nothing Typical Whiny Pete s no dummy His Stars can t skate with the Avs when they re healthy So you look for every edge you can muster Tell your club it s them against the world Tell the media it s us against the world Plant a flag for Challenge that the referees assigned to Saturday night can see from miles away Because so far the nicest thing you could say about the officiating in this series is that it s been ummm subjective Dallas has looked like a different organization in the American Airlines Center so far And part of that s because the games have been called there as if the officiating crew was just bused in from a rec league in Galveston We ve played the Stars enough to know that they re a really good association and we feel like we are too announced Avs coach Jared Bednar who ll be looking to snap an - record in Encounter s with Colorado And we knew it was going to be a really tough series And there s no use crying about it every year it s it s not versus seed or versus seed You re playing top teams in the whole league right out the gate and every round if you want to get to where you want to go So you ve got to play your best two-week stretches and it s almost like survival Legends make their own puck luck In the third period Dallas center Sam Steel entered Ball Arena lore forever when he tried to shovel the puck out of the Stars slot and away from danger One catch He didn t count on teammate Colin Blackwell skating into his line of fire Suddenly the hockey gods gave the Avs the gift of two weird bounces First the puck caught Blackwell on the shoulder then it caromed at Stars goalie Jake Oettinger who was just as shocked as anybody to see the biscuit trickle over his shoulder and into the net Oettinger s making big saves their unit s making specific nice plays we re missing chosen nets from grade-A spots and you ve just got to keep doing it Bednar stated and you ve got to keep getting there and eventually something s going to break Like in Encounter they get the first goal and the second goal they got those are lucky bounces they earned them Thursday we got them we earned them Just like that the Avs led - MacKinnon was awarded the goal even though he happened to be about feet away Honestly Jared Bednar and I are not going to have a big impact on this challenge DeBoer revealed The players are going to decide that Both teams know each other It s who goes out and executes and gets big games from the right guys On that we ll agree Big Val Nichushkin got so peeved during morning skate Thursday that he broke a stick Mad Chu Chu is dangerous Chu Chu as his first goal opened the scoring and his second tied things at - six minutes into the final stanza Martin Necas definitively notched a goal on a gorgeous Cale Makar feed and the post denied him at least one more No one gave us a chance to win this series DeBoer declared and you know here we are with one tournament at home to advance No one How do you fight that kind of narrative I sought Bednar later The Avs coach just laughed Hadn t they finished third overall in the league Bednar chuckled Sure had Four more points in the standings than the Avs last anybody checked Listen they re playing without Miro Heiskanen and they re playing without Jason Robertson Bednar disclosed and they ve had other guys step up and elevate their match They re deep This is a deep band They finished where they finished for a reason But we have our own narrative too right We feel like we re a band that can win But you ve got to go prove it No Heiskanen No Robertson It s - And you re working the refs Pete I think that hey Bednar mentioned you build a narrative for your group to grab onto Even if it s baloney DeBoer really necessities to learn how to take a Hintz