Trailing the series 2-1 heading into Game 4, the Dallas Stars needed to be so much better than they were in a 6-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues in Game 3.

The Stars have been criticized for the deficiencies in defending and goaltending over the course of the postseason. However, of all the goals they’ve given up in these playoffs, the one the Blues scored to start Game 4 had so many things go wrong on it, it’s almost comical.

Stars fans won’t be laughing about it, though.

Simply put, the Stars were beaten on a Vladimir Tarasenko breakaway. That can happen to many teams, but the way that this particular breakaway goal was anything but simple. In fact, the series of events that occurred made Stars coach Lindy Ruff mad enough to pull the chewing gum from his mouth and throw it to the ground.

First, watch for yourself.

So let’s count the ways this was a comically terrible goal to have allowed.

1. The play starts with Tarasenko turning the puck over to allow the Stars a possible odd-man break. Tarasenko tried to make a pass back to the middle, but it was cut off by Kris Russell. He pushed the puck off to Vernon Fiddler, who started the break in the opposite direction. Russell joined the rush with Fiddler and Travis Moen. But as you’ll see, Moen probably should have never been on the ice.

2. Before Tarasenko even turned the puck over, the Stars completely botched a line change. Antoine Roussel and Radek Faksa came off the ice, three Stars forwards jumped on. The last man on the ice was Moen, who looked at the ice in front of him and apparently didn’t realize that there were five Stars already in front of him funneling towards the puck carrier (Tarasenko). So there were six Stars on the ice and none of the four on-ice officials caught it.

Uh, that's too many men on the ice. (Sportsnet)
Uh, that's too many men on the ice. (Sportsnet)

If any of the officials saw this before the Blues regained possession, the whistle should have blown and a too many men on the ice penalty should have been called. It wasn’t and then…

3. Moen mishandles the pass from Fiddler, turning the puck over to the Blues. Five of the six Stars on the ice, including Russell, who had no one covering his position, were already well into the Blues’ zone. They all anticipated the rush, but thanks to Moen’s mishandling the pass, Blues forward Jaden Schwartz was able to collect the puck and look up to see something very strange…

4. Tarasenko was all by himself at the red line. Why? Because he took contact after initially turning the puck over and was incredibly slow to get involved in the back check. He would have probably been hollered at back at the bench if things did not work out as well as they did. But there he was, just waiting for the puck to come to his stick. Breakaways don't even come that easily in men's league, usually.

Just look at him out here.

There's a 40-goal scorer just hanging out by himself at the red line. (Sportsnet)
There's a 40-goal scorer just hanging out by himself at the red line. (Sportsnet)

5. Tarasenko had no one within 20 feet of him when he got the puck and turned it up ice. Poor Jason Demers hustled back as fast as he could and in a desperate effort he started tapping his stick on the ice as loudly as to try to fool Tarasenko into a drop pass. Yeah, that ain’t working on a 40-goal scorer. If he’s on a breakaway, he’s taking that shot. He did. 1-0 Blues.

So to recap, we’ve got a turnover at the offensive blue line for the Blues, too many men on the ice for the STars, the referees completely missing the call and even with the extra skater, the Stars still couldn’t prevent one of the game’s elite goal scorers from getting a comically wide-open breakaway.

No wonder Lindy threw the gum.