Head coach accepts the blame for series altering mistake.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and for Lindy Ruff it means a lot of reflecting on what could have been.

Following the Dallas Stars' 6-1 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of their second-round series, the Stars' head coach was dejected about his team's season coming to an end.

"It's a huge disappointment," the Dallas Stars head coach told reporters on Wednesday following his team's elimination.

There is no doubt that the Stars' goaltenders were not up to par in this pivotal game, as goaltender Kari Lehtonen was pulled after allowing three first-period goals, and Antti Niemi gave up two more on only 10 shots. Despite the lackluster performance in goal, Ruff refused blame either netminder for the loss.

"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 managed to outshoot St. Louis 32-19, but went 0-for-3 on the power play in Game 7. The Stars were undoubtedly the better puck possession team throughout the series, and 87-38 edge in shot attempts in all situations, and 66-30 at even strength in Game 7. It was all for not, as they could only tickle the twine once in the blowout loss.

Ruff did what a good coach should do, and took responsibility for his team.

"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, despite his team's best showing since the 2008 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."

This loss is going to sting this team for some time it appears. The Stars, while talented, have glaring holes in their lineup that will need to be addressed this offseason.

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