Dallas Stars defenseman Esa Lindell wasn't pleased with his outing in his team's 6-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken in Game 6 on Saturday night.
"I'm just so disappointed at myself, too," Lindell said postgame, according to The Athletic's Saad Yousuf. "Only thing now is to move on and get prepared for Game 7 and be way, way better in that one."
Usually a steady, reliable shutdown defender, Lindell posted a game-worst minus-four rating in the contest.
"I don't know if I've played that bad for a long time," Lindell continued. "It felt they got odd-mans, won battles, all the things we've been good at before went sideways today."
Lindell's underlying numbers were much stronger in the contest, as the Stars controlled 56.26% of the expected goals while he was on the ice at five-on-five.
Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer doesn't believe the blame should fall on Lindell and his partner Jani Hakanpaa, who posted a minus-three rating in the contest himself.
"They weren't worse than anybody else," DeBoer said.
He added: "I mean, we won Games 4 and 5. Those two guys both dressed and played, and played pretty well. Again, I know what the numbers say, but they weren't any worse than anybody else in our group tonight."
Game 7 is set for Monday in Dallas.
