Stars skid into NHL playoffs on 7-game losing streak and have season on the line again

The Dallas Stars have skidded into the playoffs on a seven-game losing streak.

Mason Marchment and other players say that skid doesn't matter, and coach Pete DeBoer knows that the Stars will ultimately be judged on what they do in the playoffs.

“No concern,” Marchment said. “We’re not going to worry about the regular season. It’s behind us now. ... We’re going to turn the page and ramp it up here.”

The Stars have no choice if they want another long playoff run after making it to the West final each of the past two seasons. Dallas, still the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, opens the postseason Saturday night with Game 1 at home against rested Central Division rival Colorado. The Avalanche finished their regular season last Sunday.

“We’ve got to figure it out. I mean, you know, Saturday’s the first time in probably three weeks where we’re playing basically with our season back on the line again,” DeBoer said. “So our desperation level has to be there, our execution has to be there. ... We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that.”

Dallas has been locked into a playoff spot since March 29, and the first-round matchup against the Avs has been anticipated for even longer than that. They met in a second-round series last year that the Stars won in six games against the then-defending Stanley Cup champions.

The Stars have gone 0-5-2 since getting their 50th win of the season April 3 at home against Nashville. They were outscored 34-18 while being outshot by an average margin of 10 a game in that stretch that culminated with a 5-1 loss at the Predators on Wednesday night.

“It doesn’t really matter. You’d like to be going into the playoffs in a different way. We went in the playoffs last year like 10-2 and lost the first two games,” Tyler Seguin said. “This year we're going in oh-and-whatever. All that matters is the puck drop on Saturday, so we’ll move on pretty quickly.”

Dallas is only the ninth team in NHL history to enter the playoffs on a winless streak of at least seven games, according to SportRadar. The record of eight is shared by the 1987-88 Chicago Blackhawks and 1991-92 Montreal Canadiens.

The last team to do it was the New York Islanders with an 0-3-4 stretch to end the 2019-20 regular season that was suspended that March and never resumed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were part of the modified playoff that began about 4 1/2 months later in a Canadian-based bubble, and lost in the Eastern Conference Final.

Only the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings went on to win the Stanley Cup after skidding into the postseason with that long of a winless streak — a seven-gamer than included two ties. They were also the last team before the Islanders to even make the playoffs with that kind of finish to the regular season.

Seguin returned for the Stars' regular-season finale after missing 58 games following hip surgery in early December. He had the secondary assist on Marchment's goal only 16 seconds into the loss at Nashville.

The 33-year-old Seguin has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in the 20 games he has played this season.

In the same game that their six-time All-Star returned to the lineup, top goal scorer Jason Robertson (35 goals) played only six minutes before exiting with a lower body injury. His status for the playoff opener is uncertain.

Dallas is still without standout defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who missed the last 32 regular-season games since after injuring is left knee against Vegas on Jan. 28. He later had surgery and hasn't yet returned to practice.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) protects the puck from Detroit Red Wings defenseman Albert Johansson (20) in the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 14, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) scores on Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot (39) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 14, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Dallas Stars left wing Mason Marchment (27) celebrates his goal with center Matt Duchene (95) and left wing Jamie Benn (14) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Dallas Stars left wing Mason Marchment, center, celebrates his goal with center Tyler Seguin (91) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)