The Los Angeles Kings fell again to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, meaning the Stars swept them in the regular season series, outscoring them 13-3.
For a team with Stanley Cup ambitions, it's tough to get your hopes up when one of the league's true contenders puts you to the sword so regularly.
Of course, the Kings have put in good performances against other contenders.
Their first game under Jim Hiller was an impressive 4-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, they clawed back to beat the Boston Bruins in overtime and hammered the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 in Vancouver.
Scattered into their recent record are losses to both the Oilers and Canucks too, but they've shown they can keep pace with those two teams.
Against the Stars, however, they cannot.
The fact that Saturday's game was the second of a back-to-back would give the Kings a little bit of slack had Dallas not run them out of Crypto.com Arena last week on night two of a back-to-back.
The Kings also can't fall back on having their backup goalie in net, so did the Stars in both their recent big wins.
So, is this just a bad matchup for the Kings or a reality check that they aren't a true contender?
The answer is probably both.
This Stars team is a bad matchup for the Kings, they have the depth to match them up and down the lineup and have the star power to outmatch the Kings.
That's what you need to win a Cup, Dallas has it and Los Angeles doesn't.
While that's a problem specifically against a Dallas team, it's clearly a problem for this Kings team overall.
Worse yet for the Kings, a first-round matchup against the Stars isn't impossible, if the Kings fall into a wildcard spot, it's potentially even likely.
If it isn't the Stars, it could be one of the Colorado Avalanche or the Winnipeg Jets, better matchups than Dallas, but not ones the Kings would be favored in.
These losses against Dallas haven't told us anything new about the Kings, it's just highlighted their biggest problems.
The Kings don't have the star power to match up with the true top teams, and when those teams can match their depth, it usually doesn't go well for Los Angeles.
Another first-round exit would be disastrous for the Kings, but depending on the matchup, that looks increasingly more likely as we get closer to the playoffs.