I can't disagree with anything you said, especially considering the time frame in which you said it. Our entire power play was skating across the Colorado blue line, then standing there like "now what?". The Avs would gladly nab the puck and fire it on down. It seemed the entire team was cruising at 90% speed, playing not to make a mistake, thinking while skating, and consequently being 2nd best to every contested puck. The first 35 minutes of the game were almost entirely spent with the Stars cobbling defensive efforts to prevent the Avs All-Stars from destroying them.
Starting with around 12:00 left in the 3rd period, Dallas seemed to abandon all that and just start flying around the rink. If a white sweater got in the way, it got trucked. Otherwise, the puck was there for the taking, so they took it. Without their goalie standing on his head, Colorado would have given up 3 in the 3rd. Possibly the Avs thought they could nurse a 1-goal lead through a desperate 3rd period, despite that being an insane game plan. The Stars simply went into rampage mode, and kept it up for a period and a half, until the got the game winner.
To temper expectation, that's 30 minutes worth of playoff speed hockey, after 8 straight games of confused, brain-fog level play. We'll have to wait until Wednesday to see if that was the end of a slump, or just an inspired moment.