It looks like the Stars have taken the first step in sending Junior Lessard back to Iowa as well. Lessard is on waivers, which he has to pass through before being assigned to the minors. So he would be the third guy the Stars were talking about sending down today. That leaves 16 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies if Lessard goes down to Iowa. It needs to be 14, seven and two before camp and Mike Ribeiro may not count among the forwards because of the injury.
Toby Petersen and Vadim Khomitski are going to Iowa. Petersen is no big surprise. He had already cleared waivers some time back. Khomitski is kind of a surprise. I thought he was OK in camp and the preseason. We'll just have to wait and see what the issue is with the Niklas Grossman injury. Right now Nolan Baumgartner and Matt Niskanen are left among the defensemen. I still think Niskanen needs to be playing and if he isn't playing in Dallas he needs to be playing in Iowa. Time will tell. Chris Conner and Junior Lessard are still on the roster too.
The preseason is over and the regular season is a few days away. There are still a few questions about the roster and some injury issues heading into Wednesday's opener. I am still not too caught up in who makes the opening night roster because things can change over the course of a season. Still, there are some interesting questions.
If Mike Ribeiro is the only player who ends up going on injured reserve to start the season, which is probably going to happen, then you are down to 14 forwards among the main group heading into camp. The question is has Chris Conner or Junior Lessard done well enough to knock one of them out of their roster spot and which player is it? Conner is the guy who pushed hardest here late in the preseason and probably moved ahead of Lessard, who seemed to tail off, on the food chain.
On defense it was supposed to be Niklas Grossman, Vadim Khomitski and Nolan Baumgartner battling for that sixth and seventh spot. It's pretty obvious that Grossman got the sixth spot, leaving Khomitski and Baumgarter battling for the seventh. But along came Matt Niskanen, who has done very well, but unless he is an everyday player I can't see Niskanen being on the roster. He needs to be playing on a regular basis. I can see him with this team later in the season though and I see him being a regular player next season.
They are going to make some roster moves today and there will have to be a few more before the season starts. Some of these moves may involve waivers so there could be a one day delay before somebody gets assigned to Iowa.
It's odd with the Stars playing their preseason finale tonight, but the regular season gets underway with the Ducks and Kings in London today. It's on CBC, HD Net and Center Ice and Center Ice Online. Start time is 11 central, Noon eastern. By the way, Center Ice and Center Ice Online are having a free preview through October 9.
The NHL has suspended Flyers forward Steve Downie 20 games for the hit on Ottawa's Dean McAmmond. Here's the release from the from the league.
"Philadelphia Flyers forward Steve Downie has been suspended for 20 NHL games, without pay, as a result of delivering a hit to the head of Ottawa Senators forward Dean McAmmond during an NHL pre-season game on September 25.
The incident occurred at 2:39 of the second period and Downie was assessed a match penalty under Rule 21 for deliberate injury of an opponent.
"Over the last several months, the League has met with players, coaches, general managers and owners on the subject of hits to the head," said NHL Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. "While all of the stakeholders in our League agree that hitting is an important part of the essence of the NHL game, all were also unanimous in the belief that where a player deliberately targets an opponent's head, the conduct should be subject to review and the possible assessment of supplemental discipline.
Specifically, the following factors were identified as being relevant to whether a player should be subject to supplemental discipline when a hit to an opponent’s head is involved: (1) when a player targets an opponent's head; (2) when a player launches himself by leaving his feet to hit a player in the head area; (3) when the hit to the head is delivered to an unsuspecting opponent; and (4) the timing (lateness) of the hit. An additional factor in considering whether discipline is appropriate is whether the player is a repeat offender.
"When any or all of these factors combine to cause an injury to an opponent, it was agreed that a player would be subject to supplemental discipline in the form of a game-suspension. When all or substantially all of the factors are involved, it is clear that the suspension should be severe.
"It is clear that, while Mr. Downie is not a repeat offender, all of the other factors identified as being particularly relevant in determining the appropriateness of discipline were involved in Downie's hit on Mr. McAmmond. The hit was deliberate, dangerous and has no place in our League," Mr. Campbell added.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Downie will forfeit $63,101.60. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Downie will miss the first 20 regular season and/or playoff games (in addition to the last Flyers' pre-season game - Saturday vs. NY Rangers) that he is a member of the Flyers' 23-man roster.
I don't like to read a lot into preseason games as far as the overall team, and I am not going to do it with this one. There are just too many variables at play, especially with who is and who is not in the lineup. I will just toss out words like lackluster, sloppy and boring to describe the game.
On a positive side, I will say that Marty Turco looked good. The Lundqvist-Halpern-Barnes line was good too. Stephane Robidas' shootout slap shot goal, which reminded me of Brian Rolston, was the highlight of the night and it took two-and-a-half hours or so to get to that highlight.
I enjoyed watching Phoenix play. They worked hard and were quick. That Martin Hanzal is a good looking player. They could be an annoying team this season even if they do end up finishing last in the division and conference.
The Stars made one more roster move, sending left wing John Lammers to Iowa. He had missed all of camp and the preseason to date because of a shoulder injury suffered at the Traverse City tournament. That puts the roster down to 32 players. Three of those are injured Iowa players Aaron Gagnon, Francis Wathier and Vojtech Polak.
No surprise on the roster moves today. Mark Fistric, Perttu Lindgren and James Neal are headed off to Iowa. That leaves Chris Conner, Junior Lessard, Toby Petersen and Matt Niskanen on the roster right now. We'll see what happens there. Injuries could play a part, especially at the forward spot. We'll have to wait to see what happens with Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen. It's nice to see Niskanen doing so well. He's really progressing nicely. Rick Wilson said last week that Niskanen is not that far away.
Monday night there was the Rangers-Islanders brawl. Tuesday night there was this hit by Philly's Steve Downie on Ottawa's Dean McAmmond, who suffered a concussion. Downie got a match penalty for the hit. Here's the play via YouTubue.
The Islanders and Rangers got into the swing of things last night with a nice little brawl that included a fight between the goaltenders. Here it is thanks to YouTube.
Some of the national prognosticators aren't that high on the Stars and you can count Adam Proteau of The Hockey News among them. Proteau is doing divisional breakdowns on THN's website and in his Pacific Division analysis he is predicting a fourth place finish for the Stars. Proteau writes:
Why 4th? Because when you’re a team that gets outscored by the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs and then brings in only an Oilers castoff (Winchester) and Todd “Stretch(er)” Fedoruk in the off-season, you shouldn’t expect prognosticators to give you the benefit of what is turning into a considerable amount of doubt.
The Stars’ strongest suit is their stellar group of defensemen, which might be complemented by Niklas Grossman and Matt Niskanen, two of the organization’s top prospects. Their forwards, on the other hand, leave much to be desired in the production of offense. And the fact four of their best players (Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, Jere Lehtinen and Marty Turco) average 35 years on the planet can’t be calming to those worried the injury bug that bit Dallas so deeply in ’06-07 is again sharpening its fangs.
Unless they unload some of their defensive depth in a trade for a scoring winger, the Stars are in danger of slipping to the fringes of playoff competition. Once they’re there, they may find out how thin the line is between those fringes and the outside looking in.
PLAYERS ASSIGNED TO IOWA:
Richard Clune
B.J. Crombeen
Alexander Naurov
Matt Nickerson
Konstantin Pushkarev
Philippe Sauve
Mario Scalzo
Marty Sertich
Steve Silverthorn
Tobias Stephan
Janos Vas
Tom Wandell
PLAYERS SENT BACK TO JUNIORS:
J.C. Blanchard (Victoriaville - QMJHL)
Ivan Vishnevskiy (Rouyn-Noranda – QMJHL)
The Stars haven't officially announced the roster cuts yet, but here is a list of the guys that appear to be sticking around based on this morning's practice:
Mark Fistric, Matt Niskanen, James Neal, Perttu Lindgren, Chris Conner, Toby Petersen, Junior Lessard.
This is the group that you can add to the 23 guys with one-way contracts and that includes Vadim Khomitski and Loui Eriksson and Niklas Grossman, who are both on two-way deals.
Well, I have to say all the fights in Thursday night's game kept it interesting. Krys Barch was a busy man with two fights and another tussle that only netted him a double minor for roughing. Todd Fedoruk and Brad Winchester got in the act as well. The only thing miss was Steve Ott to stir the pot. I think the Stars missed his energy tonight. They missed Stephane Robidas too. Those two guys have been two of the more energetic players this preseason and the energy seemed down a bit Thursday. Playing three games in three nights will do that to you, even with a big roster. It will do that especially when you factor in the rookie game that was played Tuesday.
I thought Mike Smith looked sharp again. That is two very solid outings for Mr. Smith. He and Steve Silverthorn had to deal with pretty bad defensive breakdowns in the game.
Jussi Jokinen continues to play well and produce some points.
Roster cuts are expected later today. Assistant GM Les Jackson was pulling players aside for talks after practice Thursday. I am sure they were being told where they were going if they didn't already know. I figure a lot of top prospects will stick around to play in some more preseason games.
I am not going to read a ton into it, but I noticed in the locker room that both Junior Lessard and Toby Petersen have name plates in there for now. That's probably a sign that both of them will be sticking around for a while at least. Lessard has earned the right and I think with Mike Ribeiro out for a bit and Stu Barnes and Jere Lehtinen still on the mend, Petersen is a versatile guy who can fit in a lot of different places.
... for the Stars. Those billboards the Stars have around town have gotten a lot of attention. Now you can help the cause. The Stars are holding a contest where fans can submit ideas for a billboard. The winner's idea will become an actual billboard and there some free tickets involved as well. The details are here.
It was an entertaining preseason opener against the Blues Tuesday night. I don't get too caught up in the wins and losses. I watch a lot of different things and tonight I watched a lot of different players. Guys like Junior Lessard, who I still think is pushing for a spot. I think he helped his cause by scoring another goal. I watched Loui Eriksson, and I thought he got stronger as the game went along. He made some nice plays to set up scoring chances. I watched some line combinations. I really liked the Winchester, Ott and Barch trio. I thought they did what everyone expects them to do. It was nice to see Winchester pot that goal. I think there is a little offensive potential there.
Some other observations: Jussi Jokinen continues to play well. Stephane Robidas had a good night with a goal, an assist and some very good work in his own end.
I am starting to wonder about Mike Ribeiro's status for the beginning of the season. The Stars announced Tuesday he will be out a minimum of two weeks and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Well, that will take it up to about opening night against Colorado. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. Joel Lundqvist got a look at that top six center role Tuesday night, and I am not sure he fits there. Jokinen might and that would open up something in the top six to start the season. There's a chance for Lessard or someone else to make a move. I may be getting ahead of the game. We'll just have to wait and see where Ribeiro stands.
Not sure the scrimmage on Sunday had the intensity of Saturday. I think maybe the energy was down just a bit after a couple days of hard work. Still, it was a pretty good scrimmage. Good day for the Morrow, Ribeiro and Eriksson trio. Those were the guys who really stood out.
Right now, my opinion changes on roster competition changes on a daily basis. Today I'd say Chris Conner and Junior Lessard are the guys who are pushing. The Stars have another practice tomorrow, then three preseason games. The roster will get reduced significantly after that, and then it will get down to a manageable size.
The injuries are starting to add up. I don't know how serious Mike Ribeiro's injury is. He left the scrimmage early. We should find out tomorrow if there is much to it. Dave Tippett said if this were the regular season the status of Jere Lehtinen and Stu Barnes, who both have shoulder issues, would be up in the air. If it were the playoffs they would be playing. With this being training camp, they are being kept out for precautionary reasons.
Tough break for Francis Wathier who suffered a shoulder injury that looked pretty bad on Sunday. He missed almost all of the 2005-06 season with a shoulder injury. Tippett had some nice things to say about Wathier on Saturday. How much he was progressing and how hard he was working to try to find a niche as an NHL player.
The scrimmage was the highlight of day of camp and it was a decent scrimmage. It was a little sloppy at times, but that is to be expected this early. Junior Lessard had a real good day out there. A couple of goals and a nice play to set up another one. When I talked to Dave Tippett last week he mentioned Lessard as a guy who could push for a spot and he was basically indicating the same thing after today's practice/scrimmage. As much as it appears it is 15 guys battling for 14 forward spots - and I think in large part it is - there is still a chance a guy like Lessard can force the issue. Or a player like James Neal, who had a pretty good day today too. Chris Conner is another guy who has looked good and was fun to watch today.
I am not sure it's all that big a deal who is on the opening night roster. It's a long season. Just as important here is finding players who can come in and fill holes. They can fill holes if there are injuries or they can fill holes if established players are moved via trades. They can also be used in trades.
What I like about the Stars right now is that we are starting to see some organizational depth that goes beyond just the NHL roster. That's what I am seeing here at camp. It's taken a few years to build that up via the draft, but it is starting to pay off. Lessard is not a bad guy to have pushing for some NHL time. Neal is going to be a good player. Perttu Lindgren looks like a good player. Obviously, the Stars are counting on Loui Eriksson to take a step forward this season. Ditto with Joel Lundqvist. There are some good young defensemen in Niklas Grossman, Matt Niskanen, Mark Fistric, Vadim Khomitski and Ivan Vishnevskiy. Grossman, who was paired with Sergei Zubov a lot today, looked solid.
The goaltending depth is a little thin right now, but it's rock solid at the NHL level and set for the next few years at least.
There isn't complete agreement here at my house on the new uniforms. My nine-year-old son Nick was not exactly overwhelmed, but he wasn't entirely disappointed.
"It's a lot better than that bull uniform," he said. "I like the old green jersey better."
Me? I really like the dark one. I don't buy jerseys for myself. Just don't. Not much interest in stuff like that. I might consider one of those though. I really like that dark one. Did I already say that? The white one is OK.
Just got back from the first day of training camp. I think the players got a good day of work in. The on-ice sessions were one hour and 45 minutes for each group and they were good, hard workouts. There was some good physical play, especially in the some of the five-on-five situations. It's only one day, so I am not going to read too much into what happened, but a few guys stood out. Among the NHL group I thought Brad Winchester looked very good. Among the prospects Tom Wandell drew some rave reviews for his play. Steve Ott looked like a man on a mission.
There are scrimmages the next two days, so that should be fun and may help to get a better read on stuff.
John Lammers and Aaron Gagnon, who are both injured, were the only two guys who didn't skate. Goalie J-C Blanchard, who was at the development camp in July and played with the Stars prospects in Traverse City, has been added to the roster as a sixth goaltender.
We are one day away from training camp opening and I am wondering if there is greater anticipation over that or the new uniforms being officially unveiled later in the evening. If you read any of the various message boards, including the one on this site, the official boards, unofficial boards or the HF boards, you've probably seen what the new uniforms are going to look like.
It started with a description of the uniforms over Labor Day weekend, a few images were added and the latest addition was the image to the left, which is a picture of Marty Turco from a computer game ad running up in Canada.
Mike Heika of the Morning News has a good article this morning about the Stars' failure to keep the new look a secret. Granted, that was going to be tough. Some people were just not going to be denied on this front. At the same time, I agree with this quote from the article:
"While there are glimpses of the jersey out there, nobody has really seen it up close," said Rob Scichili, the team's senior director of communications. "These uniforms are very impressive when you see them in person, and we're very excited about them."
Plus, I am not sure how many of the Stars' faithful read message boards. The bet here is the percentage is low. There are probably a lot of people out there who still haven't seen the various grainy photographs out there. So, it should still be a good event with some excitement.
The bigger issue is how much will be people like them. There won't be uniformity in opinion. We've already seen that on the various board discussions. I am waiting to see them for real before I make a decision. I wasn't a big fan of the "Mooterus" jersey, but I didn't lose any sleep over it.
Stars prospects beat Tampa Bay 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday to finish in seventh place at the Traverse City Tournament. Perttu Lindgren had two goals and Tom Wandell and Colton Sceviour each had a goal and an assist. Richard Clune scored the shootout winner. The boxscore is here.
Stars prospects ended round-robin play with an 0-3-0 record in Traverse City after a 3-1 loss to Columbus today. Aaron Gagnon scored the only goal, assisted by Colton Sceviour and tryout defenseman Eric Doyle. Tobias Stephan went the distance in goal, stopping 36 of 38 shots. You can see the boxscore here.
Somebody emailed and asked if there was a way to follow the prospect games in Traverse City. I don't think you can watch or listen online, but you can get updated boxscores as the games are being played by going here. There is a lot of other statistical stuff on the tournament there. Stars play Columbus at 1:30 pm Central Time today.
Nice little move by the Penguins on the PR front. They had Sidney Crosby and other players personally deliver season tickets to fans. It made for some good television, as you will see below.
Two games into the Traverse City tournament and our Stars are 0-2 and have been outscored 10-1. Am I going to read a lot into that? No, not really. It's just a few games in early September. I wouldn't be celebrating if they were 2-0 and had outscored the opposition 10-1. I just can't get too worked up about the results of these tournament games.
It's just another snapshot of individual prospects themselves. The development camp was one. This tournament is another, albeit a different kind. Training camp and the preseason will be yet another. The actual hockey season will be a better indication of how a lot of these players are developing. A lot of them are at a lot different stages of their hockey careers.
I don't think any of these guys are starting the season in the NHL this season and only a few of them might see time in Dallas during the course of the season. Mark Fistric, James Neal, Matt Niskanen and Perttu Lindgren are the four guys on that roster who will be worth watching as the season moves along. I have seen enough of Fistric, Neal and Niskanen - and that goes beyond just the camps in Frisco - to have a pretty good read on them. I wouldn't rule out Neal making a good push for a roster spot. I haven't seen Lindgren as much as the other three, but am looking forward to watching him as much as possible this season.
NHL.com has an article up today on Mike Modano and his pursuit of Phil Housley's U.S.-born points record. Modano, Housley, Joe Mullen and Patrick Kane, the U.S. kid taken first overall in this summer's draft, all did a media thing in New York yesterday. The article can be found here.
A few notes from around the NHL and some other stuff. The Canadiens are going to retire Bob Gainey's No. 23 and Larry Robinson's No. 19 this coming season. Gainey's cermony will come February 23, prior to a game with Columbus. It will be nice that Ken Hitchcock will be on hand to see his old buddy from the Dallas days honored on that night. More details on Gainey and Robinson can be found here.
Pierre Turgeon made his retirement official today. Very talented player who just didn't fit here in Dallas.
Ducks are holding a news conference tomorrow to talk about Scott Niedermayer's future with the team. Apparently he won't be at the start of training camp, but he's still not sure if he is going to retire. Here's an update from the Canadian Press. We'll find out more tomorrow.
I watched another Canada/Russia Super Series game tonight. I've watched all of them, but not the entire thing every time. As a neutral observer, it's been boring in one way because it's been one-sided. In another way it's been interesting because I've become fans of some of those Canadian kids like Kyle Turris, Sam Gagner, Brandon Sutter, David Perron and a few others.
Of course, the main reason I have been watching is Stars prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy who potted the lone Russian goal this evening. It was on the power play.
After about seven hours of work and one major technical glitch I wrapped up a majority of the site change at 4 am Monday morning. I went to bed at 4:02 am and don't remember much after 4:03 am. The glitch had nothing to do with the changes. It was just bad timing and added an additional two hours to my night/morning.
I still have a little more work to do, including the message boards. But all the major stuff is done.
Nothing much changes. It just looks different for the most part. There are more ads. If that does what I think it will do that will lead to changes that I will discuss at a later time. More on that in the future. One thing that does change is that there is no more "Stars on the Net," which was the collection of links to Stars articles. That has been replaced by the Stars News Feeds & Links page.
If you follow that link (top of the page on all pages) you will see sections for the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Stars official site. Those are RSS feeds that will update when those sites are updated. I may have to add another one for the official site because they have two separate feeds. The page takes a little time to load, but it does put everything in one place and you don't have to wait for me to update the links.
The other Stars related articles I come across on a daily basis during the season will be posted here on the blog. I'll probably do a series of pre-game and post-game links. I'll be using the blog more for stuff like that.
There's also the NHL News Feeds & Links page, which has stuff from NHL.com, TSN, Sportsnet, CBC, ESPN and Yahoo. I don't want to add any more because it can take a while to load. Like the Stars' one, it puts everything in one place and you don't have to surf around and look for stuff.
Those are the only major changes as far as content goes. I'll pick away at the message boards over the next couple of days and I'll start previewing training camp on the main site in the days ahead.
Hockey is just about here. It's been a long summer.
I am in the process of uploading some site changes starting Sunday night and into Monday morning. Be patient, there may be a glitch here and there and then here and there again. I will talk about it more when I get done or reasonably close to done.
It started with a description of the uniforms over Labor Day weekend, a few images were added and the latest addition was the image to the left, which is a picture of Marty Turco from a computer game ad running up in Canada. 
