Andrew's Dallas Stars and NHL Blog

Morrow out 6 months with torn ACL

Here’s the release:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the left wing Brenden Morrow is out indefinitely with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will require surgery. He is expected to miss up to six months. The club also recalled right wing Landon Wilson from Grand Rapids (AHL).

“We are obviously very disappointed to hear the news about Brenden’s knee,” said Co-General Manager Les Jackson. “As our captain, he will obviously be missed, but we have every assurance that he can and will come back from this injury at 100 percent. There is a lot of hockey left to be played this season, and we are confident our team will rally together and keep pushing.”

Morrow, 29, has skated in all 18 of the Stars’ games to date, recording five goals and 10 assists for 15 points with 49 penalty minutes. He placed tied for second on the club in assists and points, second in penalty minutes and tied for fourth in goals.

The native of Carlyle, Sask., is coming off a 2007-08 season where he led the Stars in goals (32), power play goals (12), hits (260) and plus/minus (+23), and was second in points (74) and game-winning goals (7). Morrow added 15 points (9 goals, 6 assists) and 22 penalty minutes 18 Stanley Cup Playoff games last spring, as the Stars advanced to the Western Conference Finals.

Wilson, 33, has skated in 15 games with AHL Grand Rapids this season, earning eight goals and seven assists for 15 points with 37 penalty minutes. Among Griffins team leaders, he was tied for first in goals and tied for second in points.

The 6-3, 226-pound right wing has skated in 348 career NHL games with Colorado, Boston, Phoenix and Pittsburgh, collecting 111 points (50 goals, 61 assists) and 331 PIM. In 13 career Stanley Cup Playoff games, Wilson has earned a goal and an assist with 20 penalty minutes. His most prolific NHL season came in 2000-01 with Phoenix, when he collected 31 points (18 goals, 13 assists) in 70 games.

Friday practice update

Pretty quiet day out in Frisco. There’s not much any one can ask or can say that hasn’t been asked or said before.

Brenden Morrow did not practice. Nothing new on where he stands as far as the injury he sustained in last night’s game. He was being evaluated. We’ll see if he plays tomorrow against the Ducks.

They had 11 forwards for practice. Here’s how they lined up:

Brunnstrom-Modano-Parrish
Ott-Richards-Eriksson
Neal-Ribeiro-Avery
Petersen-Barch

There were various defensive combinations used. If Morrow can’t go tomorrow they’ll have a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen. 

Stars-Blackhawks thoughts

I don’t know what to what to say anymore. They show glimpses of being very good and then the wheels come off and you get one of these losses where they give up five or six goals. If they were 11-4-2 heading into this game and played like this you wouldn’t read too much into it. But when this team is consistently inconsistent where they can’t string together a couple wins, you read a lot into games like these.

This was game No. 18. We’re almost at the quarter mark of the season. I think 20 games is the point where a lot of people think you can accurately tell what you’ve got in a team and right now the Stars have a lot of issues. For what ever reason they just can’t play complete games. If it’s not one area of the game letting them down, it’s another area. The power play comes up big but the penalty kill continues to struggle. Those goals they gave up at the end of the first and second period were killers. I thought the Patrick Kane goal at the end of the first period basically changed the whole complexion of the game. Momentum is a big part of the game and I think Chicago got it there. They may have started to build some earlier in the first, but that goal was huge. The Kris Versteeg goal at the end of the second obviously turned out to be the game-winner.

There were some breakdowns again. Marty Turco had a rough night. It looked like a game from a few weeks ago. Again, under different circumstances, a game like this would be no big deal. Under the current circumstances it is a big deal.

They’ve played 18 games and won six. They are tied with Florida for the worst points percentage in the league at .417. Only Tampa Bay has fewer wins. Only Colorado and Florida have more regulation losses.

There aren’t many you can look at right now and say the Stars do this well on a consistent basis and that’s why they are where they are. When things start to go wrong for them it just rolls into one giant snowball that flattens them. They looked dominating and in control in the first period Thursday night and by the third period they looked rattled and beaten. Chicago was the team in control.

Overall, it was a disappointing game. I think that is the bottom line. They need to start stringing some wins together and they failed to do it.

On a side note, Brenden Morrow got banged up in the third period and left the game. More should be known about him tomorrow. Hopefully he won’t miss any time because I’m not sure they have cap room to call up anyone short-term.

Morrow on BaD Radio

Stars captain Brenden Morrow was on BaD Radio earlier this afternoon. He talked about the team’s quest to win consecutive regular season games for the first time since last February, the trust issue, the acquisition of Darryl Sydor, Mike Keane and more.

Hull on the Stars

Craig Custance of the Sporting News interviewed Brett Hull about the team’s slow start. Here’s an excerpt:

SN: I’m sure you’re sick of hearing this, but what’s wrong with the Stars?

Hull: I can’t even tell you the biggest issue on this team right now. (Shoot), if I knew, we’d fix it. It’s just your typical — there’s no consistency to our game. You need everyone to play one way and we’re a little disjointed early in the season. But you see that period right there (the first period in that win over Phoenix) — that was one of our best periods in a while. There were a lot of good things, getting the puck deep, no turnovers. The turnovers we’ve been having, it’s like holy mackerel. It kills you.

SN: I keep hearing about chemistry issues with the Stars. How big a problem has that been so far?

Hull: That’s complete (bull). I tried to nip that in the bud on the radio. There’s no turmoil whatsoever on this team. All the rumors you hear of Sean Avery are so (bleeping) (bull) — he’s been great. He’s our leading plus-minus guy. He’s been playing hard, (shoot), he’s playing (bleeping) hurt. He does everything. He’s just as big a part of this team as all of them. When you make the changes we did, it takes time. Plus (Jere) Lehtinen hadn’t played and (Sergei) Zubov hadn’t played and those things will catch up to you. They need to get going playing as a team. We have all the faith in the world in them. It’s a matter of getting it together. I’m sure they will. I hope they will (laughs).

The full interview is here.

Custance also has an article up on the Stars and you can read that here. 

Wednesday update: Lehtinen out 7-10 days

Stars forward Jere Lehtinen is out 7-10 days with an upper body injury. That was the major news out of practice today.

James Neal, called up yesterday from Manitoba, was on the ice and practiced on a line with Mike Ribeiro and Sean Avery.

Here were the lines and defensive pairings:

Forwards
Morrow-Modano-Parris
Ott-Richards-Eriksson
Neal-Ribeiro-Avery
Brunnstrom-Petersen-Barch

Defensemen
Grossman-Zubov
Daley-Robidas
Sydor-Niskanen
Janik

One other note, Joel Lundqvist skated in full gear after practice. He is still a few weeks away. He is on long-term injured reserve and was placed there a few days after he was hurt.

Neal recalled

The Stars have made it official: James Neal has been recalled. Here’s the press release:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the club has recalled left wing James Neal from the Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League. The club also announced that the St. Louis Blues claimed right wing B.J. Crombeen off waivers from the Stars.

Neal, 21, has skated in 12 games with Dallas this season, recording two goals and two assists for four points with 10 penalty minutes. Neal became just the fifth player in Dallas Stars history to score a goal in his NHL debut when he accomplished that feat on Oct. 10 vs. Columbus. In five games with AHL Manitoba this season, Neal scored four goals and added an assist for five points.

The native of Whitby, Ontario, skated in 62 games with AHL Iowa last season, earning 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points, and placing third on the club in goals. During his final season of junior hockey with the Plymouth Whalers (OHL), Neal collected 65 points (27 goals, 38 assists) in 45 regular season games, and 25 points (13 goals, 12 assists) in 20 playoff games en route to the Memorial Cup tournament. Dallas’ second-round pick (No. 33 overall) in the 2005 Entry Draft, Neal participated in the 2007 OHL All-Star Game and won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2007 World Junior Championships.

Crombeen, 23, had skated in 15 games with Dallas this season and recording a goal and four assists for five points with 26 penalty minutes. He skated in eight games with the Stars last season, earning two helpers, and went scoreless in five Stanley Cup Playoff games with Dallas last spring. He earned the Most Improved Player award with the Iowa Stars (AHL) in 2007-08 after registering 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists) in 65 games.

Dallas’ second-round pick (No. 54 overall) in the 2003 Draft, Crombeen split the 2006-07 season between Assat Pori in the Finnish Elite League and the Idaho Steelheads, where he won the Kelly Cup as ECHL champions. Crombeen also won the gold medal with Team Canada at the 2003 World Under-18 Championships, and skated in the 2003 and 2004 OHL All-Star Games.

Neal expected to come back

It looks like James Neal will be headed back to the Stars to take the spot vacated by B.J. Crombeen, who was plucked off waivers by the St. Louis Blues.

The Stars’ third jersey

Here it is:

Tuesday practice update

The news about B.J. Crombeen being claimed off waivers by Blues came after practice. The most interesting tidbit out of practice had to do with Jere Lehtinen. He wasn’t practicing and his status for Thursday went from probable to questionable.

“He’s not back to 100 percent,” coach Dave Tippett said. “He’s got a couple new issues that we’re looking at today.”

He’s being evaluated today and they’ll know more tomorrow.

Trevor Daley, who had been dealing with the flue, was back on the ice Tuesday so the Stars did have 18 skaters and two goalies for practice. With Lehtinen not on the ice and Crombeen not around the Stars they moved Doug Janik to forward and here’s how the lineup looked for practice:

Forwards
Morrow-Modano-Parrish
Avery-Ribeiro-Brunnstrom
Ott-Richards-Eriksson
Janik-Petersen-Barch

Defensemen
Grossman-Zubov
Daley-Robidas
Sydor-Niskanen