Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Stars-Blue Jackets thoughts

I don’t think the Stars have thrown out a lot of clunkers this season, but that the 4-1 loss to Columbus was a clunker. I thought the whole game turned on that Kristian Huselius shorthanded goal with 0.3 seconds left in the first that made it a 2-0 game and the Stars never really recovered.

James Neal takes the major penalty in the second, the Blue Jackets score twice on the five minute power play and it was basically lights out at that point.

Lose the special teams battle and you’re likely to lose the game. They won it against Detroit and won the game. They lost it to Columbus and lost the game. 

There’s not much to say other than they simply can’t seem to follow up good wins like the recent ones in San Jose and Detroit with good efforts. They are now 1-5-3 in games following victories and are still stuck on just one two-game winning streak for the season.

They got one goal Thursday night and have scored 16 over the last eight games. Scoring two a game won’t win you many games. I don’t think they generated enough chances against Columbus. Steve Mason was good, but he didn’t have to stand on his head in this game. They took too many penalties - the Neal one being the killer - giving a good Columbus power play too many opportunities.

On Neal, he has a phone hearing with the NHL tomorrow and I think he could end up with a suspension. He doesn’t have a record, but the end result of the hit and the fact that Derek Dorsett suffered a head injury will probably weigh heavily against him. It’s unfortunate, but I think the league might come down on him with a few games for this. We should find out tomorrow. 

Neal has hearing on Friday

Stars forward James Neal has a phone hearing with the NHL concerning his second period hit on Derek Dorsett in Friday’s game. Neal got a boarding major and a game misconduct. Here’s video of a TSN panel talking about the hit and whether it’s worthy of a suspension.

NHL explains no goal call

NHL Senior VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy was on XM’s NHL Live today and explained last night’s no call in the Stars-Red Wings game. He said at one point: “In all cases we want to get the right call. In this case it appears we didn’t.”

Anyway, here is some more of the explanation from a story on NHL.com:

“The way we’ve always handled it and the way we will continue to handle it until we have a procedure change is the referees call on the ice stands. He sees the shot and he sees the save and doesn’t see the puck in the net and kills the play or blows the whistle,” Murphy said. “It’s not when you hear the whistle blow, it’s when he intends to blow the whistle. There is a little bit of a gray area there between when he intends and when the whistle sounds.

“In this case Dennis LaRue was clear with what he saw and clear with what he interpreted and that was, ‘I had killed the play before the puck entered the net.’ When we scrutinize it and go through video review I think everybody would concede that the puck was in the net, and Dennis didn’t see that unfortunately.”

Murphy agreed that the puck “does go into the net on the original shot,” but having not spoken to LaRue yet he could only assume that the referee lost sight of the puck when it hit goalie Alex Auld’s pad and that’s where the intent to blow the whistle comes into play.

Murphy’s explanation of how these decisions are made also sheds light onto why LaRue’s original call stood.

“In this particular case, what would happen is we (in the League’s video replay room in Toronto) would see the puck in the net and call the video goal judge and say, ‘Please blow the horn and get the referee over here. We see a puck in the net that hasn’t been ruled a goal,’ “ Murphy said. “At that point the referee would come over and we would have the discussion. Usually the referees know exactly what’s happening and they would come to us and say, ‘Listen, I blew the whistle or my intent to blow the whistle was there. I’ve got this play dead before the puck crosses the goal line.’ No more need be said. Once we hear that, basically video review is now out of the process. We step aside and say it’s a call made on the ice and it’s a non-reviewable call. It’s a whistle blown by the referee and it was blown or the intent to blow it was before the puck crossed the goal line.”

The full story is here.

Brunnstrom to IR, Peters recalled

The Stars have placed Fabian Brunnstrom on injured reserve retroactive to November 7 and recalled Warren Peters from the Texas Stars. Peters has been on a roll lately. He’s riding a five-game goal scoring streak with Texas.

Here’s the release from the Stars:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the club has placed left wing Fabian Brunnstrom on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, retroactive to Nov. 7. The team has also recalled center Warren Peters from the Texas Stars - Dallas’ primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL).

Brunnstrom, 24, has appeared in 17 games for Dallas this season, scoring one goal and six assists for seven points. He has missed the last three games for the Stars with the injury.

Peters, 27, has played in 16 games for Texas this season, scoring seven goals and four assists, including two goals last night vs. Rockford. He had an active five-game goal streak (6-1-7) and a six-game point streak (6-2-8) at the time of his call-up. Peters was assigned to Texas on Oct. 9 after a stint on injured reserve with a fractured orbital bone, suffered in a pre-season game at St. Louis on September 19. The 6-0, 198-pound center signed with Dallas as a free agent on July 6, 2009.

Dallas hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at American Airlines Center at 7:30 pm (FOX Sports Southwest, Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket).

Thursday update

Nothing much to report. The Stars don’t have a morning skate because they got back late from last night’s game in Detroit. Fabian Brunnstrom and Brian Sutherby are still out and both will work out/skate in Frisco today. Marty Turco starts in net.

Also, the Windsor Star had a nice story on former Windsor Spitfires star Steve Ott. It begins:

Slipping behind the Detroit defence, Dallas Stars centre Steve Ott gathered in a pass and broke free.

His glove-side deke was foiled by the left pad of Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.

This time, Ott failed to cash in.

That situation could soon change.

July 1 is Canada Day.

This summer, it may also be Ott’s day.

In the final year of a two-year pact that is paying him US $1.5 million this season, that’s when Ott is slated to become an unrestricted free agent.

“I think it’s in the back of your mind at any time,” former Windsor Spitfire Ott of Stoney Point admitted after helping the Stars to a 3-1 victory over the Wings in Wednesday’s National Hockey League game at Joe Louis Arena.

“It’s something that you’ve finally earned. You put seven, eight years in the league into getting this chance.”

The rest of the article is here.

Stars-Red Wings thoughts

Well, if you get good goaltending and you win the special teams battle you are going to win most nights. Alex Auld was excellent, the penalty kill was 4-4 and is now 17-17 over the last five games and the power play scored twice. I thought all those areas were a big part of the Stars 3-1 win over Detroit tonight, but I think they simply played an excellent game all the way around.

They skated well, pursued the puck well, defended well and they created more chances than the Red Wings and when you create more chances are you’ll score more. They simply outplayed the Red Wings. I didn’t think Detroit had that many great chances and Auld closed the door on all but one (actually, two but more on that later).

That’s the best game Mike Ribeiro’s had in a while and not just because he scored a goal. He seemed to have some jump to his game and pushed the pace a little more. No goals for James Neal, but he was key on helping set up the Matt Niskanen goal and made a great pass on Loui Eriksson’s power play goal to make it a 3-1 game.

I really liked the way Marc Crawford rolled the lines. The fourth line guys - Krys Barch, Tom Wandell and Toby Petersen played well and got close to 10 minutes in a tight game. It might not seem like a big deal, but when you can use everybody like that it can save some fuel in a back-to-back situation like they face with the game Thursday against Columbus, and in this stretch where they are playing eight games in 13 days.

On the Brad May no goal in the third period - that was just a bad call. I can understand the initial confusion, but I thought after someone looked at the replay they would have figured out that the puck was in the net before the official was really thinking about blowing the whistle.  That is unless the ref was thinking about blowing the whistle when May was shooting the puck.

It would have been a different game after that. But the simple fact is that the team that played better in the game won.

Columbus is next tomorrow night at the AAC. We’ll see if we can follow up this win with another one over Hitch and the Blue Jackets.

I’ll end it with his quote from Crawford following the game:

“We’re very comfortable with how we’re playing. We’re still working on the consistency part of it as our record has shown. We’ve played two games in a row very well, but we’ve had trouble winning two games in a row. That’s the challenge for us.” /blockquote>

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Hicks and the sale of the Rangers

Wednesday, November 18, 2009-6:24:pm
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page

Some of those big names that were at Tom Hicks’ place to celebrate Brett Hull’s Hall of Fame induction are also possible investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. With the current financial issues surrounding Hicks’ sports teams, what happens with the Rangers will have an impact on the Stars. Here’s an update on the sale of the Rangers:

Tom Hicks said Wednesday that he is working hard to put together a group of local investors to join him in a partnership that would allow him to maintain controlling interest of the club.

Hicks said club president Nolan Ryan and Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach have also agreed to be a part of that group.

“I have talked to a number of investors with the idea of a number of local prominent families joining my family in owning the Rangers,” Hicks said. “Sizable commitments have been made. The key is I want it to be local investors.

“I have a commitment from Nolan Ryan and Roger Staubach that they would invest in my group. It would create an environment of long-term stability for the Texas Rangers and it would enable us to have continuity in the plan we set out five years ago.”

Hicks, in briefing the local media on the state of a possible sale of the franchise, said he is still expecting proposals from three groups by Friday. Those groups are headed by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg, Houston businessman Jim Crane and former sports agent Dennis Gilbert, who is now a special assistant with the White Sox.

Read more from T.R. Sullivan on the official site of the Rangers.. 

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Celebrating Hull’s induction

Wednesday, November 18, 2009-3:01:pm
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page

There was quite a celebration to honor Brett Hull’s induction into the Hall of Fame at Tom Hicks’ house.

The Tom Hicks family hosted a celebration dinner for Brett Hull, the first Dallas Star to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The event was held at Tom and Cinda Hicks’ home, and it included a Who’s Who guest list including other Dallas Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Nolan Ryan, Randy White, Roger Staubach as well as Bobby Hull, Brett’s father who preceded him into the Hall of Fame

The rest of the story is at the Stars’ official site. 

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Auld starting tonight

Wednesday, November 18, 2009-2:55:pm
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page

Go figure on this one, but Alex Auld is starting in goal tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. Marc Crawford keeps things interesting.

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Bettman responds to Crawford

Tuesday, November 17, 2009-10:24:pm
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page

Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic asked Gary Bettman to respond to Stara coach Marc Crawford’s criticism of the ice conditions at Jobing.com Arena on Saturday night. Bettman’s response:

“We try to have the best ice we can every night in every building,” he said. “There are 1,230 regular-season games in 30 different arenas, all of which are multi-use facilities. And depending on what was last in the arena or what the weather happened to be outside, or a variety of circumstances we can’t always control, there isn’t an arena in the league that probably on any given night in the course of the season doesn’t have ice that’s not quite as good as we’d like.”

Gintonio’s full blog post is here.

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