Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Thoughts on Modano

Mike Heika has a story today on teams expressing an interest in Mike Modano at the trade deadline, and Modano deciding not to waive his no-trade clause.

Surprised that a few teams expressed interest?  Not really. Modano can still be a pretty effective player, would bring Stanley Cup experience and some veteran leadership to a contender. At this stage of his career he’s not going to be the guy who pushes a team over the top, but he could be a nice complementary player to a good team.

Surprised that he wasn’t interested? Not really. He said as much in January when he was asked during one of the road trips to Western Canada if he would be willing to be traded to a contender at the deadline. He’s been with the Stars franchise for more than 20 years and he’s probably going to stick with the franchise after his playing days are over, when ever that may be. Heading off somewhere else for a couple of months for a chance to do something he’s already done - win a Stanley Cup - wouldn’t make a lot of sense. He said that earlier this season and stuck to the plan when teams started expressing interest.

Sticking with one franchise an entire career is a rarity these days. It would have been strange and sad to see him in an NHL uniform other than the Stars’ and I’m glad we won’t. 

Texas Stars note: Clear Day Roster

Jamie Benn is on the list.  He could be assigned there to play once Dallas’ season is over if the Stars don’t make the playoffs. In an interesting little side note, the Stars assigned Benn to Texas last week and then immediately recalled him. That was probably done to make him eligible for this list since he hadn’t been with the Texas Stars at all this season.

Here’s the release from the Texas Stars, which explains what the Clear Day Roster is all about:

The Texas Stars of the American Hockey League announced on Thursday the 2009-10 Clear Day Roster, which consists of 20 skaters and two goaltenders.

According to AHL by-laws, only the players listed on a team’s Clear Day roster are eligible to compete in the remainder of the AHL regular season and in the 2010 Calder Cup Playoffs, unless emergency conditions arise as a result of injury, recall or suspension. Teams may also add signed junior players or players on amateur tryout contracts after Clear Day, but only once their respective junior or college seasons are complete.

The Stars Clear Day Roster consists of 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders.

Goaltenders:  Matt Climie, Brent Krahn

Defensemen:  Maxime Fortunus, Ethan Graham, Andrew Hutchinson, Dan Jancevski, Trevor Ludwig, Garrett Stafford, Matt Stephenson

Forwards:  Mathieu Beaudoin, Jamie Benn (recalled), Aaron Gagnon, Sergei Korostin, Perttu Lindgren, Scott McCulloch, Travis Morin, Warren Peters, Greg Rallo, Raymond Sawada, Colton Sceviour, Francis Wathier, Landon Wilson

Players in Residence but not on the Clear Day list: Luke Gazdic, Mathieu Tousignant

A player in residence can only be used during the remainder of the regular season or the playoffs if a combination of three members of the 22-man roster are injured, recalled or suspended.

The complete list of Clear Day rosters can be found at http://theahl.com/2010-clear-day-lists-released-p141301.

Thursday morning playoff race update

Stars-Sabres thoughts

The Stars can’t continue to get outshot by a 2-1 margin every night and expect to win a lot of games. Marty Turco stood on his head and bailed them out Monday night against the Capitals, but no such luck Wednesday in Buffalo. Not there was a lot that Turco could do tonight. He played extremely well again, but the Sabres had some quality chances and cashed in. This had nothing to do with goaltending.

And this was a team that has struggled to score at times. It just goes to show what a mess the Stars are in the chances against category right now.

In the five games since the break, in which they have a 1-4-0 record, they’ve been outscored 25-11. They’ve been outshot 95-46 over the last two games.

Once again, the opposition seemed to click into a higher gear and the Stars, who played well in the first period as far as creating chances, couldn’t keep up. Give the Sabres credit. They were relentless at times, and they didn’t sit on the lead in the third.

Tyler Myers, their rookie defenseman, was superb. Ryan Miller was so-so, but his teammates bailed him out by limiting the Stars chances in the final 40 minutes.

This upcoming homestand is probably the season for the Stars. They need to get on a run or it’s going to be tough to be very hard to get into that final playoff spot. They’ve got to start gaining some ground. The number of games left is starting to dwindle. Making up even four or five points isn’t as easy at it seems, especially when you are chasing a couple of teams.

Stars postgame audio

Here is Stars postgame audio from the Sabres’ official site:

Marc Crawford audio

Marty Turco audio

Stars activate Sutherby

The Stars have activated Brian Sutherby from IR. Nicklas Grossman (back) and Jere Lehtinen (illness) will be game time decisions for tonight.

Here’s the release on Sutherby:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the NHL club has activated center Brian Sutherby from injured reserve. He suffered a shoulder injury against Phoenix on Jan. 31 and was placed on injured reserve the following day.

Sutherby, 28, has missed 10 games since injuring his shoulder against the Coyotes. He has skated in 32 games so far this season, collecting six points (4g, 2a) and a +3 rating. The 6-2, 204-pound forward has played in 395 career NHL games over the past eight seasons, amassing 38 goals and 45 assists to go along with 441 penalty minutes. Sutherby was acquired via trade last season from Anaheim, and signed a two-year extension last March.

Some Stars TV tidbits

Got some interesting tidbits from the Stars about this Sunday’s game not being on carried on local TV. It ends a pretty impressive streak for the team.

*It will end a streak of 1,101 consecutive Stars games (including playoff games) televised in Dallas/Fort Worth.

*974 of those broadcasts were regular season games and 127 were playoff games.

*The streak began with the final five games of the 1996-97 season and will end in the Stars’ 67th game of the 2009-10 season vs. LA this Friday.

*The last Stars regular season game not televised in Dallas/Fort was April 4, 1997 at Anaheim.

*The Stars televised every game for 11 consecutive seasons (1997-98 — 2008-09). Most of these contests were televised on FOX Sports Southwest or My27, with others coming on VERSUS, NBC, KDFW-TV, ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, or FOX.

The Stars have done a pretty good job putting games on the tube over the years. This season about half the teams in the league broadcast every game. Among the teams that do not: Minnesota, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and others. Only 10 teams broadcast every game back in 2000-01, including the Stars. They’ve done a good job.

The Colorado feed of Sunday’s game will be available to NHL Center Ice subscribers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The league has lifted the blackout because there is no local television coverage.

Sunday’s game is in Dallas, so you can buy a ticket. The Stars are offering “The Arby’s Real Deal,” which features $18 upper level seats that include a free James Neal T-shirt and a voucher for a free Arby’s combo meal with every ticket. Go to DallasStars.com to take advantage of The Real Deal or call 214 GO STARS.

Rule change proposals

A couple of things out of the GM meetings in Florida this morning. The hot topic has been hits to the head and here’s what the GMs are proposing in that regard, according to TSN:

“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted.

A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”

Also, the GM are proposing to change the first standings tie breaker from overall wins to wins in regulation and overtime. This would minimize the impact of shootout wins.

These recommendations have to be approved by the competition committee and the board of governors, so none of it applies to this season.

The TSN story is here. 

Wednesday morning playoff race update

No local TV on Sunday; game will be on Center Ice locally

There will be no local TV for Sunday's Stars-Avalanche game but it will be available to local subscribers of NHL Center Ice, according to the Stars. This was the game that was a possibility for NBC's game of the week, but the network picked another one. The Stars tried to find a local carrier, but no success. Center Ice will have the Avs broadcast, which is being carried by Altitude.

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