Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

A big, long day ahead

It’s going to be a big day today in Stars land and the NHL. I have all kinds of reminder alarms set to check on stuff. We should know later today what’s going to happen with Sean Avery and the re-entry stuff. I hear the Rangers are interested.

Its the day before the trade deadline, so there should be some activity on that front. I planned to spend by day tracking the fortunes of Niclas Havelid, but the Thrashers shipped him off to New Jersey yesterday. Oh well, I’ll track Bill Guerin today. He supposed to be somewhere.

And then the Stars begin their road trip tonight in San Jose. They’ve lost five straight and now they have to play the best home team in the league. It ain’t looking pretty right now. But as I said the other day, I don’t think this latest slump has doomed them or ended their season. They are still right in the middle of things with a lot of hockey to be played. Yes, there a lot of injuries and the one to Brad Richards was a big blow, but they still have a competitive team and can turn things around.

People read way too much into each win and loss. The Stars weren’t as good as you thought when they hammered the Leafs and Rangers and they aren’t as bad as you thought after they lost to Pittsburgh. There are a lot of factors that influence how games play out all the time, including scheduling.

All things being even, and it’s brought up all the time, there is a fine line between a win and a loss in most games every night. If you look at the Stars’ current losing streak and recent homestand, they didn’t play as poorly as the record indicates. The record wasn’t good, but the play was a mixed bag. Some execution here and there and they could have been 3-3-0 on the homestand and 8-5-0 in February, and a lot of people wouldn’t be hitting the panic button, dusting off the forks or grabbing the hammer and nails. That’s the way I look at it moving forward. They can still play well enough to win, if they can make some plays at the right time.

But the fact is they didn’t execute, didn’t win and now they are in a position where they have to stop the bleeding and win some games or they are going to find themselves in big trouble. And they’ll have to do it on the road against some tough opponents. The Sharks are the best team in the league and the best home team in the league. Los Angeles and Anaheim are both just as desperate as the Stars for points. They are fighting for their playoff lives too. 

This is a key trip. I don’t know if it will be defining trip, but is a key one.

Top Prospects from The Hockey News

The Hockey News is out with its Future Watch 09 and here are how that publication ranks the Stars top ten prospects:

1. Jamie Benn, LW
2. Ivan Vishnevskiy, D
3. Mark Fistric, D
4. Tom Wandell, C
5. Philip Larsen, D
6. Richard Bachman, G
7. Tyler Beskorowany, G
8. Ray Sawada, RW
9. Colton Sceviour, RW
10. Ondrej Roman, C

Benn ranked 33rd among all NHL prospects and Vishnevskiy ranked 64th.

The Stars were given a grade of C and ranked 23rd among NHL teams as far as prospects.

The Kings were the top ranked team as far as prospects followed by Phoenix.

LW Nikita Filatov of the Blue Jackets was the No. 1 prospect, followed by C Cody Hodgson (Vancouver), G Jacob Markstrom (Florida), C Colin Wilson (Nashville) and D Alex Pietrangelo (St. Louis).

Ott suspension: official release

Here’s the official NHL release on the Steve Ott suspension:

Dallas Stars forward Steve Ott has been suspended for one game, without pay, as a result of an altercation during NHL game #925 against the Anaheim Ducks, the National Hockey League announced today.

Ott, who was suspended for three games in March 2008, now is considered a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Accordingly, he forfeits $17,378.05 in salary based on the number of games in the season (82), rather than the number of days (186).  The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. 

At the 20:00 mark of the third period, Ott and Anaheim forward Travis Moen engaged in an altercation at which time Moen sustained an injury.  Ott was assessed a major penalty for fighting and a match penalty for attempt to injure under Rule 21.1.

Ott, who served his suspension on March 1 against Pittsburgh, is eligible to return tomorrow night when the Stars play the Sharks in San Jose.

Sawada to AHL

With Sean Avery getting put on re-entry waivers the Stars needed to move someone off the roster, so Ray Sawada has been assigned to Manitoba. Here’s the release from the Stars:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the club has assigned right wing Raymond Sawada to the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL).

Sawada, 24 appeared in five games with the Stars and scored a goal in his NHL debut Feb. 19 vs. Edmonton. He became the third Dallas Star to score a goal in his NHL debut this season (also James Neal and Fabian Brunnstrom) and the sixth since the club moved to Texas in 1993.

The native of Richmond, B.C., has posted five goals and 14 assists for 19 points in 48 games with Manitoba this season, with a plus-8 rating and 31 penalty minutes.

Dallas’ second round pick (No. 52 overall) in the 2004 Entry Draft, Sawada played four years at Cornell University (2004-2008), scoring 31 goals and 45 assists for 76 points in 137 games. He served as co-captain for the Big Red last season and finished his Cornell career one appearance shy of the school’s record for games played (Jeremy Downs, 138).

Monday practice update: Ott gets one game, Avery on re-entry waivers

There wasn’t a lot going on the ice today at practice, but there was some news off the ice. Steve Ott got a one-game suspension for the incident at the end of the Anaheim game on Saturday. He served it Sunday, so he’s eligible to play on Tuesday in San Jose.

Sean Avery was placed on re-entry waivers today. We’ll know tomorrow what happens with that. Teams have 24 hours to put in a claim.

As for on the ice, only a few players out on the ice. Fewer than ten by my count. The rest were off the ice.

Brad Richards did a little skating on his own at one end of the ice. That’s one advantage of the wrist injury. He can skate.

That’s about it for now. 

Ott gets one game

Steve Ott got a one game suspension. He'll play Tuesday. Avery on re-entry waivers.

Stars-Penguins thoughts

Well, the tank looks like it finally hit empty Sunday afternoon at the AAC. Throw in the great push the Stars made to get back into the playoff race, add in the injuries and the toll all that takes seemed to be reflected in what we saw on the ice today. They were flat. Emotionless. almost. It was disappointing to see.

You can only do so much and push so hard before there’s a physical and emotional toll. They were kind of spent in that regard on Sunday. They got behind early had to chance and really didn’t have much of a chance in the game.

I am not going to overanalyze this game. No need to, really. I’ll talk a little about Tobias Stephan, who made his first start since December 13. I thought he played a pretty good game and made some good stops. It’s hard to fault him on the goals. Those were some pretty darn good chances.

This was a disaster of a homestand, but you already knew that. Did it doom their season? No, I don’t think so. There is still a of hockey to be played. That said, the Stars are in a tough spot with a tough schedule in March and a lot of key people out of the lineup. I believe I’ve said before that the great run they had in December and January simply got them into the middle of the playoff fight. And now they are going to have to really fight and claw to stay in the fight. This next road trip could tell us how much fight they’ve got in them. It’s three games against three divisional foes. It’s going to be tough.

It’s a tough spot for Les Jackson and Brett Hull, too. There will be some external pressure to look for short-term fixes, but that means giving up long-term assets. During his interview with Razor Sunday (audio below), Jackson said he is unwilling to part with prospects like Jamie Benn or Richard Bachman or some other young players to fix some temporary holes in the lineup. That’s how I think he should approach it. If the right deal comes along and it doesn’t cost much in future assets, yeah, go for it. I don’t think the Stars are going to be sellers because a five-game losing streak has them a couple points out of a playoff spot.

Anyway, here is audio from Jackson, coach Dave Tippett and postgame quotes provided by Stars PR. 

read more...»

Stephan gets the start

According to Richard Durrett at the Dallas Morning News, Tobias Stephan gets the nod in goal today. This ends Marty's streak of 32 straight starts.

Sunday morning look at the West

The Stars start off the day in 11th place in the Western Conference standings as far as points. Losing four straight games will do that to you. They still have games in hand on teams, but you have to win those games. That's why I like looking at points percentage, which is a better way to judge where a team sits in relation to the games they have played. The Stars are tied with Minnesota for eighth in that respect, but Minnesota holds the tiebreaker right now because they have more wins.

Key games today - besides the Stars of course - are Columbus at Vancouver and Los Angeles at Chicago. The Kings have slipped a bit and are back to .500. Right now it's Nashville and St. Louis making the push from below. The Predators moved ahead of the Stars in points with their 8-0 pounding of Detroit.

Here were yesterday's results.

Anaheim 4, Dallas 3
Montreal 3, San Jose 2
NY Rangers 6, Colorado 1
Nashville 8, Detroit 0
St. Louis 3, Phoenix 1
Edmonton 3, Minnesota 2

Here are the regular standings. Still just six points separate 5th place Vancouver and 12th place St. Louis. Three points separate 6th and 11th.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Sunday
1	San Jose	61	42	10	9	93	idle
2	Detroit	63	41	14	8	90	idle
3	Calgary	61	37	18	6	80	vs. Tampa Bay
4	Chicago	60	34	17	9	77	vs. Los Angeles
5	Vancouver	61	31	22	8	70	vs. Columbus
6	Columbus	62	31	25	6	68	at Vancouver
7	Edmonton	62	31	26	5	67	idle
8	Anaheim	64	31	28	5	67	idle
9	Nashville	63	31	28	4	66	idle
10	Minnesota	61	30	26	5	65	idle
11	Dallas	61	29	25	7	65	vs. Pittsburgh
12	St. Louis	62	28	26	8	64	idle
13	Los Angeles	61	26	26	9	61	at Chicago
14	Phoenix	63	27	31	5	59	idle
15	Colorado	63	28	34	1	57	idle

Here are the points percentage standings.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PTS%
1	San Jose	61	42	10	9	93	.762
2	Detroit	63	41	14	8	90	.714
3	Calgary	61	37	18	6	80	.656
4	Chicago	60	34	17	9	77	.644
5	Vancouver	61	31	22	8	70	.574
6	Columbus	62	31	25	6	68	.548
7	Edmonton	62	31	26	5	67	.540
8	Minnesota	61	30	26	5	65	.533
9	Dallas	61	29	25	7	65	.533
10	Nashville	63	31	28	4	66	.524
11	Anaheim	64	31	28	5	67	.523
12	St. Louis	62	28	26	8	64	.516
13	Los Angeles	61	26	26	9	61	.500
14	Phoenix	63	27	31	5	59	.468
15	Colorado	63	28	34	1	57	.452

Ott’s out for Sunday

Steve Ott is out for Sunday's game. He's suspended pending a review of Saturday's match penalty at the end of the game against Anaheim. The review of the incident will not come until Monday.

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