Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Excellent analysis from Heika

Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has an excellent look at the situation facing Les Jackson and Brett Hull as next Wednesday’s trade deadline looms.

Some of my thoughts. It’s easy to look at the injuries, their tenuous spot they are in the standings and say the Stars should do something, anything. But the decisions they have to make aren’t always about just this season. They can have an impact on the future too. Do they give up picks or prospects for a rental, knowing that rental players often don’t pay dividends. If they are going to take on a player with a contract, especially one with some term and money, they better be sure it’s the right player and that he’s going to fit into the team’s cap picture going forward.

What they would have to send the other way is a concern too. Giving up picks isn’t always easy, and it’s not just first round picks either. Drafting teenagers isn’t an exact science. The more picks you have, the better the chances of landing some NHL players.

Neither is giving up quality prospects. Where would the Stars be right now without some of the young prospects they’ve drafted and developed over the last several years?

It takes two teams to make a trade and the other guys want something too. They aren’t giving up something for nothing.

I think they could use some help at the deadline. Forward depth, help on defense and a veteran backup goalie should all be on the list. But if the price isn’t right, I won’t have a problem if they pass. 

Anyway, Heika’s article is a good read and you can find it here. 

Avery shoots, scores

Sean Avery (still Dallas Stars property) scored his first goal since joining the Hartford Wolfpack in a 5-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Wednesday night. I couldn’t find a highlight, but I did find this from the WB/Scranton official site:

The Wolfpack also brought the Sean Avery sideshow to town, and the controversial former Dallas Stars forward didn’t disappoint the 6,000-plus on hand.  Avery elicited boos every time he touched the ice, and popped in his first goal since joining Hartford two weeks ago to tie the game at 1-1 after one period.

Avery was a plus-two in the game. He now has one goal, one assist and a minus-one rating in six games with Hartford. 

Wednesday practice

I went out for the first half of practice today and then had to leave to tend to some other stuff. The Stars only had 11 forwards on the ice. The two missing were Steve Ott (resting) and Joel Lundqvist (flu).

The practice lineup looked like this:

Forwards:
Eriksson-Ribeiro-Lehtinen
Neal-Modano-Conner
Barch-Sutherby-Sawada
Brunnstrom-Parrish (Stu Barnes centered)

Defense:
Daley-Robidas
Sydor-Niskanen
Fistric-Grossman
Janik-Hutchinson

Turco and Stephan in net, of course.

Also, the Stars officially announced that Chris Conner has been recalled from Peoria and that Brent Krahn was assigned to the Chicago Wolves. 

Wednesday morning look at the West: Logjam at 65 points

After last night's game there is a log jam at 65 points in the Western Conference standings. The Stars are joined by the Wild, Oilers and Ducks. The Oilers and Ducks were both winners last night and the Wild picked up a point in a shootout out to the Kings. The good news for the Stars was that both Vancouver and Columbus lost.

The current points pace for the playoffs remains at about 89 points, which is seven games over .500.

The Stars dropped to eighth in the regular standings but they moved up to a tie for sixth place in points percentage with the Wild.

Last night's games involving West teams:

Anaheim 3, Buffalo 2
Montreal 3, Vancouver 0
Calgary 4, Columbus 1
Edmonton 5, Tampa Bay 3
Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 1 (SO)
Nashville 5, Chicago 3
St. Louis 2, Phoenix 1
Atlanta 4, Colorado 3

Here are the regular standings.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Wednesday
1	San Jose	58	41	8	9	91	at Detroit
2	Detroit	60	39	13	8	86	vs. San Jose
3	Calgary	60	36	18	6	78	idle
4	Chicago	59	34	17	8	76	idle
5	Vancouver	60	30	22	8	68	idle
6	Columbus	61	30	25	6	66	idle
7	Minnesota	59	30	24	5	65	idle
8	Dallas	59	29	23	7	65	idle
9	Edmonton	60	30	25	5	65	idle
10	Anaheim	62	30	27	5	65	idle
11	Nashville	61	29	28	4	62	idle
12	Los Angeles	59	26	24	9	61	at Philadelphia
13	St. Louis	60	26	26	8	60	idle
14	Phoenix	61	27	29	5	59	idle
15	Colorado	61	28	32	1	57	idle

Here are the standings based on points percentage.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PTS%
1	San Jose	58	41	8	9	91	.784
2	Detroit	60	39	13	8	86	.717
3	Calgary	60	36	18	6	78	.650
4	Chicago	59	34	17	8	76	.644
5	Vancouver	60	30	22	8	68	.567
6	Dallas	59	29	23	7	65	.551
7	Minnesota	59	30	24	5	65	.551
8	Edmonton	60	30	25	5	65	.542
9	Columbus	61	30	25	6	66	.541
10	Anaheim	62	30	27	5	65	.524
11	Los Angeles	59	26	24	9	61	.517
12	Nashville	61	29	28	4	62	.508
13	St. Louis	60	26	26	8	60	.500
14	Phoenix	61	27	29	5	59	.484
15	Colorado	61	28	32	1	57	.467

More roster moves

I haven't seen anything official from the Stars yet, but Brent Krahn is back on the Chicago Wolves roster in the AHL and Chris Conner is headed back up to the Stars according to Mike Heika. That will put the Stars at 13 forwards, 8 defensemen and 2 goaltenders as far as the active roster.

Some other practice notes

Here are a few other tidbits from Tuesday’s practice. Not everyone was out there. Marty Turco, Darry Sydor, Steve Ott and Mike Modano were not on the ice. Dave Tippett said he expects Modano, who has been battling the flu, to be back on Wednesday.

Tobias Stephan was back on the ice in Farmers Branch and I thought he looked good out there. Talked with him a little bit after practice and he said the time in Bridgeport was good for him and his confidence. He said he’ll do what he did before, prepare and be ready if the Stars need him. Brent Krahn was the other practice goalie today. I expect he’ll be headed back to the AHL.

Tuesday practice update: Brunnstrom a smash hit

Fabian Brunnstrom was the center of attention at today’s practice in Farmer’s Branch, where there was a full media contingent. That’s because Brunnstrom got a little frustrated after missing a shootout attempt, banged the glass with his stick and : BOOM. Glass went every where. He took out a whole pane and left a of wide swath of glassy debris.

Some background: Today’s practice included a four-on-four tournament and Brunnstrom was on Team Sweden with Loui Eriksson, Joel Lundqivst and Nicklas Grossman. They even had their own uniforms, which were yellow sweaters with a crown placed near the Stars logo. It didn’t’ go well for the Swedes. And towards the end Brunnstrom had a shootout attempt where he skated himself to basically no man’s land in the left circle and then had his harmless shot bounce off Tobias Stephan’s shoulder and go over the net. He skated to the corner and whacked the glass. The look on his face when it shattered was priceless.

As the players were coming off the ice, James Neal told the media: “Don’t talk to Brunner, he might snap.”

The media braved it and did talk to Brunner, who didn’t snap and was actually pretty funny. Here’s the audio of Brunnstrom’s news conference on his taking out a pane of glass in Farmers Branch. It’s only about one minute long.

Broken foot for Petersen; Stephan recalled

Here’s the release from the Stars:

The Dallas Stars announced today that the club placed center Toby Petersen on Injured Reserve with a broken bone in his left foot, suffered during Monday’s game vs. San Jose. He will be re-evaluated in four weeks. The club has also recalled goaltender Tobias Stephan from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League (AHL).

Petersen, 30, has appeared in 57 games for Dallas this season, recording four goals and seven assists with 14 penalty minutes. He had a career-high five-game point streak (3-2-5) from Nov. 30 – Dec. 10.

Stephan, 25, appeared in five games for Bridgeport, posting a 4-0-1 record with a 1.91 goals-against-average and a .917 save percentage. He has appeared in seven games this season for Dallas, with a 1-2-0 record, a 3.35 goals-against-average and an .887 save percentage. He recorded his first NHL win Oct. 29 vs. Minnesota, stopping 19 of 21 shots in a 4-2 win.

A native of Zurich, Switzerland, Stephan was the Stars’ second-round selection (No. 34 overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He was just the fourth Swiss goaltender ever to be drafted into the NHL (following Pauli Jaks, David Aebischer and Martin Gerber).

Tuesday morning look at the West

The Stars and Sharks were the only game last night, so there wasn't a lot of movement in the standings. That could change tonight since 12 of the 15 teams in the West are playing. The Stars are still in the seventh in the points standings and they are seventh in points percentage too now because of last night's loss. To be honest, they are basically in a three-way tie with Minnesota and Columbus as far as points percentage. The Wild host the Kings tonight and Columbus is at Calgary. Other games of note: Vancouver at Montreal, Tampa Bay at Edmonton, Anaheim at Buffalo and Chicago at Nashville.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Tuesday
1	San Jose	58	41	8	9	91	idle
2	Detroit	60	39	13	8	86	idle
3	Calgary	59	35	18	6	76	vs. Columbus
4	Chicago	58	34	16	8	76	at Nashville
5	Vancouver	59	30	21	8	68	at Montreal
6	Columbus	60	30	24	6	66	at Calgary
7	Dallas	59	29	23	7	65	idle
8	Minnesota	58	30	24	4	64	vs. Los Angeles
9	Edmonton	59	29	25	5	63	vs. Tampa Bay
10	Anaheim	61	29	27	5	63	at Buffalo
11	Nashville	60	28	28	4	60	vs. Chicago
12	Los Angeles	58	25	24	9	59	at Minnesota
13	Phoenix	60	27	28	5	59	at St. Louis
14	St. Louis	59	25	26	8	58	vs. Phoenix
15	Colorado	60	28	31	1	57	at Atlanta

Here are the points percentage standings. Note how tight it is between the Stars, Wild and Blue Jackets.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	PTS%
1	San Jose	58	41	8	9	91	.784
2	Detroit	60	39	13	8	86	.717
3	Calgary	59	35	18	6	76	.644
4	Chicago	58	34	16	8	76	.655
5	Vancouver	59	30	21	8	68	.576
6	Minnesota	58	30	24	4	64	.552
7	Dallas	59	29	23	7	65	.551
8	Columbus	60	30	24	6	66	.550
9	Edmonton	59	29	25	5	63	.534
10	Anaheim	61	29	27	5	63	.516
11	Los Angeles	58	25	24	9	59	.509
12	Nashville	60	28	28	4	60	.500
13	Phoenix	60	27	28	5	59	.492
14	St. Louis	59	25	26	8	58	.492
15	Colorado	60	28	31	1	57	.475

Tortorella and Avery

After the Rangers’ hiring of John Tortorella became official yesterday, the subject of what would happen with Sean Avery came up. Tortorella. then an analyst for TSN, had some harsh things to say about Avery when he got suspended by the league in Decembe for the sloppy seconds incident.

So, does the hiring of Tortorella affect the Rangers’ plans to eventually bring Avery back to Broadway? It doesn’t sound like it.

From Steve Zipay’s blog at Newsday:

On Sean Avery’s status in Hartford: Sather said he was waiting to speak to Tortorella. “Sean has not played many games, but he’s worked hard, his attitude has been great, they’ve won three of four. He’s got one assist but its AHL, the NHL is a lot different. He’s coming along, we’ll deal with that in the next week...He doesn’t have the history with Sean that we do. Over time, you learn to love him like I do.”

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