Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Stars-Wild thoughts

I don’t think there’s a lot to analyze on this one. The team that played better over the course of the entire 60 minutes won the game. The Stars gave up a season-high 37 shots on goal and matched their season-low with 21 shots on goal. They gave up a shorthanded goal for the first time this season, and it came at the beginning of a four-minute power play. A usually disciplined bunch, they got in some penalty trouble that made their life more difficult at times.

Alex Auld had a good game. He kept them in the game early when the Wild were all over them. Special teams were a mixed bag. The penalty kill was perfect on the night, but the power play had some issues. It scored twice, but giving up that shorthanded goal on the 4:00 minute chance in the first really hurt and was a huge momentum boost to the Wild.

Despite the win over the Canucks on Friday and the impressive play at times in the OT loss to the Flames on Wednesday, the record recently has been a little spotty. They are 1-2-2 in the last five games.

Give the Wild credit. They played a very good game. They looked a lot better than when I watched them the other night against Vancouver. 

Stars-Canucks photos

Shannon Byrne’s phots from Friday’s Stars-Canucks game can be found here.

Stars-Canucks thoughts

They played another excellent game, much like Wednesday night. The difference? To me it was a few little things.

One, they extended the lead early in the third period by scoring on the power play.

Two, they killed off those back-to-back Vancouver power plays while protecting the 2-1 lead in the third period. Those came not long after the Canucks had scored, so momentum was tilting Vancouver’s way. That was huge.

Bottom line, they won the special teams battle. You do that most nights and you’ll win the game. Don’t - and no matter how well you play overall - your chances of winning go down.

And, of course, they closed it out there at the end of the game.

Marty Turco was excellent. He was outstanding in the third period, but that save he made on Ryan Kesler on the game’s first shift was big. Vancouver gets a goal there and who knows how the game plays out.

Brad Richards had another outstanding game. He’s on a roll. Points in seven straight games now.

I thought Fabian Brunnstrom had another real strong game. That may be the best I’ve seen him play all year.

A couple notes. No James Neal again tomorrow. Krys Barch isn’t traveling with the team. He has a back issue. Starting goalie will be announced tomorrow. 

Neal out

James Neal is out tonight and is doubtful for tomorrow with a pulled groin Toby Petersen is expected to be in tonight.

THN defensemen rankings

The latest edition of The Hockey News ranks NHL defensemen in several categories. No Dallas Stars defensemen finished in the top three in any of the categories, but Karlis Skrastins and Stephane Robidas were among the vote getters in two of the categories. Here are the rankings and I added a note where Skrastins and Robidas got votes.

Best Point Shot - Nicklas Lidstrom, Sheldon Souray, Mike Green

Best First Pass - Nicklas Lidstrom, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger

Best Shutdown Player - Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger, Robyn Regehr

Top Mentor - Nicklas Lidstrom, Scott Niedermayer, Rob Blake

Best Skater - Scott Niedermayer, Jay Bouwmeester, Brian Campbell

Nastiest and Most Intimidating - Chris Pronger, Zdeno Chara, Dion Phaneuf

Best Corner Man - Chris Pronger, Shea Weber, Zdeno Chara

Top “Under 22” Defenseman - Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian, Tyler Myers

Best “Small” Defenseman - Brian Rafalski, Kimmo Timonen, Dan Boyle

Best Shot Blocker - Anton Volchenkov, Robyn Regehr, Zbynek Michalek (Skrastins listed first among those also receiving votes)

Best Open Ice Hitter - Dion Phaneuf, Niklas Kronwall, Anton Volchenkov (Robidas listed fifth among those also receiving votes)

Razor on The Ticket

Daryl Reaugh made his weekly appearance with The Musers on The Ticket this morning. Razor talked about the botched penalty call on Nicklas Grossman in Wednesday’s game and more. Here’s the audio:

Stars-Flames photos

Shannon Byrne's latest group of game photos are up in the photo gallery and you can find them here.

Morrow on BaD Radio

Stars captain Brenden Morrow made his weekly appearance on BaD Radio a short time ago. He talked about his penalty shot last night, the 3-2 OT loss to the Flames, the return of Jere Lehtinen and more.

Thursday practice update

James Neal wasn’t out on the ice today. He has a pulled groin, so his status is up in the air for tomorrow night’s game. They’ll see where he is tomorrow morning. If he can’t go, I’d put money on Toby Petersen being back in the lineup.

Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen both came out of last night’s game in pretty good shape, according to Stars head coach Marc Crawford.

Other than that, there wasn’t a lot of news. 

Razor’s take

Daryl Reaugh offers a very good take on last night's 3-2 OT loss to the Flames, and you can find it here.

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