Stars-Oilers

Well, it got a little tense there in the third period but the Stars found a way to get it done. For once the power play delivered a big goal at a key time. That’s been something missing for the last little while. It was nice to see Mike Modano hit the 1,300 point milestone and do it with a game-winner.

I liked what Dave Tippett did with the lines. The three center stuff is great when you have enough on the wings to support it, but the Stars don’t right now and moving Modano to a wing and putting together two strong offensive lines seemed to be the way to go. They basically went with ten forwards. Krys Barch and Fabian Brunnstrom didn’t see much ice time. In fact, Brunnstrom saw one shift in the first period and that was it. I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember it.

As always, I am not going to read too much into this one. I’ll wait and see what they do moving forward. I think we all know that they have to string together a run. They’ve won two of three, so that’s the beginning of a possible run. I think they need to get over the consecutive wins hump to really get going here. We’ll see what they can do in Calgary Tuesday. I watched the Flames play Saturday night, and they have a good team and seem to be playing well right now. It will be a good test for the Stars.

On to today’s trade. I think considering the injury situation and the lack of defensive depth this team had to start the season, this deal makes a lot of sense. The Stars needed some depth on the blue line and they needed some depth with an offensive upside. Andrew Hutchinson provides that. He’s cheap and he’s going to be the seventh guy when (if) the dust settles on the injuries. The acquisition cost wasn’t high either. Lauri Tukonen is a decent prospect, but I don’t think he’s a big loss. He was OK during camp and the preseason. Not sure he’s going to be an NHL player. 

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