Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Jonas Gustavsson

Mike Heika's got a post up on the DMN Stars blog about the Stars wooing Jonas Gustavsson, a Swedish goalie who just led Farjestads to the Swedish Elite League championship by putting up some staggering numbers.

He was 12-1-0,  with a 1.03 goals against average, a .961 save percentage and five shutouts. During the regular season he had a 1.96 goals against average and a .931 save percentage to go with four shutouts.

Mike's got some good info in his post, which you can read here. And for a visual complement here's some highlights from YouTube.

More mock drafts

NHL.com has put out another mock draft. This time it has used the services of two scouts, one from the Western Conference and one from the Eastern Conference. In this particular draft the Stars are selecting in the ninth spot. They are currently eighth, and we’ll know for sure where they are next Tuesday. Anyway, it’s still just a mock draft and it’s just for fun.

The scout from the West has the Stars taking LW Jeremy Morin from USA Hockey’s National Team Developmental Program. The take on Morin from the mock draft is: “Dallas-type forward that plays hard and can finish.”

The scout from East has the Stars taking C Nazem Kadri from London of the Ontario Hockey League. The take on Kadri: “Some skill to replace Mike Modano in a few years.”

The NHL.com story on the the mock draft by the two scouts is here. 

Wednesday update

The Oilers are out of the playoff race. Remember when they look like they were in such good position a few weeks ago? They've collapsed. The Wild are barely hanging on at this point. They could never put a good run together. And the Predators took a hit last night with their loss against Chicago. The Blues, on the other hand, came up with a big win in Phoenix and are now tied with Anaheim at 88 points, two points up on the Predators and three points up on the Wild.

Vancouver knocked off Calgary last night, denying the Flames a chance to clinch the Northwest and tying them in points. Calgary still holds the wins tiebreaker.

Not much action tonight. Columbus is at Chicago. The Blue Jackets haven't clinched a spot yet, but all they need is one point to guarantee themselves a spot in the top eight.

Last night's games in the West:

Minnesota 3, Dallas 1
Chicago 4, Nashville 2
Los Angeles 2, Edmonton 1
Vancouver 4, Calgary 1
St. Louis 5, Phoenix 1
San Jose 1, Colorado 0 (SO)

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Wednesday
1	San Jose	80	53	16	11	117	idle
2	Detroit	79	51	19	9	111	idle
3	Calgary	80	45	29	6	96	idle
4	Chicago	79	44	24	11	99	vs. Columbus
5	Vancouver	80	43	27	10	96	at Chicago
6	Columbus	79	40	29	10	90	idle
7	Anaheim	80	41	33	6	88	idle
8	St. Louis	80	39	31	10	88	idle
9	Nashville	80	39	33	8	86	idle
10	Minnesota	80	38	33	9	85	idle

As for the draft lottery race, the Stars are still in eighth.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS
1	NY Islanders	79	26	44	9	61
2	Tampa Bay	80	24	38	18	66
3	Colorado	79	32	44	3	67
4	Atlanta	80	34	40	6	74
5	Phoenix	80	34	39	7	75
6	Los Angeles	80	33	36	11	77
7	Toronto	80	33	34	13	79
8	Dallas	80	35	35	10	80
9	Ottawa	80	36	34	10	82
10	Edmonton	80	37	34	9	83
11	Minnesota	80	38	33	9	85
12	Buffalo	79	38	32	9	85
13	Nashville	80	39	33	8	86
14	Florida	80	39	30	11	89

Stars-Wild thoughts

Well, I am not really going to spend too much time focusing on the team’s play in this game. I was very interested in seeing Ivan Vishnevskiy playing and thought he looked fine out there. I haven’t really had a chance to watch any of his games out of Peoria this season and all I have to go on is what I saw of him back in September and I think there’s been a lot of progress. I thought he was OK out there. It’s not always easy when you’re watching on TV because you can only see what the network shows you, but I thought he played well. You can see the skill level and he played a pretty simple game out there. It was a good, solid debut.

Matt Climie had a pretty good game. He made some good saves and those goals the Wild scored on were some great chances. I think he’s done well in these two games he’s started.

It was a win the Wild needed, but it probably won’t be enough to get them in the playoffs. It looked good for them at one point because Nashville had lost and St. Louis was trailing in Phoenix, which meant they had a chance to be within one point of eighth place at the end of the night. But the Blues ended up blowing out Phoenix, taking over eighth place and leaving the Wild three points out with two games remaining. Not very promising for them.

It’s on to Colorado for the Stars, who are still eighth in the draft lottery race after Tuesday night’s game.

Ralph on NHL Network Wednesday

NHL Network is doing a series on NHL play-by-play announcers and tomorrow (Wednesday April 8) is the segment on Ralph Strangis. It was originally scheduled for last month, but got bumped off because of Marty Brodeur breaking Patrick Roy’s wins record and NHL Network going with extended coverage of that historic event.

Anyway, tomorrow at 6 pm (Central Time) is the premiere of “Voices: Dallas’ Ralph Strangis.”

There will be encore presentations on these days:

Saturday, April 11:  3:00 pm CT
Sunday, April 12:  6:00 pm CT

Here’s a preview:

Draft Lottery Information

The NHL has put out information on the draft lottery, which will be held a week from today (Tuesday April 14). The Stars currently rank 8th, which gives them a 3.6% chance of moving up four spots.

The National Hockey League Draft Drawing, to determine the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the first round of the 2009 Entry Draft, will take place on Tuesday, April 14th. The result of the Draft Drawing, will be announced at 8:00 p.m., ET on TSN (Canada) and Versus (U.S.) as part of a 30-minute live Draft special from TSN's studios in Toronto. The Draft special will also be streamed live on NHL.com.

You can read more on NHL.com, which has another mock draft that has the Stars picking Center Brayden Schenn from Brandon of the Western Hockey League.

Tuesday update

The Stars are out of the playoff race but they can still play a role. The Wild desperately need two points - and some help from Chicago and Phoenix - to keep their hopes alive tonight. But if things don't go their way in those other games and the Stars knock them off tonight, the Wild could be eliminated. Edmonton also needs some help and a win tonight.

In the key games for those spots at the bottom, Nashville hosts Chicago and St. Louis is at Phoenix. Both the Predators and the Blues are just two points behind 7th place Anaheim. The Ducks still have the advantage in wins over both teams.

The game of the night in the West has to be Calgary at Vancouver. The Flames, who beat the Kings 4-1 last night, can secure the Northwest Division title with a regulation win over the Canucks tonight.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Tuesday
1	San Jose	79	52	16	11	115	vs. Colorado
2	Detroit	79	51	19	9	111	idle
3	Calgary	79	45	28	6	96	at Vancouver
4	Chicago	78	43	24	11	97	at Nashville
5	Vancouver	79	42	27	10	94	vs. Calgary
6	Columbus	79	40	29	10	90	idle
7	Anaheim	80	41	33	6	88	idle
8	Nashville	79	39	32	8	86	vs. Chicago
9	St. Louis	79	38	31	10	86	at Phoenix
10	Minnesota	79	37	33	9	83	vs. Dallas
11	Edmonton	79	37	33	9	83	vs. Los Angeles

Ottawa beat Montreal last night, so the Stars moved up to eighth in the draft lottery rankings.

RK	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS
1	NY Islanders	78	26	43	9	61
2	Tampa Bay	79	24	37	18	66
3	Colorado	78	32	44	2	66
4	Atlanta	79	34	39	6	74
5	Los Angeles	79	32	36	11	75
6	Phoenix	79	34	38	7	75
7	Toronto	79	32	34	13	77
8	Dallas	79	35	34	10	80
9	Ottawa	79	35	34	10	80
10	Edmonton	79	37	33	9	83
11	Minnesota	79	37	33	9	83
12	Buffalo	79	38	32	9	85
13	St. Louis	79	38	31	10	86
14	Florida	79	39	29	11	89

Monday practice update

The most significant thing to come out of practice today is that Trevor Daley will probably not play in the final three games. His knee is acting up and he is scheduled to see doctors today. Coach Dave Tippett said Daley is not going on the trip.

That means the Stars have six defenseman right now and one of them is Ivan Vishnevskiy, who will likely make his NHL debut Tuesday night in Minnesota. Vishnevskiy said he is pretty excited.

Marty Turco went through a full practice today and will travel with the team. Who starts in goal on Tuesday is still up in the air. Turco is still questionable and will have to re-evaluated in the morning.

Brian Sutherby could possibly return to the lineup on Tuesday.

Talked to Toby Petersen today. He was out of the protective boot. He won’t play again this season. He said if the playoffs were in the equation then he could have possibly made it back.

Here was the practice lineup:

Forwards
Ott-Ribeiro-Lehtinen
Morrison-Modano-Brunnstrom
Neal-Wandell-Eriksson
Begin-Sutherby-Parrish
Conner-Lundqvist-Wilson

Defensemen
Grossman-Hutchinson
FIstric-Niskanen
Vishnevskiy-Sydor

Turco-Climie-Stephan

Stars’ flag flown in Iraq

If you haven’t seen this over at the Stars’ official site, it’s a nice read and a nice story. It happened Friday out at practice and Erin Chenderlin, the team’s Communications and Publications Manager, put together a nice piece piece on it. There’s an accompanying video as well.

The Dallas Stars players were called into a team meeting on Friday where they were surprised and honored to receive a Stars flag that had been flown over in Iraq by the Air Force National Guard squadron from Garland, Texas.

The flag, flown over the Kirkuk Regional Air Base in Iraq by the 221st Combat Communications Squadron, was raised on July 22, 2008 and flown for the day before being taken down and signed by all the members of the squadron. Messages included good luck toward the team and gratitude for their unwavering support.

The full story is here. 

Robidas is Masterton nominee

Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas is the team's nominee for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is given to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has the story on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram web site.

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