Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

Stars sign Parrish?

According to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Dallas Stars have signed forward Mark Parrish. Wild beat reporter Michael Russo filed this about 20 minutes ago:

According to sources, veteran RW Mark Parrish has ended his AHL contract with Bridgeport and has been signed by co-GM Brett Hull to an NHL deal with the Stars.

Dysfunctional Dallas

The Stars are getting a lot of press because this Saturday’s game in Boston. Most of it is bad press. Outside of the recaps of what happened, here’s a hot sports opinion from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News:

An astute NHL executive once told me that losing often makes otherwise solid character players get out of character and it looks as though exactly that is happening to the Dallas Stars.

Entering games in Anaheim and San Jose this weekend, the Stars are reeling and their stars are speaking out. First, Marty Turco, who has been abysmal so far this season, publicly blamed his defensemen for screening him too much. But at least he admitted it probably came down to his teammates not trusting him to make a save.

But even more damning was what Mike Modano had to say after the Stars lost 5-1 in Boston Saturday night, a game where Sean Avery and Steve Ott were running around like idiots.

“It was idiotic and stupid,” Modano told the Dallas Morning News. “It was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen. If that’s what we’re going for, then they need to find me an office job.”

The fact of the matter is the Stars leadership core – Modano, Turco and Brenden Morrow – have no time for Avery, who has proved this season that the Rangers’ great record when he was in the lineup was an anomaly.

Avery has become a distraction in Dallas, a player who has quickly become more of a headache than he’s worth. And now Brett Hull, who was the one who brought Avery in and signed him to a four-year deal with a no-trade clause, is coming under considerable heat for the decision. After a strong start, Hull has proven to be an impetuous and overly emotional GM, which is the direct opposite of co-GM Les Jackson.

Signing Avery could turn out to be a disaster. To be fair, Avery isn’t responsible for Turco’s poor play or the fact neither Sergei Zubov nor Jere Lehtinen has played this season, but he has taken up far too much of their energy.

Monday practice update

The Stars practiced in Duncanville today and there were some guys missing. Here’s the run down of who wasn’t there and their status.

Modano: He’s resting.

Richards: Still bothered by the lower body injury that kept him out of the Chicago game.

Boucher: Lower body injury.

Lehtinen: Skated on his own in Frisco

Zubov: Didn’t skate

The Stars have off ice stuff on Tuesday, so we’ll get a better idea of where everybody is when the team practices again Wednesday in Frisco. Coach Dave Tippett said the injured players are all day-to-day, including Doug Janik who continues to practice.

On James Neal going down to the AHL, Tippett said this: “It’s very similar to last year when Grossman went down for a few weeks, got his feet under him again, came back and was a better player. Very similar with [Mark] Fistric. Out of necessity they might come back. If players come back they might be there for an undetermined amount of time. Don’t know”

Stars make roster moves

Neal, Fistric and Conner headed to Iowa. Here's the release.

The Dallas Stars announced today that the club has assigned defenseman Mark Fistric and forward James Neal to the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL), and also that the team has assigned left wing Chris Conner back to the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) after completion of his emergency recall. Fistric has appeared in 11 games for Dallas this season, earning one assist with four penalty minutes. Neal has skated in 12 games for the Stars this year, scoring two goals and two assists. Conner appeared in one game for Dallas during his recall (Friday at Chicago), going scoreless.

Stars-Bruins thoughts

All I can say is this looked like a frustrated team by the end of the night. Judging by some of the quotes coming out of Boston, they sounded like a frustrated team too. And some finger pointing is starting to creep in there too. It’s a mess.

The bottom line is they are 4-6-2, are allowing 4.17 goals per game, have a poor penalty kill and a power play that short-circuited big time the last two nights and ended up being a big factor in why games turned out so horribly wrong for them. In short, nothing is going right for them. That’s why the frustration and the finger pointing.

For all the finger pointing after the game (Modano’s talk about stupid penalties and guys getting too caught up with the refs and fans and Turco’s gripes about how people are playing in front of him), the most substantive thing said after the game was Dave Tippett talking about how important this coming week was and he mentioned evaluating players.

Although there is not there is a lot they can do because of the cap, they are going to have to make some moves because of the cap. Sergei Zubov should be back and if all goes well with Jere Lehtinen, he could be nearing a return too. I am not going to hold my breath on Lehtinen, but the possibility exists. That means some of the players on this roster right now are going to have to be moved because of cap reasons, specifically Zubov coming off long-term IR, and I think in the team’s current state they are going to have to make some tough decisions.

They are going to have to move a defenseman off the roster and do something at the forward spot too. That means they are are going to have to look at these first 12 games, which haven’t been pretty, and decide which players they want to go forward with here with Zubov and Lehtinen back in the lineup. Then, I would think, they have to look at that group and decided if they upgrades and how they could do that under their current cap situation.

I think that will be the most interesting thing to come out of the next week.

As for how much Zubov and Lehtinen will help, time will tell. Some veteran savvy sure wouldn’t hurt and both players make those around them better. They aren’t going to be some kind of magic cure, but they can help and this team could use any help it can get right now. 

Stars-Blackhawks thoughts

Well, another step in the wrong direction. I’ll be honest, I though they were really turning the corner here. They were 3-1-1 in their last five games and looked outstanding in the win over Minnesota on Wednesday. And then this. What can you say? It’s the same old stuff, same old problems. There were a lot of odd-man rushes, too many in fact.

I thought Tobias Stephan played a pretty solid game. He kept them in most of the night and gave them a chance to win. He held the fort early and the Stars got the early 1-0 lead, but that didn’t last long. The penalty kill, which has been dismal, gave up a goal and it was a tie game. An odd-man rush goal by Patrick Kane and it’s 2-1 after one. 

It was a 2-2 game and the Stars had 1:08 of five-on-three power play time. That was probably the turning point of the game right there. I thought the Stars had the momentum going there, especially with that chance following right after the Steve Ott goal that tied the game, and then it shifted the other way when the Stars failed to score.

Kane sets up Brent Sopel and Chicago’s got the lead for good. The Stars maybe press a little too hard for the tying goal and they end up getting burned with another odd-man rush by Andrew Ladd that puts the game away for Chicago. The Stars looked like a beaten and frustrated team by the end of the night.

It’s still way too soon to hit the panic button, but there’s ample reason for concern when you look at how inconsistent this team has been. We’ll see what they can roll out in Boston Saturday night. Marty Turco will be back in net. Boston’s coming off a road trip to Western Canada so there may be some sluggish play from the Bruins. Brad Richards, who missed Friday’s game with a lower body injury, is day-to-day and his status is up in the air. 

Richards out

Here's the reason for the call up of Chris Conner: Brad Richards is out tonight. Apparently a lower body injury which has him on day-to-day status.

Stars recall Conner, put Lundqvist on IR

The Stars have recalled Chris Conner from Peoria and placed Joel Lundqvist on injured reserve. 

Stephan gets the nod again

Tobias Stephan will start again tonight in Chicago, according to Mike Heika at the Dallas Morning News.

Searching for Sean Avery: Blackhawks talk Avery

This Daily Herald article showed up in my email yesterday concerning tonight's game in Chicago. It's about the Blackhawks' plan to ignore Sean Avery.

Sean who? That's the approach the Blackhawks plan to take Friday night when Sean Avery and the Dallas Stars visit the United Center. Avery has become one of the most controversial players in the NHL, and that might be too nice a description of him. Opponents call him worse things, and have been doing so for years. Avery is an instigator and agitator, a yapper and chirper who has been known to deliver the cheap shot. The Hawks saw Avery at his worst during the preseason when he jumped Ben Eager from behind and began punching him. Avery then taunted Eager near the bench, and when Eager swung his stick at Avery, he received a match penalty and was later suspended for the first three games of the season. "He's always out there doing something to get attention, but you just ignore him and play the way you have to play," Eager said. "You just ignore him and don't pay attention to him."

The rest of the story is here.

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