Stars-Devils thoughts
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
In three words: A step back. If I were to expand on that I would say a big step back. New Jersey is a good team with a great goalie and you knew it was going to be a tough game. I wasn’t counting on a sure two points, but I expected a tough, hard fought game. Instead, they got run out of the building. It was disappointing.
A lot of the problems they seemed to clean up the other night against the Rangers were back Wednesday night against the Devils. I am not going to run through the same list of issues. If you’ve been watching you know what they are. They know what they are. As Dave Tippett likes to point out: You aren’t going to win many games when you are giving up five goals a night. You aren’t going to win many games if your special teams don’t come up big. You can’t win when you are consistently trying to play catch up.
The roster is what it is. They are up against the cap and basically they have 20 guys who can dress right now. I can’t think of anybody they can call up who would help the situation right now. They need the players they have here - especially their best players - to get in gear.
Does Tippett give Marty Turco a night or two off? That would be an easy call if Mike Smith were still around, but he isn’t. I’m not sure I am comfortable doing that under the current backup situation. Maybe a start against the Islanders, but not an extended run. Of course the success of this trip hinges on that game against the Islanders. Come up short in that game and it’s a 1-2-0 or 1-1-1 trip maybe and a 2-5-1 or 2-4-2 start to the season. It’s a tough call for Tippett.
It’s still early in the season, but as I believe I said before - extended lousy starts have to start somewhere. The Stars have laid the groundwork for one here in the first couple weeks and need to get things under control before things spiral out of control. It’s still way too early to panic, but until they show some consistency in their game there has to be concern.
And why are they up against the cap? Because the brilliant B Hull tried to put his stamp on this team by overpaying for the Idiot with no game, Sean Avery (counting 3.875 M against the cap for FOUR FRIGGIN YEARS!!!). Bobby Clark’s comments about Avery are right on track. He’s an embarrassment to hockey and because of him, so are our Stars, especially Hull. Hull was much better at his “off the wall” commentary and analysis than his “off the wall” GM actions. It’s time to move Hull back to the position he’s most suited for...Ambassador of Fun, with his office on the first teebox.