What a night for Fabian
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
I had to chuckle a bit after Fabian Brunnstrom scored his first goal. I had a real good laugh when he notched the hat trick. That’s because on Tuesday Dave Tippett was really downplaying expectations.There’s nothing wrong with that either. The hype surrounding Brunnstrom was pretty high last year and in the spring and Tippett was trying to keep things in check. Then Brunnstrom goes out and pulls off something like that.
Take away the goals and I thought he looked very good out there. He’s really come a long way since he played in Traverse City and showed up at training camp in Frisco a few days later.
You could see once he got the first one that his confidence really started to grow. There was a point he was really banging his stick on the ice for the puck.
Obviously he set the bar pretty high and he isn’t going to hit it or even come close to hitting it every night, but it was a great way for him to start and should give him a shot of confidence moving forward.
I thought Mike Modano was sharp tonight as well. He looked good with James Neal and B.J. Crombeen. The kids seem to have jump started him a bit. Those three were a good line.
As for the team as a whole, I saw some things I liked. I thought their start to the game was much, much better than the first two. They were lousy in the first period in the first two games, but played well Wednesday night.
The power play was so-so, but it scored a big goal that got them the early lead. The interesting thing about all that is that it was an offensive zone penalty on the Predators. But because of a new rule this year the faceoff came down into Stars offensive zone and that was important because the Stars scored right off that faceoff and there were just ten seconds left in the period.
I also saw some things I didn’t like. They are still having some issues in their own end. Giving up four a night ain’t going to cut it. I am sure this will come with time, but right now it’s an issue.
Bottom line I think the two points were important. They needed the win and they got it. St. Louis will be tough tomorrow night. Andy Murray’s Blues usually play them tough and St. Louis will be rested. The Stars need to build on this one and take another step forward.
But this one goes down in the books as Brunnstrom’s debut and what a night it was. I was really happy for him. He’s a great guy. Very nice to talk to, always upbeat and very humble. Glad to see him to do well.
You know, sometimes hat tricks can be a bit deceiving. Often they’ll coincide with a mismatched opponent and a blowout type of a game. They’ll often include goals that aren’t all that important in the context of the game and they’ll often include an empty netter at the end. Sometimes a guy will get lucky and have a goal or two bounce in off of his leg or his behind.
Brunnstrom’s hat trick, however, was the antithesis of all of that. Each one of his goals was extremely important in the context of the game, breaking a tie game at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4, and eventually providing the game winning tally. All of his goals were “shooter’s” goals. They weren’t lucky. He just finished. And there wasn’t an empty netter at the end to give him the trick. He earned them, thanks to his ability to finish what his teammates set up for him.
I also thought he played a good game aside from the three goals. He had another that could have been a goal that was waved off and another backhand chance that just missed going in. He even sprung a couple of 2-on-1s for Richards and Avery with nice outlet passes.
All in all, that was a sensational debut for the young Swede. I hope it was just a taste of things to come rather than the whole enchilada. Stay tuned for more…