News and Notes: Stars quiet at deadline
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
NHL general managers were busy Wednesday, making a record 31 trades involving a record 55 players. But there were no blockbusters. The Dallas Stars were among the quiet NHL teams, making no moves and sticking with the roster they had to start the day.
“We were listening to a lot of people but there wasn’t really anything realistic that we could get done,” Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk said on the team's official site. “We would have loved to get a few draft picks, but this is what we expected for today. We believed we had made our deals already in getting Kari Lehtonen and signing Steve Ott."We are prepared to move forward with our team. We believe in what we have here."
The Stars made their major trade - the acquisition of Lehtonen from Atlanta for defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth round pick - prior to the NHL trade freeze that went into effect just before the Olympic break.
The Stars also added right wing Brandon Segal, a waiver claim from Los Angeles, just before the Olympic break. And they lost goalie Alex Auld to the New York Rangers via re-entry waivers over the weekend.
So the team they rolled out of the break with will be the team they roll down the stretch with as they try to make the playoffs.
"There's a real positive to a limited amount of change," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "Lots of change of difficult because now you have to assimilate those guys. They have to work in the cohesive detail that we've been working all year with this group. We don't have that hurdle to overcome if we don't make any acquisitions."
Fistric getting close
When asked how he was doing after Wednesday's practice in Frisco, Stars defenseman Mark Fistric, who had arthroscopic knee surgery prior to the break, gave the thumbs up sign.
Stars coach Marc Crawford said the team will see how Fistric is doing at Thursday morning's skate.
"He's getting closer," Crawford said. "We'll have a read on him in the morning. He practiced really well today. He was pleased with himself today and how he was feeling. He's more likely, but not definite yet."
Forward Brian Sutherby (shoulder) practiced Wednesday, but is still sore and remains out.
Lehtonen could play Saturday
Stars coach Marc Crawford indicated that Kari Lehtonen would play one of the next two games and said it was unlikely that he'd play Thursday against St. Louis. So the odds are that Lehtonen could go Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
"We’ll look at using him here in the next couple of games," Crawford said after Wednesday's practice. "It’s a possibility, but I don’t think it’s a likelihood for tomorrow."
When Lehtonen, who is coming off back surgery, does get into a game it will be his first NHL start since last April. His most recent game action was a conditioning stint with the Chicago of the AHL that saw him play four games from January 23 to February 5.
"It's getting there," Lehtonen said. "Every day is better. There are starting to be more good things than bad things on the ice. That's good. Just keep working hard and focusing. It should be good."
Crawford said the Stars are trying to give Lehtonen a lot of game type action in practice to get him ready for that first game as a Star.
"He's closer," said Crawford. "“He'll be fine when he comes back in, whether it's Thursday or Saturday, it's going to be one of those two."
Quotable
"You can't panic. You focus on the process, the same way we did in Game 1. You keep focusing on the process and that's the right thing to do. If you do enough right things it's going to work for you. We liked some of the things in our game last night, but not enough of them. We worked on what we needed today and we'll continue to work on it tomorrow."
Stars coach Marc Crawford on not overreacting to Tuesday's 5-1 loss to the Kings
