Stars Training Camp: Good pace to start

Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk walked into the team's locker room after Sunday's on-ice activities and was asked what he thought about the team's first scrimmage. He summed it up in two words.

"Good pace," Nieuwendyk said.

The Stars' first scrimmage of training camp, held at the remodeled Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco, was just that - fast paced. Part of what Stars coach Marc Crawford is trying to implement - a more active defense - was evident in the scrimmage, which consisted of two running time 25-minute periods.

"I've been in the league nine years and most of the time I've played that type of system. I feel at home. I love it," said Stars center Brad Richards. "I feel that's the way the game should be played. No disrespect to the coaches that coach that way, it's all about winning and what your personnel is. But for guys like [Matt] Niskanen, [Trevor] Daley and [Stephane] Robidas, who can jump up on plays and have good speed, it's going to be a lot of fun."

While it's fun, Crawford noted that the Stars aren't scrapping defensive principles that have been a staple of Dallas Stars hockey for a long time.

"We want our defense to be more active, but we don't want them to be reckless. We are going to build on the great defensive qualities that were instituted by Dave Tippett and Rick Wilson. We'll build on those strengths," Crawford said. "The biggest point is that when we become a team that comes into the defensive zone hard and that really pressures to regain the puck, then we go a long way towards recapturing what the Stars have always been about."

Assistant coach Charlie Huddy, who handles the team's defensemen, said the skating ability of the Stars' defensemen will be a big asset in their ability to be more active and recover when the puck goes the other way.

"There will be some growing pains with it, but it's not all that drastic. If our defensemen are going to get involved the No. 1 thing they have to know if that they're going to get in and that thing is going to get turned over, they've got to be able to get back and defend on it," Huddy said. "I think they'll enjoy that kind of game. I know as a defenseman it's always fun to get involved in the play and create some offense."

Robidas said it will be fun, but it will require work as well.

"It's not a matter of being all over the place, "said Robidas. "It's a matter of being smart, always be ready and be on your toes. ... It's a matter of work ethic. No matter what system you play, if you don't work it's not going to work. With this you've got to work even more because there is a lot of skating."

This is nothing new to defenseman Karlis Skrastins, who said this how the Florida Panthers played when he was with them last season.

"On this system everybody has to go forward and everybody has to go back," said Skrastins "It's going to be a lot of work, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun too."

Crawford pleased with effort

The Stars were on the ice at the 9 a.m. to start the day and practiced about 50 minutes before the scrimmage. Crawford said he and the staff are working in various aspects of what they want to accomplish over the opening days of camp.

"We introduced a couple of the elements of our game plan today, which is our desire to have really good direct plays coming out of our zone and be a direct attacking team or a clean exiting team," said Crawford. "The second thing was to give them an idea of our forecheck. We worked on our forecheck for a couple of drills. I thought I saw some really good reads there. When you get into the scrimmage, you're looking at talent. We put them through a lot in a very short period of time and I thought for the first day it was a pretty good execution scrimmage. I was really pleased with it."

Injury update: Lehtinen out five days

Forward Jere Lehtinen was not on the ice Sunday, and coach Marc Crawford said Lehtinen had a groin/hip issue.

"He's going to be out for the first five days of camp. We found that out late last night," Crawford said. "He's frustrated about it because he wanted to be out on the ice. I told him if there is ever a good time to be out it's right now."

Forward Toby Petersen took part in Sunday's practice, but sat out the scrimmage. He has an issue with his foot.

"He's been walking around in the boot, so the plan today was just to have him practice," Crawford said. "We don't want to over-stress his foot, but he'll be back [Monday] morning."

Forward Scott Glennie, the Stars first round draft pick (8th overall) in this summer's draft, is out with a pulled groin.

Scrimmage notes

Team White (Group A) beat Team Black (Group B) 2-1 in the first scrimmage of training camp, which consisted of two 25-minute periods of running time.

Brad Richards' penalty shot goal on goalie Richard Bachman at 19:05 of the second period snapped a 1-1 tie and gave Team White the win.

Forward  Sergei Korostin opened the scoring at the 3:26 mark, scoring an unassisted goal off a faceoff to give Team White a 1-0 lead.

Team White had a chance to extend the lead to 2-0 at 18:38 of the first, but Team Black goalie Brent Krahn made a glove stop on a penalty shot attempt by Tomas Vincour.

Team Black tied it 4:30 into the second period when Brian Sutherby beat Matt  Climie with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Mike Modano and Jamie Benn picked up assists on the play.

The hit of the scrimmage belonged to Team White's Steve Ott, who nailed Benn along the boards.

Scrimmage lineups

TEAM WHITE
Forwards
J. Neal	Richards	Vincour
Ott	Wandell	Eriksson
Barch	Gagnon	Brunnstrom
Gazdic	Korostin	Shelast
Defensemen
Daley	Larsen
Fistric	Fortunus
Woywitka	Stafford
Jancevski	Hutchinson
Goaltenders
Turco	Climie	Beskorowany

TEAM BLACK
Forwards
Morrow	Ribeiro	Beaudoin
Sutherby	Modano	Benn
M. Neal	Peters	Sawada
Wathier	Lindgren	Sceviour
Defensemen
Vishnevskiy	Robidas
Grossman	Stephenson
Skrastins	Monast
Ludwig	Niskanen
Goaltenders
Auld	Krahn	Bachman