2007 & 2008 at a glance

Before I actually get to the schedule, allow me to reflect a bit, in no great detail, about this years Dallas Stars:

• Marty Turco continued to prove that he is a clutch goalie and that he has it in the playoffs. While he had a rough bout against the Wings, he not only pulled the team 3 rounds deep, he finally got his first win at the Joe ... ever ... in the playoffs.
• The freshmen are AMAZING. Who would have expected a group SO chock full of rookies to make it as far as they did. Barch, Erikson, Grossman, Fistric, Niskanen, Peterson, Stephan ... I know we saw more guys, but these guys really impressed me this season. I can't wait to see what happens with our backup goalie situation next year - and how about Grossman with his first career NHL goal being in the Playoffs ... no ... in the Western Conference Finals??? Nuts I tell ya, nuts!
• Oh captain, my Captain. When the "C" was abruptly and rudely taken from Mike Modano many people questioned the move, and also the choice of Brendan Morrow as the replacement. If there are ANY doubters left, allow us to reflect, without me digging up the stats, how well Morrow did this series. First and foremost, if we had made the finals, he would have, in this bloggers opinion, won the Conn Smyth this year. Second, was there a player with more heart, more drive, and better to model the rest of your team after this series? How about his injuries? (yeah, we'll get to that in a moment). I admit, when I first saw Morrow I questioned him as Captain. I knew there had to be a reason, but I wasn't sold. I will never question him again after this year.
• Shoulder surgery, sports hernia, torn shoulder, bum leg, concussion. And this is just the list of players who PLAYED WITH THESE INJURIES this playoffs; for the Stars. We knew about Boucher, Zubov, Barnes & Fistric, but how about Morrow & Norstrom? That's right, for the entire Playoffs Norstrom did everything he could to ignore a sports hernia; and it was, in my opinion, the most alive he has been as a Dallas Star. As for our Captain, he was "basically laying on one leg" since the final game against the Sharks, not forget the partial tare in his shoulder.
• Mike Smith was an amazing backup goalie; Jussie Jokinen a clutch on the breakaway/Shootout; Jeff Halpern a quiet leader; and we saw all of them leave this year. It was a sad day for everyone, not a single fan I know was happy to see all 3 of these players leave, and I'm certain the team had a rough time of it too. However, Brad Richards and 3 years of contract came to Dallas. This will be HUGE in the coming years as we see some of our vets retire. It was huge in the playoffs as he was tied for second in points and led the lines of not only Mike Modano but also the rookies at different times. B-Rich will be a major player next year, the year after, and going forward.
• Brett Hull and Les Jackson were placed into the first ever co-GM experiment in the history of the NHL. They relieved an unspoken pressure between the players and their concern for job security; they relieved a similar unspoken pressure of Dave Tippet and his team of coaches, who just hadn't proven themselves in the playoffs (don't believe me? Look at San Jose's head coach; oh that's right, they don't have one anymore). They placed a few minor pickups in Iowa; and they tailored the deal that got us Brad Richards without giving up our entire future (can anyone say Marion Hossa to Pittsburgh?). Rumor has it that Tom Hicks is actually trying to convince the two to stick around together another year; wow.
• Fabian Brunnstrom; this years hottest free agent; a supposed #5 overall draft pick, without the draft pick and without the ramp up time in Iowa. Need I say more about next year?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boy and Girls, it's time to look at 2008/2009. Hold your heads up high because the Dallas Stars were a team to be proud of in 2007/2008 and will be a team to reckon with next year.

GO STARS!
--j

Steve Ott Suspended

First off , I want to warn you that I am about to break one of the cardinal rules of blogging . You know , the rule that says , “Never blog angry” . I am angry and you get to be the poor souls who are “unloaded” on . This blog maybe argumentative , but I can live with arguments .

My take on Steve Ott’s suspension is this ;

I am not here to argue whether the hit was legal or not . It does not matter any more but I will say that I have seen hits like that put on other players who were not injured and the player who gave the hit received no penalty or suspensions .
My whole fight about the hit and the suspension is the fact that when the hit was delivered , no penalty was assesed against Ott . That is mistake number one . Then THREE DAYS AFTER the game , he is suspended for the hit without pay because Leopold was injured . There is mistake number two .
The way I see it , either the NHL needs to come back and rescind the suspension or the officials who supposedly refereed the game need to come back and apologize for their failure on ice . Neither will happen because neither can be wrong .
The truth of the matter is somebody screwed up and somebody needs to have accountability for it . Refs are never punished because they ruined a game and Gary Bettman will never come out and say his staff was wrong . Hell will freeze solid before either happen .
If the refs apologize for their failure , then they would be acknowledging that they have made mistakes in hockey games that may have affected the outcome of the game and THAT could NEVER happen . They would publicly undermine everything that refs stand for , you know , ludicrous calls and the blind eye being turned on their favorite players’ obviously committed penalty . They would no longer be able to say that referees are infallible . But by failing to make the call in the first place and the suspension ensuing , they should have already done that for those who are paying attention . Sadly , only Stars fans are paying attention and not the NHL’s elite and that leads me into the next part of my complaint .
The NHL will never say that the suspension is wrong because if they do then they all look like fools for assessing it in the first place . They instead have made the referees look blind . The NHL is also infallible . They suspend Ott for his hit for three games with out pay because he injured Leopold’s pinky (or something equally weak) . Randy Jones probably ended Patrice Bergeons’s career and he was suspended for two games ! Of course the NHL is being fair . Consistency is the biggest problem here . If the NHL needs to wait for three days to see how badly the injured player was injured before handing out a suspension , then they need to do that with EVERY PLAYER’S suspension . They need to be even-handed with everything they do and not just do things under pressure from the NHL’s ‘darling teams’ . (It is NO secret that the Wings , Pens , Sens and Avs are the NHL’s darlings , in fact I challenge you to find a POSITIVE front page article on NHL.com about Our Dallas Stars or The Columbus Blue Jackets or ANY southern team ).

Whether the hit was clean or not , the NHL and the on-ice refs have both proven that somebody is wrong . Whomever it is needs to step up . I am starting to lose more faith in the league and I never had faith in the refs to behave properly (especially when McGeough is on the ice) . It is just a shame that Steve Ott has to pay $12,834.21 for it .

It really is a travesty that I did not even touch on the hits put on Morrow and the slew-footing of Modano the game in Colorado on the 8th . Or the inconsistency of the last minute high-stick put in Brenden Morrow’s mouth but not called . Just wait , that might spew out at another time when I have had enough and I am boiling over yet again . I blog angry .

Not a time to lament the past

it's time for the 'couver fans to gloat. They deserved that win, and we didn't. There were plenty of bad calls against us, heck there were even some bad calls against the Nucks, but the biggest thing is our boys didn't come to this game with the same intensity that they brought to the previous two :(

On the other hand, we saw fairly solid leadership out of Morrow, amazing goal tending out of Turco, and even a strong push by the big E in the post season ... so there is hope for next year.

The question now is who do we let go of this summer. Were Nagy & Nordstrom all they were expected? I'll say I was happy with Nagy's integration before post season, but during post season he and Matty (excepting much of Matty's play last night) were no more than a weak link on the team during this series. What about Anti, Robi, and some of the juniors down in Iowa? I think it will be a very interesting summer, to say the least.

Luckily we have a strong enough set of veteran leadership up top to keep whatever rotation we have over the summer in check come next season.

I'll hold my head up high as a Stars fan though ... When we were down 3 to 1 we had the strongest goalie of the round across all 16 teams, we had a team with more heart and determination than any other, and we fought our way back to Game 7. I say GO STARS GO ... 07/08 is only 5 months away.

Shall We Dance?

With the race to the playoffs heating up and as we head into the busiest month of the season for the Stars playing 16 games, 7 at home and 9 on the road, I am glad the Stars are where they are right now. Sitting with 79 points we are only 5 behind Anaheim for the Pacific Division title, 11 behind from being the Western Conference champs and 13 ahead of being knocked out of a playoff spot. We have one game against the Sharks and two games against the Ducks to gain even more ground towards that Pacific Division title.

As far as the ground to make up for the Western Conference title, that is going to be a much harder battle. We play Nashville twice and Detroit once and besides the Ducks we don’t have another team to gain on when it comes to points. So what can we do? For starters, we can score more than one goal in regulation and not wait till the third period to do it! The type of play in the past two games is not going to cut it when we play the top teams in the conference. Play consistent hockey and we will consistently be at the top.

Now, as for the dancing, since there is a nice 10 point cushion between the 8th seed and the 9th seed in the West, there will be a lot of “dancing” between playoff spots between now and the end of the season. Vancouver, Calgary, and Minnesota are all separated by one point and San Jose is very close to falling into 7th or 8th after the Stars passed them up earlier this week for 5th. Granted Dallas could easily fall as well if they were to slip into a loosing slump like the Flames did and the Sharks are doing, however we are no longer suffering from long term injuries (besides Morrow) and have plenty in Iowa just itching to contribute to our success.

-Scooter