THN Looks at Pacific Division

Last week Adam Proteau of The Hockey News looked at the Pacific Division and made some interesting choices. It's hard to see him place MY Stars 4th in the division, but it's hard to make preseason rankings too.

As expected the Ducks & Sharks are listed as 1 & 2 respectively, and the 'yotes are in 5th place, what may (or may not) suprise some of you is he ranked the Kings as 3rd with playoff hopes and the stars as 4th without.

Really thinking about it though, The Kings & Sharks made decent moves to show hockey prognosticators that they mean business this year, and the Stars did not. However, I don't agree with the suggestion that the Stars aren't already set up for a stellar year. I said it over and over, Scott said it time and again, and we're here to tell you again, our biggest problem with scoring was injuries. We have the very same roster that started the season with the Stars' best season start to date - and as long as Modano doesn't pull his groin and Morrow doesn't put his wrist under another skate ... we're set for another great opening stretch.

Yes, some of our biggest rivals look to have made some very serious moves in the off season, but so did we: we got healthy. Check out the article, what do you think? Are you putting the stars out of playoff contention this year? Do you think the Ducks are going to get 2 straight division titles? Let us know before the next cast and we'll include your thoughts in the show!

Pacific Division Title Lost?

So are you like a lot of other Stars fans thinking that the Pacific Division Title is lost? Well, let me shed some light in the matter real quick. Bottom line, it's not...and here is why. The Sharks and Ducks play each other on Wednesday. The Sharks need to take that win without overtime. Then, Dallas needs to win against the Blue Jackets and the Ducks. Beating the Ducks will give them two losses on their last 3 games. Now for the Sharks - they need to loose against the Flames and the Canucks to give them their two losses in their final 2 games after their win over the Ducks. And finally, the Stars need to continue their two game winning streak after Columbus and Anaheim and beat Chicago on Sunday. That is the way I see the Stars as the Pacific Division Champs! Something else to ponder, if all the top teams loose the rest of their games for one reason or another, Dallas will win the Presidents Trophy as well...but likely won't happen...but it could!

Getting our butts kicked never felt so good!

Come on guys, do you really feel like throwing the towel in now? We haven't been beat by four regulation goals like we did on Sunday since the beginning of January. We were due. We played bad but not that bad. Heck, we peppered the post at least two if not three times and the saves Nabokov made were phenomenal. You know as well as I do that when we play against the Sharks and Nabokov is on his game, he is almost impossible to score on. The Sharks were coming off a four game loosing streak and needed a change of pace.

The whole series against the Sharks this year went 5-3 our way. We have consistently gained points on the majority of the Pacific Division teams this season which builds confidence when and if we see them in the playoffs. Would we have liked to take that last game? Yes. Did it kill us that we lost? No. Are we in a loosing slump? Absolutely not. We have three days to regroup and take it to St. Louis and Columbus who have both beat us in the past meetings. So we are eight points away from Anaheim however, we have two games in hand and two games against them so it is well within reach. Just focus on the "soft" upcoming schedule and play solid hockey while the Ducks and Sharks keep on their shaky track! March Madness baby!!

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