Dallas Stars

[fungchen3]

Gotta like them out shooting STL cause they usually don't give up 40 shots.

Was a big game for them and they showed up to play, scary.

Yeah, and speaking of a team trending down right now... the Blues. They've looked terrible lately.

[HockeyProphet]

Yeah, and speaking of a team trending down right now... the Blues. They've looked terrible lately.

Yup. I'm ousting them out of my playoff pool!

[Instant Karma]

yeah, i have to say, i wasn't scared by what i saw from St. Louis all game long.

The thing with the Stars, they're only going as far as Kari will take them. We'll see how far that is.

[fungchen3]

The thing with the Stars, they're only going as far as Kari will take them. We'll see how far that is.

Yeah, Lehtonen has to be solid but their forwards are scary good right now and their D is playing better than they've played all season. Lehtonen just needs to stay healthy and not let up many softies.

[Shake]

Just as an aside to today's carnage of a crazy day, how impressive has Jim Nill been as GM of Dallas? Learned a ton from all his years in Detroit. He's done a fantastic job in short order.

[27Blue]

Nill has been amazing. Seguin and Spezza for peanuts (relatively speaking).

[deantime419]

I wonder if Jussi or Cammy are targets for the Stars.

[newper114]

I know fiddler doesn't hold much fantasy value but bringing in spezza what does this do to his FWs?

[27Blue]

I know fiddler doesn't hold much fantasy value but bringing in spezza what does this do to his FWs?

Fiddler is a FA and won't be back with Dallas.

[PrairieDog]

Nill has been amazing. Seguin and Spezza for peanuts (relatively speaking).

Have to agree with this - the Seguin deal is looking worse every day (for Boston), and that's a pretty low price to pay for Spezza. Another winger and they have 2 really great top lines...

[DMaz16]

Just as an aside to today's carnage of a crazy day, how impressive has Jim Nill been as GM of Dallas? Learned a ton from all his years in Detroit. He's done a fantastic job in short order.

Seguin and Spezza for Eriksson, Smith, Chaisson, Fraser, Morrow, Guptill, Paul, 2015 2nd.

Amazing job by Nill but as a Stars fan who was often exasperated by Nieuwendyk's moves I have to give some credit to the scouting staff under his watch. To be able to use all those guys to acquire two big guns and still have a pretty solid prospect core is impressive.

Benn - Seguin - Nichushkin
Ritchie - Spezza - Hemsky
Roussell - Eakin - Garbutt

If the Stars can find a way to lock up Spezza for a longer term that is a very solid top 9 moving forward.

[NoWayOut]

It's finally here, the opening night that really matters. Great way to open the season with a tough matchup right out of the gate. Good opportunity to get an early read on just how much progress was made in the offseason. Certainly not a be-all, end-all picture but useful all the same.

- Erik Cole is a healthy scratch as a message of accountability from Jim Nill and Lindy Ruff. As most may have heard Cole was late for practice on Monday so this is the penalty. Sounds like just a one game deal. Patrick Eaves is slated to be the fill in alongside Spezza and Hemsky.

- Not surprisingly Jamie Oleksiak looks like he will be joining Cole in the press box. It's still a bit of a head scratcher that the Stars opted to keep Oleksiak up instead of getting him big minutes in Cedar Park. Time will tell what the reason is for that. I still suspect it's just an extra body to cover in case of another injury and that once Gonchar(three-to-five weeks, broken ankle) is cleared to play again Oleksiak will be back with Texas. Though if that is the reason, why not keep Derek Meech up as the extra body? Meech has more NHL experience, let Oleksiak continue to log minutes and develop, and let Meech warm a seat in the press box. On the other hand it does give Ruff and co. a chance to work hands on with Oleksiak before he goes back to Texas which I still think he will. Oleksiak is getting there step-by-step, but still has rough spots to smooth out.

One other thing that people will be eyeing is how Kari Lehtonen looks tonight. He didn't have the best of preseasons, but I think more is being made out of it than is actually there.

And from Mike Heika, and other sources, here is the projected lineup for the Stars tonight....

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Valeri Nichushkin

Patrick Eaves - Jason Spezza - Ales Hemsky

Antoine Roussel - Cody Eakin - Ryan Garbutt

Shawn Horcoff - Vernon Fiddler - Colton Sceviour

Alex Goligoski - Trevor Daley

Jordie Benn - Brenden Dillon

Kevin Connauton - Patrik Nemeth

[NoWayOut]

All in all not a bad start for the Stars in the first. A couple of lapses on D, on Shaw's shot, dodged a bullet on Kane's broken stick, but otherwise the inverse of recent trends, more good than bad. Didn't really let Chicago get much anything set up in the Dallas zone. Fingers crossed...

Pretty soft goal on Lehtonen. No screen, good look at it and right through the knees it looked like. Shake it off Kari.

Thought the Stars did a good job keeping the play in the Hawk's end. Crawford shut the door, otherwise Dallas could have, should have, had at least one goal, possibly two themselves.

The PP...well it is just one period. Still needs time to gel, but business as usual. Goli out there as the one D on PP1.

Jamie Benn laying the lumber. One way or the other he makes his mark.

[NoWayOut]

The Stars speed and tenacity is keeping Chicago on the back foot. The Hawks just can't get much breathing room.

The PP looking much better in the second. Daley with the sweet job of settling the puck and then snapping it over Crawford's shoulder into the short side corner. Daley is also out there on PP1 this period. They looked much more in sync on the advantage this time around. We'll see if Ruff decides to flip back to Goli once more

Two-for-two on the kill so far. And even down a man the Stars are still pushing the Hawks back. Two really good looks short-handed and nearly got one.

Connauton taking the nasty tumble on his head/shoulders. Really looked out of it. No word yet but may be out for the duration tonight, hopefully not though.

If not for Crawford this isn't nearly as close. Nice goal for Eakin too. Time to really pour it on.

[NoWayOut]

So disappointing to ever lose in a shootout. Arrgghh! In the end though you have to like the game the Stars played. Against a lot of other goalies the way the Stars played this never would have been that close. Hats off to Crawford for the game.

That third period and OT showed why Chicago is considered one of the best. They weathered everything the Stars threw at them in the first 40 minutes, looked, and really were, dominated at times. But they fought back. Really impressed though with Dallas not giving in once Chicago got up off the canvas and started fighting back.

Kari did a great job aside from the one softy. That one Keith goal kind of gave pause after the shaky preseason. Coming in you had to say it was just Kari being a tad rusty, that's all. Then that gets by somehow, and I'll admit there was a moment or two of hoping that wasn't an omen. As for any worries coming in....move along nothing to see here.

If it were me I would have given Benn the do-or-die shot. Ah well that's the way it goes.

Still plenty to be excited about, especially if they can play anything like this all season. It will be a dogfight through the remaining 81 games, but in spite of the loss you gotta feel good about where they can go from here.