Dallas Stars

[NoWayOut]

Looks like the Stars may be close to getting a boost on defense soon. Patrick Nemeth has been cleared to resume practicing and even partook on Thursday without the no contact jersey. Getting him back will be a nice addition for the Stars, god knows we need all the defensively responsible D we can get. Klinger can't do it all himself. Oh wait.....

Vern Fiddler is getting a promotion while Rous serves his suspension. Fiddler will be centering the third line and Eakin will slide over to Rous' left wing spot. Horcoff will take over center duties on the fourth line in place of Fidds. Other than that it's pretty much business as usual.

It'll be interesting to see how the Stars juggle the D pairs once Nemeth returns to game action. The seemingly obvious solution is to healthy scratch Jordie or Schlemko on a rotating basis. Jokipakka I think has made a case for remaining with the big club on a permanent basis. Sure he still has his moments where he makes mistakes, naturally, but he seems to be progressing much better than Oleksiak at this point and is often better than either Jordie or Schlemko.

[NoWayOut]

That sure was a purdy little goal for Benn, and what a play by Fiddler to set it all up.

[NoWayOut]

Fun fact of the night:

The Stars have picked up three shorthanded goals in the last two games, all three have come following a double-minor or 5 minute major.

[NoWayOut]

Ladies and Gentlemen, THAT is what is known in scholarly circles as a pyrrhic victory. A victory that takes such a heavy toll on the victor that it might as well be a defeat. Hopefully Seguin is going to be ok. Please just be a charley horse, please just be a charley horse.

Sadly I don't hold out the same hopes for Eaves. That puck caught him in the worst place and dropped him like a gunshot. As bad as he looked coming off the ice he's done for a while. And no word whatsoever all night about Hemsky other than it was an LBI. He went down early and I never really saw what may have happened. Sort of set the tone for the night. But that final 10 minutes was costly.

And sadly all of the injury carnage overshadowed a magnificent game by Kari.

[Instant Karma]

That didn't look like any charley horse to me, I hate to tell ya.

Just like when I heard that Seguin was back on the ice, i thought "That can't be right. That has to be bullshlt." Sure enough....

[NoWayOut]

That didn't look like any charley horse to me, I hate to tell ya.

Just like when I heard that Seguin was back on the ice, i thought "That can't be right. That has to be bullshlt." Sure enough....

I hear ya, but I'm going to be a hopeless optimist until I hear for sure that I shouldn't be.

[Instant Karma]

I hear ya, but I'm going to be a hopeless optimist until I hear for sure that I shouldn't be.

Vaya con dios, my friend.

[NoWayOut]

Don't look now but while we've been hammering on Kari....

Owen Newkirk ‏@OwenNewkirk 15m15 minutes ago
In his last three games, Kari Lehtonen has stopped 112-of-117 shots. 3-0-0 with a 0.957 SV% and a 1.66 GAA.

That in and of itself does not constitute a complete 180 in his fortunes but hey it's progress.

And to lighten the mood a bit. Here is Fiddler's "Close Encounters of the Petrovic Kind"....



Forget drop the mic we have "Drop the Petrovic"

[NoWayOut]

I wonder what the logistics are going to be like for Dallas as the Texas Stars opened a road trip last night in Iowa. You'd think it would be easier to do an emergency call up from Cedar Park with Dallas playing at home tonight. There's going to be two Texas Stars players catching a red eye from Iowa to Denver after having just gotten off the ice from their own game.

Might be best to keep expectations in check tonight. Hopefully they'll use this a rallying point and put up a good effort though.

[NoWayOut]

So far there has been no definitive word from Lindy as to what the lines will look like tonight. He did offer this much to Mark Stepneski...

As for how lines will be put together for tonight’s game, Ruff offered some of what he is thinking. For now, he is leaning towards leaving Jamie Benn on the wing and possibly playing him with Cody Eakin.

“There’s been lots of schools of thought this morning with [Jamie] Benn going up with [Jason] Spezza, but [Erik] Cole has been playing pretty good there on the left side. We could move him over,” Ruff said. “I’d like to balance the lines and maybe leave the Cole-Spezza combination together, possibly throw [Brett] Ritchie up on the right side or leave [Colton] Sceviour there. I think I’ll start the game with [Benn and Spezza] separated and if need be, I’ll put those two guys together.”

So I'll play around here and offer a couple of combos:

Benn - Eakin - Ritchie
Cole - Spezza - Sceviour
McKenzie - Fiddler - Garbutt
Horcoff - Morin - Moen

Benn - Spezza - Ritchie
Cole - Eakin - Garbutt
McKenzie - Morin - Sceviour
Horcoff - Fiddler - Moen<- Maybe flip this with Morin's line as the 4th and Fiddler's as the 3rd

Saw one idea floated out last night of moving Daley up to forward and put Schlemko in. Somewhat intriguing but a bit too worst case scenario. One bright spot is Hemsky may, stress may, be back early in the week. He was having a procedure done on whatever was injured(knee? ankle? LBI is all they're saying) and will be re-evaluated very quickly. If he's out an extended period of time the Stars either punt the playoffs or they just became a buyer for a forward.

Eaves x-ray showed no fractures which is very good news. Unfortunately he has another concussion. No timetable at this point for a return and it would surprise almost nobody if this ended his season. Adding to that worry is he has already lost the best part of a full seasons worth of game not that long ago from another similar injury.

Alright enough of the doom and gloom, here's a funny tidbit. Kari set an odd NHL record last night. He is the only goalie in NHL history to record multiple shutouts on Friday the 13th.

[JimmyCanuck]

It's too bad, the Stars looked poised to make a run at a playoff spot. Now their season is toast. May as well tank for a top 10 draft pick.

[NoWayOut]

It's too bad, the Stars looked poised to make a run at a playoff spot. Now their season is toast. May as well tank for a top 10 draft pick.

Tank isn't in Nill or Gaglardi's vocabulary. They'll keep fighting and then as the deadline nears re-evaluate whether or not they are buyers or sellers. And how well the team responds to the carnage will also determine if Nill hits the market for a top six, or depth, forward to continue the push. In spite of all that happened they are still in with a shout of the playoffs, but last night really dealt their hopes a serious blow.

[JimmyCanuck]

If Spezza steps up and the other three lines grind, it's possible they could stay in contention.

[NoWayOut]

If Spezza steps up and the other three lines grind, it's possible they could stay in contention.

If Ruff pairs up Eakin with Benn and keeps Cole with Spezza, and can get serviceable play from the third wheels on those two lines they may be able to hang on. Big if's though. I think Ritchie slots in well with Benn and Eakin, the tricky thing is the RW for Spezza's line. Since Eakin may be with Benn on the top line, don't know for sure yet, and Roussel is out for this one, maybe Garbutt lines up with Spezza. I think it's Sceviour though, and well he's not as good as Garbutt or Hemsky.

The guys are going to have to really want to step up and prove something if there is any hope of staying in position to fight for the playoffs. With Seguin, I'd say the Stars had a 25-30% chance of making it. Now with him out 3-6 weeks, that's more like a 10% chance and it will require a major gut check and effort to even have that much of chance.

Make no mistake, they're not out but it's going to be a test of their mettle. And it could go a long way to determining some players futures with the Stars.

[NoWayOut]

I was off a bit in my speculations about lines. From Heika here's the lines in warmups:


Benn-Eakin-Garbutt
Cole-Spezza-Sceviour
Horcoff-Fiddler-Ritchie
McKenzie-Morin-Moen

The move to have Garbutt on line 1 instead of Ritchie is the biggest head scratcher. Then again they've had no practice time to sort things out so these are just preliminary lines and will likely juggle around all night and beyond.

Also of note with the approaching deadline, scouts from Winnipeg, Montreal, and Columbus are on hand.