Dallas Stars

[larrylintz]

so Hemsky had a bunch of shots tonight, is there a pulse showing? One has to believe he'll get another shot with Spezza, tho i won't hold my breath.

[NoWayOut]

Ales Hemsky.....you don't think he reads this forum do you?......nah!!! There aren't that many Dobberites who read it, why would he. He didn't pick up a point but that's the best he's looked for Dallas by miles. He was all over the ice, dekeing, dangling. Once the Stars can get a lineup settled and Hemsky can gel and click with some more offensive minded linemates he may yet be that complimentary scorer that the Stars envisioned.

Oh man, Oleksiak has promise but he's still prone to chronic bouts of boneheaditis. He was a project D when Nieuwendyk drafted him, and he still is to some degree. He's going to have to fight Jokipakka hard for that final spot once Gonchar returns in a couple of weeks.

Also thought Jokipakka looked good in spite of the minus-1. He's not quite on Nemeth's level defensively among the Stars young gun D, but he's pretty solid. I think Oleksiak will have his hands full battling him for that final spot.

Not much else to talk about at the moment. Feel free to chime in with thoughts.

[NoWayOut]

so Hemsky had a bunch of shots tonight, is there a pulse showing? One has to believe he'll get another shot with Spezza, tho i won't hold my breath.

Goes to show you how long it takes me to arrange my thoughts and type them out. You hadn't posted when I started typing my previous post.

[larrylintz]

ha, i was amazed u responded so quickly!

[NoWayOut]

With the way the Stars are playing to start the season I'm going to be on meds for a heart condition by Thanksgiving. On the plus side I won't have to worry about dying of boredom.

[larrylintz]

Hate to break it to you, Noway and all Stars fans, but this is what you guys signed up for when you acquired Spezza. I live in Ottawa and watched this for years -- two points, 2nd star, and the guy is a minus four. Defence is an unknown concept to him, and last year it clearly infected the team -- if the captain didn't lift a finger why should anyone. So a 7-5 win is great but i'm sorry, you won't win a cup with him as your #1 centre. Put him in two slot, give him tons of PP time and only offensive zone starts and maximum 12-14 minutes a gain, and you might survive. Don't see any other way to limit the damage. And for the love of god don't sign up long-term, that would be a ghastly mistake

[NoWayOut]

Hate to break it to you, Noway and all Stars fans, but this is what you guys signed up for when you acquired Spezza. I live in Ottawa and watched this for years -- two points, 2nd star, and the guy is a minus four. Defence is an unknown concept to him, and last year it clearly infected the team -- if the captain didn't lift a finger why should anyone. So a 7-5 win is great but i'm sorry, you won't win a cup with him as your #1 centre. Put him in two slot, give him tons of PP time and only offensive zone starts and maximum 12-14 minutes a gain, and you might survive. Don't see any other way to limit the damage. And for the love of god don't sign up long-term, that would be a ghastly mistake

Spezza is far from alone in blame for games like this, it's a total team failure. It's the same story as the last few years, the defense is still all over the place and the turnovers are still way too frequent. And another recurring theme is the sloppy play in the second game of back-to-backs. The difference now over the Nieuwendyk years is the offense gives them the ability to stay in games like this and maybe steal some wins where they couldn't a couple of years ago.

It's going to take an overhaul of personnel on defense to fix this and that's going to take time. No matter where they line up Spezza or anybody else this team won't challenge for anything more than a 7 or 8th seed at most until they address the matter of defense and the lack of discipline on it and the turnovers. Pure and simple.

Whether signing Spezza long-term is a good or bad idea at this point isn't an issue they need to worry about. We're only 1/10th of the way into the season and there's plenty of hockey left to be played before that becomes a front and center topic for Nill and the team. I trust Nill to be savvy enough to observe Spezza's play and to go from there. Plus who's to say what Spezza will think of the idea of staying in Dallas come June or who might pony up bigger money. A lot of what if's and if this/then that to be determined.

[blayze]

It would also help if the coach would play Lehtonen like a workhorse instead of throwing Lindback the occasional pitty start.

They would have stolen the game tonight if Lehtonen was in net.

[NoWayOut]

It would also help if the coach would play Lehtonen like a workhorse instead of throwing Lindback the occasional pitty start.

They would have stolen the game tonight if Lehtonen was in net.

Don't forget Kari got lit up for 6 and 3 respectively in his last two. Lindback looks like he will be an adventure every time he starts, but regardless of who's in net larger issues still need fixed. Whatever Ruff was doing different before these last three games, he needs to go back to it. The defense had it's issues but not as bad as they have been the last week.

[Big Ev]

I personally would never want to start my goalie on back to back nights. Made sense to go to Lindback.

[NoWayOut]

Damn my feeble old memory, Lehts allowed 6 and 3 in the two starts prior to last night. Semantics, but the point remains, as long as the defense is still this porous it's going to be difficult for even Lehtonen to avoid getting torched too often. And it should be noted both Lehtonen and Lindback has been guilty of letting out some juicy rebounds that have been returned to tender(pun in-goal-tendered).

Stop me before I pun again.

[blayze]

Don't forget Kari got lit up for 6 and 3 respectively in his last two.

He never got "lit up" for 3... he let in 3 in a 46 save win... and that was 3 games ago. Pretty damn good if you ask me. Way to skew the facts lol

Kari's only had one bad game this season.

[NoWayOut]

He never got "lit up" for 3... he let in 3 in a 46 save win... and that was 3 games ago. Pretty damn good if you ask me. Way to skew the facts lol

Kari's only had one bad game this season.

Ok three isn't lit up, I agree on that point. As a fantasy owner I'm sure you love seeing 46 saves, as a Stars fan I cringe at that number. So far he's faced 35+ shots in three of his six starts. That fact has to change, Kari or no Kari, or things are going to be ugly for whoever is manning the crease.

[larrylintz]

Don't get me wrong, I think Stars and Avs tied for my favourite teams to watch after Senators, I cheered for them both last year in playoffs, i love fire wagon hockey and i miss Spezza's creativity in the offensive zone, esp. on power plays. But given the Stars had problems already in giving up too many chances (whereas Sens, during the strike year when Spezza and Karlsson both had serious injuries, were an excellent defensive team), boy, adding Spezza is a very strange way to try to improve your team. Sends the wrong message to every player in lineup about what the team values. I will never forget last year during overtime watching Spezza in his own zone kind of float past a Penguin who outmuscled him for the puck along the boards, then Spezza kind of coasted out past his own blue line thinking a teammate might be able to pick up the puck and send him a nice pass. Meanwhile the Penguin who won the battle gets it to James Neal, who makes a couple of moves and fires home the game-winner. By the time Neal actually fired the shot Spezza had returned to the defensive zone and was making a futile lunge at him, which tells you how easily Neal could have been covered had Spezza stayed in his own zone. This from a captain. Seems like a great guy, fantastic with media, maybe his back so weak he is just trying to protect himself by staying out of crowded areas, but he lost me on that one.

[larrylintz]

Hey, Noway (or anyone), I see Ruff is going back to PP scheme he started year with. I have Hemsky and have fingers crossed he gets another chance on PP#1 and with Spez on 2nd line, which rotoworld speculated would happen when Nichushkin returns. However, they had goose eggs last nite, so wondering how that PP looked and whether Hemsky did his part, created chances, or fell on his face?

Perhaps respond after game tonight? I'm trying to decide whether to gamble and put up Hemsky over Palat, who has a reasonable amount of points but is off the Stamkos line and getting secondary PP time. I realize this would be a huge and perhaps dumb gamble given how awful Hemsky has been, whereas Palat has been a steady producer for the entire calendar year. But Dallas has 3 home games this week, TB just one.