Red Wings , Sidney Crosby And Why The Wings Should Win The Cup

 Okay , I have taken a lot of flack for saying on various places that I would rather see the Red Wings win The Stanley Cup than the Penguins . It seems that Dallas Stars fans think I am crazy (or that I am committing blasphemy) to want the Wings to win . I think that I should explain myself a little so people will get off of my case . 
 
First off , and most importantly , I do not like the Red Wings – in fact around my house they are commonly referred to The Detroit Dead Things . These are the reasons I do not like the Red Wings ;
 1. They have been at the top of the Western Conference for what seems like eons .
 2. We cannot seem to beat them on a consistent basis .
 3. They have the people in place to get results out of their players no matter how low their draft picks are .
 4. They always seem to have better luck with injuries – how many games has Nick Lidstrom missed in his tenure in Detroit ? Like ten ? And he is almost 50 ?
 5. I have a friend who lives in Detroit who calls and rubs any losses by my team to his team in my face (that really gets annoying and you don’t even want to know what he did when they won The Cup last season) .
 All of those reasons only point one unavoidable conclusion – I am jealous of the Red Wings organization . I know that it is true and I will not deny it like many other hockey fans . But I still do not like the Red Wings and I will not ever become a Red Wing fan . 

 Here is why I do not like Sidney Crosby ;
 1. He has been touted as the greatest hockey player ever when it is clear that he is a one-way player (If he had played when the rules were different like Gretzky , he would never have made it past his rookie season). His rookie year , he took home enough trophies that he needed a U-Haul trailer and immediately everyone thought he was the greatest . Sadly , Ovechkin (who plays a two-way game and is a complete player) was almost completely ignored . 
 2. He whines about every call made or not made .
 3. He is Canadian . This is not necessarily a bad thing – nor do I hate Canadians , but if Ovechkin had come from Canada and Crosby had come from Russia , Ovie would be the only player we would ever hear about and Crosby would be completely ignored . Plus maybe Don Cherry would not hate Ovie like he does .
 4. Other players on his team are often ignored . Yeah , they are getting some attention in the media now , but if it is not him , then it is Malkin or Gonchar , but that has only really happened in this last season . The team is loaded with talent and they are often ignored by the media when they play away games . 
 5. His lips can wrap around the bottom of a two liter soft drink bottle . Okay , so that is not really a good reason , but my wife pointed that out to me so , I had to include it . If he did that little trick at parties , I am sure he would be very popular .

 The Wings should win The Cup because I do not want Crosby to raise The Cup over his head . My dislike for him out-weighs my dislike for the Red Wings . Besides , if somebody has to win The Cup shouldn’t we cheer for the team from our own conference ? I would rather put up with my friend from Detroit calling me to laugh in my face that his team won The Cup – yet again – than put up with listening to how Crosby is so great that he led his team to win Lord Stanley’s Cup . AND Don Cherry would never shut up .

It’s Over Now

 Technically , it has been over for a long time for us , but some people just never give up or (like me ) are just too hard-headed to ever give up .

 I would have to classify this past season as a loss , but not a total loss . I think I will start out with what I think are the positives and go down hill from there .

 First of all we did see a lot of young players , many of them very gifted . James Neal is definitely the brightest spot out of all of them . He plays well with and without the puck and the only fight he got into , he put a gash on his opponent from eyebrow to ear (yeah , I am still lovin’ that three-hit fight) . He also finished very close to the rookie lead for goals this season and he did not even play in every game like the kid who won that contest did . Fabian Brunnstrom has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the season . At first he was all offense and absolutely no defense , but he was improving all the way up to the last game he played in . We also got to see Tom Wandell , Ivan Vishnevskiy , Andrew Hutchinson , Garrett Stafford , Landon  Wilson , and Raymond Sawada . While some of these guys have been around for a while , we did manage to establish the fact that even with the “B team” we could still play decently . We do have a bright future with these guys .  

 As all of the faithful Dallas Stars fans now know , Brett Hull and Les Jackson are no longer Co-GMs . Instead , Joe Nieuwendyk has been named GM . I think that it will be an interesting time with Newy leading the club . I have faith in his hockey sense and I think that the hockey gods will like us a little more this next season than they did in the last one . I do not place blame on either of the ex-co-GMs for our poor season . I think they did the best that they knew how to do – even when their actions confused the fans . I simply believe that their talents lay in other areas . Now we will see if Newy has the skills that we need him to have .

 This past season , we lost far too many games . Of course if you are a true fan , you probably cried most of the season like I did . Razor’s mantra this past season was special teams and goal tending . Unfortunately , we had neither part of that equation solid or consistent .
  Marty obviously did not have a good season by any stretch of the imagination . He was the sole owner of the worst goals against average in league for far too long . That was not all his fault . His defensemen sometimes resembled the Swiss cheese that plays defense for Tampa Bay . He did however allow many soft goals and allow many stoppable shots through . I think the loss of Mike Smith , who was a viable alternative to Marty , actually hurt us more than it helped  . Having someone to challenge you to do better , makes you better . This past season , no chance of a challenge existed from any other goaltender in the organization . I am sure that Marty will do better next season – rumour has it that we have another excellent goaltender coming down through the pipes .
 The other part of this equation is special teams . There were times that we were on top and times when we tested how low the percentage could possibly go . The problem was (not only personnel – which I will get to later) failure to perform consistently . Sometimes we ran the table and other times we looked like we just showed up to skate . Foolish mistakes and carelessness with the puck also caused problems and put ugly shorthanded points up against us . The consistency was simply not there . There were a few players gave everything they had every shift (whether it was on the PP or PK or even strength) but most just played when they felt like it .

 That rolls right into the question , should Tippett be removed ? My answer is still no . Too many distractions and problems that were not his fault ruined this past season . I think he did the best he could , but I strongly feel that he needs to find new ways to ‘motivate’ his players – no matter what the cost .

 Our injured reserve this year was booked solid . At one point I was beginning to believe that you would need reservations in advance to make it onto the list . There were also times that the IR list was longer than the roster of active players . I forget the final tally of man-games lost but I believe that it was upwards of three hundred and twenty . When you consider the players who were on that list , the season’s results should not come to anyone as a huge shock . Lehtinen , Zubov , Richards , Morrow , Connor , Lundqvist , Sutherby , Petersen , Barch , Ott , Daley , Brunnstrom , Grossman , Fistric , Robidas and even Marty Turco missed a few games due to illness (I am sure that I missed some players , but the list is so long that it is hard to remember everybody who spent time off-ice) . If we can get healthy and stay that way , we do have a chance for next season .

 As I promised I have gone from good to bad , and now , the worst ;
 Sean Avery . I do not fault Brett Hull for bringing him here . He did what he honestly thought was best for the team and I am proud of him for that and for standing up and saying so . Nobody knew that he would not like playing here and act like he did  when he got here . Obviously we do not know what went on in the locker room , but it apparently caused enough distractions early in the season , that many players were not able to focus on their respective jobs . I honestly thought that he would be a good edition to our team despite the fact that everybody hated him before he came here . I am now on the “I hate Sean Avery” list because of the problems that he caused our players . I am not saying he was the only reason that our team flopped (many other reasons have been covered above and even more reasons were not) , but he certainly did not help . If you really think Avery was not a part of the problem , you never went out to watch the team practice . I did . He never participated in any of the drills at close to a half-speed and never acted like he was interested in even being there . I am very glad he is gone , but it leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth to know that we will be paying him for another four seasons money he never got close to earning .

 Despite the horridness (is that even a word?-spellcheck says no) of last season , I do have lots of hope for next season . Until then …………………

Soon

I promise to blog again very soon . I have been insanely busy with my job and I have honestly been depressed about our season . I promise I will post a new blog by the end of the week .

Thank you for your patience .

Adam

Last Practice Of The ‘08 – ‘09 Season

 It certainly was bittersweet . I always enjoy going out to practices no matter if I am attempting to collect yet more autographs or not . What I really enjoy about going is , talking with other fans and having the opportunity to talk to the players – even if it is only for a moment or two .
 I told almost every player thank you for doing their best for the team this year . I also had the opportunity to ask a few questions as they went past after I thanked them . I asked Mike Modano if he was going to play for Team USA in the off season . “Probably not” was his response – I cannot blame him especially since Jeff Halpern blew out his knee last year and missed playing NHL hockey until January . I also asked Jere Lehtinen if he was going to play for Team Finland . He said he did not know . I had to tell The Cap’n that my wife and I nearly fell out when his wife interviewed him at the Casino Night . Truly classic – if you missed it , search for it at DallasStars.com . I did actually have an opportunity to talk with Landon Wilson for more than a few moments and I really enjoyed that . We spoke about how he plays and a little about next season . It was really enjoyable . 

I did happen to see several of my fellow bloggers today . I was able to have a few conversations with other fans about being a good fan . I was pleasantly surprised that almost all of the fans I spoke with knew how to be good fans . Only one guy I met today would be a ’bad’ fan . Come to think of it , I think that I have met maybe three people like that at practices in the three years that I have been going out there . Lots of people may go to games , but I think the true (local) fans go out to their practices . 

 I had hoped that since this was the last practice of the year that there would have been wall-to-wall fans waiting for players before and afterwards . I was happy to see that there were more fans there than usual for a Monday , but not as many as I had hoped for . I wanted Our Stars to know that we all loved them and that we all will miss them .

 Last night my children and my wife made a poster board sign for me to hold up during the practice . It had the Dallas Stars logo on it and simply said “Thank you for being OUR team” . Of course they had signed their names on the sides of it and I had photos of  each child taped to it . I was a good boy and made sure to hold up the sign so that all of the players who skated saw it . 

 The practice itself was interesting . It had a different feel to it than any of the other ones I have been to . It seemed more of a “fun and games” practice than anything else . One of the ‘drills’ was a two players against a goaltender with both nets at the bluelines . The players were split into teams and they were competing to see which team could score first and fastest . Shoot out practice was fun to watch as well . Each player took their turn at either Marty , Stephan or Climie depending on which group they were in . If they managed to beat the goaltender , the other group of players had to race from the boards and back again . If the player did not score , their group had to make the quick skate . There were lots of players who were made fun of and heckled during this drill by their teammates . Much later , Stu was coaching about a half dozen players on how to improve their shooting within a four foot area in front of the goaltender . It was funny because they all tried to beat the goaltender but could not so Stu got into the rotation . Every time he came up , he scored . Classic .

 As far as who skated and who did not , well here comes the laundry list . Stephane Robidas did not skate . Trevor Daley did not skate or even stay long enough to do a workout . Sergei Zubov did not show up (shocking? nah) . Toby Petersen skated before everyone else and looked good in the drills he ran alone . The Cap’n was there , but did not skate . Krys Barch did not skate . I was shocked to see Ivan Vishnevskiy , but he skated and looked surprisingly comfortable despite looking winded at least a third of the time . Brad Richards was there as well , but there is obviously no need to tell you if he skated or not . He is wearing a pretty solid cast (I should have asked if I could sign it) .

 What really shocked me (and I guess it should not have) was that Tippett had all three goaltenders dressed . Matt Climie , Tobias Stephan and Marty Turco all practiced . I really enjoyed being able to see Climie closer up than just on television . Besides , my wife wanted pictures of his mask . 

 As the players started leaving the ice at about ten minutes until noon , I knew it was almost over . I refused to leave the arena (despite being relatively numb-I just never got warm all day) until the last player left the ice . When he got off the ice , I felt as if a little bit of me died . I know the end of the season is not the end of all hockey , but that’s my team. I will miss them this spring and summer . Can you tell I am beginning to miss them already ?

Stars Beat Blues 5 To 4

 Only in hockey can you win a game and be eliminated from the playoffs at the same time . We all knew it was an eventuality but , honestly , I did not think we would discover that it had happened after a win . We may be out and pretty much done for the season but we are still playing .

 The good news is that at least we are getting a few players healthy and back on the ice . Yeah , it may be too little too late , but as long as there is hockey to be played , it is never too late .

 The other good news is that Matt Climie did not look bad in net despite allowing four goals against . It is not any good that we lost Marty although he does deserve time off . I would have preferred him to just take the time off instead of being injured .

 In the game against the Blues , we looked pretty decent . Eriksson , Neal and Wandell played great together and accounted for two of the five goals scored . 

 Our team displayed determination that had been lacking . They never seemed to give up and I am proud of them .

 I was only disappointed that I was not able to attend the game . When they started tossing pucks over the glass after the game ended , I sure did wish I had been there . I really wished I had been there when the players started taking the sweaters off of their backs and giving them away after the game . Man , what I wouldn’t do for one of those .

 Knowing that we are out of the playoffs and that we have no more home games in which to support our team is kind of depressing , but today , they have one last practice in Frisco .  I am sooooo going . I hope to see you out there .

 I appreciate my team and the things that they have done for us fans . I am going to go out to the practice and personally tell them thank you for a good season .

 I will definitely miss them in the off-season . My wife won’t but that is for a different blog .

A Loss To Coyotes And A Win Against Kings

 To begin with , I did hold up my sacrifice to the hockey gods during the game against the Coyotes that I said I would . I did have to work early in the morning but , I will suffer for my team . It is just unfortunate that the hockey gods did not fully accept my offering . We did almost win and we did earn a point , but it would have been nice to have both points .

 You could tell that despite the fact that we lost in the desert that our recently called up players were helping out as best as they could . You could almost see them starting to get to a point where they were becoming more like a team . The fact that we made up goals to get the game into overtime and have a chance to win is something that we have not done in quite some time . It would have been nice to win , but the signs of better things yet to come were definitely there . The only real problem we had was that we allowed too many goals against .

 Ribeiro had a good game despite very long shifts at times . Chris Connor also had an excellent game . More players seemed to be actually playing than in previous games . We seemed to be throwing more at the net and getting in Bryzgalov’s way with more regularity than we have done for much of the season .

 The game against the Kings was better . While I still do not think that all of our players played their best , enough of them did to get the win .

 We scored on the powerplay twice and killed off both of the penalties that we took . Special teams play must factor into things when your team is as badly depleted as ours is currently (for that matter , when we were healthier and we did not take care of those things , we still lost) . Granted , there were times on both the powerplay and the penalty kill we did not look that good . The important thing is that you can see things beginning to come back together . It may be too late in the season , but at least most of our players are giving all that they have . 

 Games against the Kings seem to be problematic for Our Stars . We seem to either jump out in front early and then let them steamroll us for the remainder of the game or we show up and never do anything but skate around . This last game was different . We seemed to keep our focus better .
 
 Turco played well despite the two goals scored against him . He may not have been stellar , but it was good enough . A win is a win whether it is six to five or one to nothing . Style points never count on the scoreboard .

Another important part of this win is that Tippett rolled four lines all game . It may not sound like a big deal , but you have to rest your best players just like every other player . Ribeiro , Ott , Lehtinen and Eriksson are great players but if they are on the ice for almost half of the game , their tanks will run dry and they will be the equivalent of some of your fourth line players . The key to rolling four lines is to trust them to make smart plays while doing the job that the coach has set out for them . There have been times this season when the fourth line (no matter who was on it) have not done what they are supposed to do and taken penalties . Being a coach is definitely a difficult job that I do not envy .

 Brenden Morrison played fabulous . His two goals definately earned him his spot in the stars of the game . I honestly thought he was going to score at least once more before he scored his first goal of the game . I may be wrong but I thought he was the player who had the most scoring chances in the game .

 Garrett Stafford had his entire immediate family at the game . He put on a great show for them . He also played well in the game against Phoenix . If he plays that well with his family at the game , perhaps we should invite more player’s families to games so that they can all do so well .

 While Darryl Sydor did not figure into the stars of the game , I would have put him as my third star and moved Stafford up to the second position . Sydor played very well and broke up more than the odd play going towards Marty .

 The most important part of this win against the Kings is that we never sat back and everybody (well , almost everybody) played to the best of their abilities . We did suffer from mistakes , but we managed to make up for them . We limited the problems and kept our feet moving . I am pleased with this win .

 I was not pleased with Mike Modano and I am still not . How long has it been since he has contributed to the over-all game ? It seems as if he just does not want to play any more now that things have become difficult . I understand frustrations . I think all of us Stars fans do . We cannot do anything to change the outcome of any game , but he can . Too often it has seemed to me that he skates standing up instead of playing at full speed . Since the All-Star break he has truthfully contributed very little . As one of our few healthy “star” players you would think that he would step up and do as much (or more) than he was doing before half of the team had secured their spots on the IR roster . He has not though and that frustrates me even further . He has the ability but does nothing whereas we have no chance to make a difference but I know I would try my best and I am sure you would as well (although , I am certain I would be a greater liability than an asset to my team) . I do not like to call players out like this , but earlier in the season , he was earning my praise . Do the job or don’t , but don’t pretend to do the job . You only make others around you angry when you pretend to do your job .

Where To Start ?

 Should I start with the thought that we have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs but that our chances are exceptionally  slim after this loss ?

 Should I start with the fact that Marty Turco has been perforated this season like tissue paper and he often has no help from his defensemen ?

 Should I start with the fact that no matter how hard we try or how good we start out in first periods , we cannot seem to win ?

 Should I start by complaining at how poor the officiating was in the game against the Panthers ?

 Should I start with the fact that Mike Ribeiro pretty much called out the rest of the team for not performing , calling their effort “unacceptable” ?

 Or should we start with the complete laundry list of players now unable to play ?

 Yeah , I think that is as good of a place to start as any , then we will go right back up the list . In this last loss to the Florida Panthers , we have lost yet two more players in Stephane Robidas and Mark Fistric . That only adds to the loss of Brian Sutherby , Trevor Daley , Sergei Zubov , Brenden Morrow , Kry Barch , Brad Richards , Toby Petersen and Fabian Brunnstrom . Did I miss anybody ? Do we still have enough players to play a single freakin’ game ? Did I also fail to mention that Tippett said that he has never coached a team so heavily laden with injuries ? I have never before seen a team at the point of being totally devastated by injuries . Did the hockey gods decide to be Dallas Stars haters this season ? I want to know what’s really going on . Why US ?

 Mike Ribeiro did call out the rest of his team by saying that their combined effort was “unacceptable” and he rightfully did so . I do not think that anyone out there has more of a right to question or put in to doubt the work ethic of his fellow players than he , Jere Lehtinen , Steve Ott and James Neal do . If you notice I did not include many of our other players . Those four are probably the only ones who have given everything they have when they have been on the ice and healthy . Yes , they have all made costly mistakes that may or may not cost us a game , but at least they gave all that they had when they could . When you skate standing up for an entire game expecting things to be done for you , you are not doing things for the team . Ribeiro , Lehtinen , Ott and Neal have done their best for the team but the team has not backed them up .

 The officiating in the game against the Panthers was questionable at best . Call me a whiner if you want to , but at this point I really don’t care . Maybe Ribeiro did emphasise the highstick a little , but calling it diving was pretty weak . I was absolutely appalled when Campbell highsticked Ott in the face and then Ott was penalized for wanting to fight him for it , but received an unsportsmanlike conduct call instaed . I know that it was in a different game , but when Daley was injured , the player who clearly boarded him did not receive any kind of call , but in the game against the Panthers , Ott received a five minute major for almost the same thing except that the biggest difference was that the Florida player was not truly injured . Where is the consistency in all this ? 

 Our Stars have come roaring out of the gate in the last bunch of games but we take one penalty and the momentum shifts so severely that we cannot get our feet back under us for the rest of the game . This problem seemed to start way back in that game against the Sharks at the Shark Tank . It has almost seems like we go to the locker room after the first period and drink up all the NyQuil we can find and set the cruise control . I just do not understand . Do I really need to go out and buy the entire Earth’s supply of NyQuil so they cannot drink it between periods ? Or , should I just take a truckload of Whoop Ass out to a practice in Frisco and threaten each and every player that they must drink a case after each period ? Or ,would the players have to use the toilet too often to drink that much fluid ?

 Marty Turco . What can I really say ? He has had far less than a stellar season . He has owned the worst goals against average in the league for a large portion of the season . Not all of that is his fault , though . His defensemen have looked terrible (and so has the rest of the team in front of him for that matter) at times . So many goals have gone past him off of his own players this season that I think it has to be some kind of record . He has also allowed (what I would have to think would be) a record of “soft” goals to be scored against him this season . This is not the Marty Turco that we all know and love . This guy has to be an alien who took Turco’s place for the season . The Marty that we know posts shutouts in the playoffs against teams who have great ability to score . We want OUR Marty back .

 And finally , our chances at making the playoffs ? Well , mathematically we can make it in , but it is hard to believe that we can pull off a miracle with only seven games remaining . The reality of it is , that unless all the planets in the solar system align just right AND to the hockey gods’ satisfaction , we are all taking most of April off . Do not misunderstand , I do love my team (and that is why it hurts me to come to this conclusion) but we probably will not make it in to the playoffs this year . Even if we did , I cannot say that we have enough players left in the AHL , ECHL , the Finnish League and the Swedish Elite League left to fill the empty roster positions . 

 No matter what , tomorrow , I will sacrifice a six pack of Molson Canadian to the hockey gods during the Stars’ game against the Coyotes and whisper prayers that they can find it in their hearts to let us into the playoffs . Destroyed by injuries or not , it is still a matter of pride to say that MY team made it there . Here’s to the hockey gods . Drink up .

 Did I mention that I did all I could to keep from crying after the loss to the Panthers and that my wife cried when Robidas was helped off the ice ? Yeah , we are all depressed around here .

Two Shutouts , One Loss

 Only in today’s NHL can both goalies be awarded a shutout and a loss in the same game . Unfortunately , Marty was the goaltender that lost . 

 This game hurt me to watch . All of our players seemed to have lost heart . Some of our players did test Quick to the best of their abilities , but sadly not even the one that Lehtinen scored showed up on the scoresheet .

 We looked tired from the outset of the game . Our players looked like they wanted to win but they did not seem determined to do so .

 When Daley was injured , Barch fought Daley’s assailant but was injured in that battle , so , we go down yet two more players .

 Again , our powerplay did not score .

 Our penalty kill did their job and at times , they did it very convincingly . 

 I will award MY STARS of the game ;
  1. Marty Turco – Despite having given up the game winning (or in this case game losing) goal , he played very well . He never really lost sight of the puck .
  2. Jere Lehtinen- He had so many almost goals just from being in the right place at the right time that if Quick had not been in the right place at the right time , he would have won the game himself .
  3. Loui Eriksson – He has not been playing like a thirty goal scorer for a couple of games now , but he did in this one . It was just a shame that he did not score .

 I am frustrated and depressed about our outlook for the playoffs . I know I am a true fan of my team because it truly hurts to think that we will not even make it in to the first round of the playoffs . No matter the outcome of the rest of the season , I still love my team .

Trying And Doing

 We knew that Brad Richards had recovered early from one hand injury only to break the other after only two periods (if that) of hockey , before this game even started . Tom Wandell was called up to take the empty position on our roster .

 We also knew that everybody needs points to get anywhere in the standings . Vancouver is playing to get home ice advantage , we are just playing to make it in .

 This game started out very similarly to the game against the Sharks . We seemed to be doing very well in the first period UNTIL …. Very much like the game against the Sharks , we took a penalty and were unable to kill it off . It did not help that (to quote Razor) “a conga line to the penalty box” had begun to form . Fabian Brunnstrom’s holding call allowed Kesler to even the score . Then ,  a double minor to Mark Fistric for highsticking allowed Daniel Sedin to score and give the Canucks the lead . Both were unnecessary penalties . The hold was in the attacking zone and the highstick was just a careless lack  of not knowing where his stick was .

 Writers Note : 
 The definition of  “trying” – to test severely ; hard to endure .
 The definition of  “doing” – performing as an action ; to execute , as a piece of work . Dealing with or taking care of .

 The game was really lost in the first period , so it would do little good to go on about the rest of the game . When we get down , we seem to still try , but there is a difference in trying and doing . A perfect example of the difference in trying and doing is this ; have a friend hold an item – any item – in their hand . Try and take it from them without them attempting to stop you from doing so . If you took it without them stopping you , you did not try to take it , you did take it . Trying and doing are vastly different .

 We are trying to win , but we are not winning . Few players go to the front of the net . Nobody parks in the blue paint for us while every team that we lose to parks at least one guy there with regularity . Coincidence ? I think not .

 Pucks are tossed at our opponent’s net , but usually from distance . Shots from the outside are all good and well , but if you are not screening the goaltender or attempting to get a rebound , all you have done is bet that the goaltender has a blind-spot where you shot . Not many goalies have those and I have not met any yet who wear glasses .

 The goals that we did score against the Canucks were done so off the rush (which I think is Modano’s favorite way to score) and off of a scrum right in  front of Luongo . Scoring off the rush is a good thing , but it cannot be the only thing . Brenden Morrison’s goal was off of nastiness in close on Luongo . That is the way we must score more .

 Obviously , we miss Brenden Morrow for his ability to drop anchor in front of our opponent’s net , but we do have twenty other players who could do that as well . James Neal , Brian Sutherby and Landon Wilson seem to be the only players who have ever seemed interested in dropping anchor there , but even they do not do so often . For the life of me , I cannot figure out why they don’t . 

 Trying to win is all good and well , but it is the doing part that is killing our chances at making the playoffs . We must win . We must make it to the playoffs . We are not a team that should be excluded this season . We all have to play hard throughout the entire game and not just part of it . Each player must do their each individual jobs to the best of their abilities . 

 The good points in this game (and they were few) were that we had goals scored by players other than Mike Ribeiro , Steve Ott and whomever Tippett puts with them (whether it is Jere Lehtinen or Loui Eriksson) . Brenden Morrison and James Neal both scored . That is the “secondary scoring” that has become a primary need . We need more players to step up to do the same thing as those two are doing .

 We clearly out-shot the Canucks , but it was the quality of the shots that really made the difference on the scoreboard . Now I feel like we have come full circle back to how we attack the net .

 Despite all of the things that I feel we are doing incorrectly , I do still have hope for Our Dallas Stars . We are a good team . We can win .

Three On The Road , Dropped Like Rocks

 We went to Vancouver and lost . We went to Calgary , and lost . Then , we went to San Jose and lost again . I do not like “streaks” like this . 

 The game against Vancouver was winnable . The game in Calgary was definitely winnable . The game in San Jose was winnable …. for the first seven minutes but after that , it looked like we all quit playing . I understand being upset with losing games , but you cannot quit .

 We are missing players . Brad Richards has been in and back out of the line up and there is a long list of players that we all , now , know by heart who are out of our line up . Missing players is an excuse for losing as many games as we have , but it is a cop-out excuse at this point . We have been missing players all season and we still found ways to win .

 Our playoff window is closing quickly . We absolutely must start winning again . It has been theorized that if we are going to make it to the playoffs , we need eighty-nine points . We only have ten games in which to get those points . Right now , we only have seventy-four points . According to theories , we need fifteen points out of a possible twenty . Is it possible ? YES , but only if we refuse to play only a few minutes of a game and then give up when we take a penalty .

 We can do this . It will definitely not be easy . Every team is now fighting for a place in the playoffs . We have to play our best and never give up . We are a good team , and we have to play like it .

 I still have faith in our team . We have to make it to the playoffs . It would be the first time since the move from Minnesota that Our Dallas Stars have not made it to the playoffs if we did not . That will not , should not , and cannot happen . I have faith in Our Dallas Stars . You should , too .