Finally A Win At Home

 FINALLY ! 

 I was beginning to wonder who was supposed to play better in Our arena , us or our opponents . We have not done well very often in our own home .

 I am very happy about beating the Canucks . It is not that they are the greatest team out there , but it is important to win at home . We have not been doing that much . My theory on that is that I do not think we make it as hard to play in the AAC as we should . I do not mean just the players , either . We , as fans , need to cheer for Our team when we go out to the games . I am sure that the players do not like to play in an arena full of people who think they are watching golf . We , fans , need to do our part .

 The game showed that we really wanted to score . Everybody shot the puck at the net . We had a multitude of chances to score . Schnieder(their back-up goalie to their back-up goalie) played like a possessed man . Every one of our players had shots on goal . Without James Neal playing due to a groin injury , somebody had to pick up the slack .

 We played well despite the final score being only two to one . There were times that we positively owned the game and then there were times that all we seemed to do was chase . Even when we were chasing we did not do so foolishly . We all played smart . Only once did we allow the Canucks too much time and space and that was the time that they scored on us . 

 MY STARS of the game ;
 1. Marty Turco – He allowed only one goal and helped the rest of the team to beat the fore-check often . That is an enormous help since we have been struggling to exit our zone a little too often this season . 
 2. Brad Richards – He has been , by far , our best player in so many games this far in the season . He looks like he finally feels at home here in Dallas .
 3. Karlis Skrastins – He has done nothing but good things this season and is our only defenseman who has not taken a penalty this season . He plays smartly and out works most all of his opponents .

 Oh, and before I forget , the league admitted that the call in the game against the Flames that resulted in the game winning goal for the Flames was a bad call . I know it is cold comfort to know that even the league thinks that the game should not have been won like that but for them to admit that it was wrong is at least a step in the right direction . We just all have to hope that the league will do better with their officiating crews in the future .

One Of The Worst Ways To Lose A Game

 Ralph Strangis said it best when he said , ” Horrendous way to lose the game ” . I have to totally agree . In case you missed the game live or on a broadcast , the game went into overtime and the Flames (remember that the “F” is silent) scored as soon as they had a powerplay . The powerplay was brought on from a call of delay of game . Grossman tried to clear the puck with his skates on the blueline (the puck never crossed into Our zone) and he shot the puck and it appeared to have gone off a Flames player and into the stands . The refs called that delay of game . I still cannot figure out how . The puck was never even in Our zone and it went off of Our opponents’ stick . Oh well . No use in complaining about bad calls . They tend to stand .

 We would have won if we had capitalized on any of Our powerplays . Unfortunately , we did not get any goals - not even from the lengthy five on three powerplay that we were awarded . We must score on the powerplay . If we had scored on any of the many that we had , there would never have been that last second game tying goal to send it to overtime .

 All of Our players played well from the beginning to the end , we simply did not score enough . We were good with the puck and we were good without the puck .

Usually , I award MY STARS of the game but this time I will simply mention all the players who played outstanding . Skrastins , Neal , Eriksson , Richards , Wandell , Morrow , Lehtinen and Benn all stood out of the rest of the group . 

 In this game , we had minimal problems exiting Our own zone due to the fact that Our forwards would come back to help (well , that and Marty is always a great help in killing off Our opponent’s forecheck) .

 We did not have much problem throwing the puck at the net but retrieving rebounds was an issue for most of the game . ” One and done ” does not usually mean a win at the end of the night .

 Our only real problem was putting the puck into the net . Our players did get frustrated because they wanted to score more , but that allowed too many odd-man rushes against us . Thankfully , Marty answered almost all shots with a definitive “no” .

 I must apologize for my lack of blogging for the last few games . I injured my shoulder recently and with the painkillers they gave me , all I could really do was drool on the keyboard . Nobody likes a soggy keyboard – especially not my wife .

 On another note , I did manage to go out to watch Our Stars practice in Frisco today . I always enjoy going out to practices . I love meeting new people with “hockey sense” . I was very pleased to meet a nice lady (remember I do not use people’s names in my blogs unless I ask permission) today out there as well as Brent Severyn . He is a very cordial individual . I enjoyed his relaxed attitude and how he did not mind talking to just ordinary fans .

 While I was out at the practice , I had Richards , Marty , Modano and Ott sign a jersey for an “out of town” friend . He should be happy . He now has the whole team’s signature on the sweater .

  It is just a shame that Crawford has not met the lady I met today . She knows how to fix the powerplay issues that we seem to be suffering from .

Ott Suspended Again But We Still Win….Barely

 As you know , Steve Ott was again suspended for a hit . The hit he was suspended for was just a normal hip check . Unfortunately , Artyukin just decided to jump when he saw Ott coming in on him . That was what really made him land on his neck and made it look like Ott tried to kill him . The reality of it was that Ott tried to make a hip check and instead of Artyukin taking the hip check and just crashing into Steve Ott , Artyukin decided to get cute and try to jump over him . Why ? It does not matter . The fact remains that Steve Ott has been suspended before so from now on , he will be treated like a criminal . It is truly shameful but unfortunately there is nothing that the average hockey fan like you or I can do about it .

 On to the game against the Leafs ;

 This game was best summed up by Razor when he said , “If this game was being played in the backyard , I would close the curtains .” I do not think I could have said it better myself  . This was an ugly game .

 We did not seem like we wanted to play when the puck first dropped . The Leafs were running us over . Many of our players decided that skating standing up was the way they wanted to “play” . If you skate while you are standing , your stick does not touch the ice .

 I am still upset at the lack of effort put forth by most of our players . All to often , Marty was left to his own devices . He is a great goalie , but nobody can make every single save when your defensemen are just standing around in front of you . They make better doors than windows .

 We may have won this game but I am obviously less than pleased about how we won . We played a team with the worst record in the entire NHL and we still had to go to an overtime period to win the game . That is despicable . We are better than that . We need to play like we are better than that because we are . 

 MY STARS of the game ;

 1. Brad Richards – He was one of the few players who showed up to play from the start of the game and it showed on the scoreboard .
 2. James Neal – He always shows up to play . I love how he always wants to shoot . Oddly , I think that getting pucks on net is what Crawford has been preaching since he arrived here in Dallas .
 3. Marty Turco – While he was not spectacular and he may have allowed a few too many goals , he did well when he was hung out to dry . He made some tremendous saves when he was playing when few other players seemed to want to play . He kept us in the game when the rest of the team did not seem interested in being in the game at all .

 There were a couple of other players like Robidas and Morrow who played the entire game but not many . Ribeiro may have earned the first star at the AAC but I do not feel like he played the entire game . 

 Everybody needs to play from the first drop of the puck and not play catch up for an entire game . If you recall , we tried to play catch up in the standings last season and we all remember how that went .

I Get Well And We Get A Win !

 Funny how that seems to be connected , huh ? Yeah , I finally beat that oh so terrifying H1N1 garbage (after five days of suffering) and Our Stars win . It is just too much of a coincidence .
 
 Before the game , I was talking about different players and my wife decided she loves to say “Tkachuk” and “Afinogenov” . For half the game she was chanting , ” Tkachuk , Tkachuk , Tkachuk ” and not because she liked the player , but because she said it made her sound like a train . Anyway ……..

 We all knew that Modano and Lehtinen were going to be out for this game (they did not even make the trip) . Seeing that Niskanen was out was kind of upsetting , but not a shock . That was a vicious slew foot that Artyukin put on him . Even missing those three guys , Our team still did excellent .

 The first period pretty much started out with Barch and King fighting . Barch certainly got better than he gave , but oddly King did not come back for the rest of the game (kind of makes you re-evaluate who really won the fight) . The Blues were spending a lot of time in their own zone right from the start . Robidas was called for holding the stick , but the resulting powerplay from the Blues was no real threat to us . A little later , Mike Ribeiro beat Ty Conklin but hit the post instead of the net . Sutherby and Winchester had a go , but despite the fact that Winchester threw more punches , very few landed . Late in the period , Loui Eriksson was called for a highstick . While the powerplay was scary , the Blues still could not score . Of course , Karlis Skrastins blocking two consecutive shots right in the faceguard probably helped to keep things scoreless . This period was very good hockey despite the enormous amount of turnovers by both teams . The odd-man rushes against us occurred far too often . Even with more than the occasional odd-man rush , we still defended well . When we did not defend well , Marty stood tall and refused to allow anything past him .

 The second period started with the Blues still on  the powerplay for very few seconds . The exceptionally brief powerplay had little to no effect on the free-wheeling hockey that followed . After Our Stars had had enough , Marty passed the puck to James Neal who took the line . He then passed it to Richards and continued his drive to the net . Richards saw Neal sneak to an open spot on the ice and he buried the puck quickly in the back of the net . Marty’s pass beat the three Blues forwards . That allowed Neal to get open . Shortly after that , Ott went in for a hip check on Colaiacovo . Colaiacovo jumped up for whatever reason and the hipcheck looked worse than it would have been . Ott did not mean for that fool to land on the back of his neck . Unfortunately , he did and that brought out everybody and they  all wanted some of poor , innocent Steve Ott . Both Ott and Fistric sat for two minutes and Tkachuk sat for a double minor . Late in the first powerplay , Richards spotted Eriksson after he spun out a defender and faked out the others with a fake shot and Eriksson buried it . The rest of the period was pretty much a Conga line to the penalty boxes . The Blues were the ones who took the vast majority of the penalties . There was boarding , crosschecking , slashing and I am sure a few other penalties (both real and imagined) thrown in . There were so many that it was hard to figure out exactly what was going on . Either way , we won this period . I was pleased with our play . We did not give up anything that hurt us despite a few frightening moments .

 The third period went smoothly along until Robidas was mauled in the corner . After the two billion penalties called in the second , the refs failed to call the crosscheck(s) that he received . They did not miss the weak hook that The Cap’n was penalized for . Marty pretty well killed off the entire powerplay by himself . He would catch the puck behind the net and casually toss it all the way down the ice . Almost as soon as the powerplay ended , Ott drove hard and fast into the Blues’ zone , passed it off to Brunnstrom who was also driving the net . He took his shot , was denied and was plowed by two Blues players . The Blues missed coverage on Tom Wandell who picked up the rebound and tossed it in rather easily . Immediately after the brief celebration (and checking to make sure Brunnstrom knew where he was) , Grossman took a shot that hit the pipe . A short time later , Tkachuk was called for crosschecking Wandell in the back and into the boards . The resulting powerplay looked more like a Blues powerplay and Marty had to make some huge saves . After the powerplay ended , Brian Sutherby proved that not every Stars player was done playing and stole the puck at center ice . He promptly put the puck past Ty Conklin . Cam Janssen got all bent out of shape and took a run at Jeff Woywitka . Janssen promptly took a four-minute personal timeout . Brunnstrom took a hooking call that negated half of the powerplay that we were not doing that much on anyway . With a little over four minutes left in the game , we all started standing around instead of skating . Then , with three minutes and fifty seconds left , Pietrangelo took a shot that Woywitka decided to play goalie on . Unfortunately , Marty would have had it in his glove had Woywitka not deflected it up and over Marty’s glove . In the final two minutes , Ott had a knee on knee hit with B.J. Crombeen . Crombeen took exception to it and both of them got five for fighting but Crombeen took the instigator .

 This was over all a good game . The only thing that would have made it a great game would have been if we did not simply slack off with our defense in the final four minutes . Yes , we did keep them from scoring more than one , but it should have been a shutout . When we get standing and too comfortable , we can still lose the game even with four minutes left . It happened with the Kings , remember ?

 What did go right was that we all played – and we all played smart . Nobody became so fouled up that they could not be helped out by their teammate . Everybody did their jobs .

 We moved the puck well especially out of our own zone . The issues that we struggled with against the Kings were not present . We need to continue the puck support that we had in this game .

 MY STARS of the game ;
 1. Marty Turco – I know that he was named the first Star by the folks up there but , who can argue with his performance . The only mistake he made was ……. um….. um……. not clearing Woywitka out from in front of him ?
 2. Loui Eriksson – He also earned the same Star of the game at the St. Louis arena but I am giving to him anyway . He earns this for the way he tracked the puck . He did so well that he reminded me a lot of my favorite player . The goal that he scored was just the icing on the cake .
 3. Brad Richards – He literally made two of the goals possible . I know assists are not the same as goals , but he was the one who made them both possible . He saw the ice very well . I think he is finally back on his “A” game and I am glad .

 Honourable mentions ; 
 James Neal – He always brings his “A” game . His goal was a result of that awesome shot he has .
 Brenden Morrow – He never gave up playing the puck – even when he probably should have .
 Brian Sutherby -  Are you kidding ? That steal at center ice and then the blast into the net was great to watch . I loved it .
 Alex Auld – He made a save on the bench . If he had not made that save , one of  the training staff or equipment staff guys would have taken that puck right in his head . This is a first for me . I have never given any award to a player who did not skate in the game .

 I know our record of 7-2-4 is not as good as a 9-2-0 record but , I would rather have OUR record and OUR players than that whiner Crosby . Ovechkin is better anyway but we will never be able to sign either so it does not really matter which is better .

Sorry

 I am very sorry I have missed blogging for you for the past two games . I have been diagnosed with H1N1 and a severe sinus infection . I will be out of circulation for at least a few days . I promise to return to blogging as soon as humanly possible .

 Thank you for your patience ,
                                                         Adam

A Shutout ? At Home ?

 We started the game missing Lehtinen , Ott and Modano . Not exactly what I would call encouraging .

 The first period started with Bergeron being called for a highstick on The Cap’n . The following powerplay looked decent but we could not score . Ribeiro took a highsticking call and our miserable penalty killing percentage picked right back up when a pass deflected off Robidas and Marty and into the net .

 The second period started with Our Stars showing some life , but it faded quickly . Nick Grossman took a shot right in the face . The poor guy was pouring blood even before he made it to the bench . After he left the ice the Bruins , again , scored . This time it was right off another lost faceoff in our zone . A little later , The Cap’n and Ribs had a long shift in their own zone and Savard scored . Neal , Richards , Daley and Eriksson had our first extended stay in the Bruins’ zone with some excellent shots on goal . With a minute left in the second , the Bruins were called for tripping . On that half of the so called powerplay , we gave up three shots in tight on Marty .

 The third period started out with a minute left on the powerplay that was badly botched up at the end of the second . The Bruins easily killed the remaining minute . Much later , the Bruins were called for holding . On the resulting powerplay , we had our second sustained attack of the entire game on the Bruins . With Toby Petersen on the point , Neal , Richards , Niskanen and Eriksson had some fabulous chances but Thomas kept them out . Aaron Gagnon had a great chance to score in the final seconds but just could not pull it off .

 This was a very frustrating game to watch . I hate to watch Our Stars lose but this was just like being tortured . 
 
 At first I thought we were off to a slow start but , as the game progressed , I realized we were not going to start playing any time during this game . Most of our players were skating standing up when they were skating – and then a lot of that time they did not sem to want to get the puck or even get near it . Standing around seemed to be the theme for the game for us . It was almost like we were playing a road game and checking out all the other things to do in town instead of playing hockey . 

 We displayed a complete lack of interest in the puck . There was no puck pursuit . Lazy passes and turnovers plagued us . When there were loose pucks , for whatever reason , we were not the first ones to the puck even when we should have been . Very few players on our team seemed to want to touch the puck .

 We lost in the faceoff circle (the final statistics ended up with us being fourty-two percent) far too often . I do not know how we managed to get the percentage up to fourty-two because it sure seemed like we lost three out of every four .

 We were way out hit . The final statistics said hits were thirty-seven to thirty-one , but it sure did seem like we were being plowed far more often . At the end of the first we were being out hit twenty to nine . The hitting means that we never had our forecheck going or our backchecking rolling either . 

 Offensive pressure . We had only two one minute episodes of this in the entire sixty minute game . If we had an offensive opportunity , we were one shot and out . If the Bruins had an opportunity , its was one , two , three and maybe a few more then , much later we might be able to clear the puck . The Bruins were afforded plenty of time in our zone while often times we could not even get out to our own blueline . We only really tested Tim Thomas twice . It was no wonder we did not score against him .

 We had trouble performing even the simplest exits from our own zone . One Bruins’ player was enough to cause all kinds of problems for our defensemen trying to make it to center ice . Often a forward had to come back to help beat out one single opposing player when we had three players attempting to exit the zone . Their forecheck killed us , but , that goes right back to the hitting .

 We lost this game because there were very few Stars players interested in actually playing . We simply did not play all the way through the line up . We were steamrolled . I would not be so upset about this loss had it appeared that we actually wanted to play . It looked like most all of our players decided that it was going to be a hard game to play so they gave up .

 MY STAR of the game ;
 1. James Neal – He was playing in the first period when nobody else seemed interested in even getting started . He kept playing hard all the way through the game . 
 The other players only showed occasional sparks of life . Richards , Sutherby , Petersen , Barch , Robidas , Eriksson and The Cap’n were the few players who showed some life , but not all the time .
 Marty did alright , but it was clear that he was not seeing the ice anywhere near the way he did against the Preds .

 Mike Ribeiro on the other hand, he gets a red dot for his lack of performance and skating standing up the entire game (if you have children you will understand the red dot) .

 Let us all hope that we do a whole lot better tonight against the Chicago Chickenhawks . I just hope that we at least come to play .

THANK YOU RAZOR !

 What a great gift !

 In case you did not know (if you did not , you were one of the few on the planet) Razor Reaugh guaranteed a win against the Predators on opening night . That did not quite work out . I had tickets (thanks to my sister and her husband – I do not use names on my blog) to opening night , but then , thanks to Razor , I exchanged them for tickets for the second home game of the season against the Preds .

 So I showed up with my sister to the second game , and we roamed around the AAC because it was her first time there and her first hockey game EVER . We happened to be walking past one of The Stars’ tables that they set up on the concourse when a man came up to my sister and I and asked if we wanted to play musical chairs during the first intermission . I was excited and my poor sister was scared to do it . I convinced her to play . We went up to our seats and had a great time watching Our Stars rack up three goals before we had to head down to get ready to play the game . We were taken underneath the stands and past a very nice V.I.P. room and into an equipment room where  we put on very well used hockey pads and helmets . After we were dressed in well used hand me down hockey gear (that was way too small for a man who is six foot two) , we were escorted over to the Zamboni door where we arrived just in time to see the fourth goal of the period being scored (It was awesome to be on the same level as the players during the game). We went out to play musical chairs and my sister and I were the first to be put out of the game . It was really no big deal since all we were playing for was an EA NHL 2009-10 for the Wii – and I do not have a Wii – and don’t want one (ask why some other time). It was just great to be able to go where we did – especially since we were on the ice at the same time as Our Dallas Stars ! WOOT !!

 The game itself was fantastic . Four goals in the first period , one goal in both of the second and third periods and no goals for Trashville . The Cap’n scored twice (and almost a third time) and Loui Eriksson scored twice as well . Jamie Benn and Mike Ribeiro had two assists each while James Neal had three assists . Brad Richards had a goal and two assists . Toby Petersen got a goal and Jere Lehtinen and Karlis Skrastins both had one assist each . Stephane Robidas ended the game at a +8 and Nick Grossman is leading the league with a +10 . Of course Marty Turco stopped twenty-nine of twenty-nine shots and posted his thirty-seventh career shutout . I never lost faith in him . I did say he was getting older for a hockey player , but the shutout proves that he still does have plenty of gas left in the tank .

 Most importantly , we got the full two points and we killed off all four powerplays that the Preds had . Our penalty killing was getting pretty bad . I am very pleased that we repaired the problem . We really did a good job keeping the Preds out of our end whether it was on their powerplay or not . This is how we should play every night .

 I normally pick MY STARS of the game but , this time , everybody played so well as a team that singling out the forwards , defensemen or Marty just would not be fair . 
1. I award this to the entire team for playing like a team and for everybody doing their job correctly . This was truly a team win . I am very proud of Our Dallas Stars . 
 2. The second star , I give to the fans who chanted ”Marty , Marty” when he made great saves and when the game was ending . 
3. I give this award to my wife for staying home with my daughters and letting my sister and I go out to watch the game .

 The following morning after the game , I woke up , got my daughters ready for school , sent them on their way and then went out to watch Our Stars practice (this time in Farmer’s Branch-which is not my favorite facility). I had a great time . I met a couple of lovely ladies who were big Stars fans , one lady was from Canada and the other lady lives close by me . I also met a fellow who showed me his driver’s license to prove that his name included Brenden Morrow in it (his first name was different). He was not young enough to be named for The Cap’n , it was just a pretty cool coincidence . He said that he also wore number 45 when he was playing hockey and when The Cap’n first came to Dallas . Obviously , The Cap’n is his favorite player . 

 Players who did not show up to the practice were ; Jere Lehtinen , Brad Richards , Mike Modano and Steve Ott . Ott and Modano are still injured but no explanation was given why Richards and Lehtinen did not practice .

 Before the practice started , I thanked every player for the excellent game the night before . I thanked Marty for his incredible play and I thanked Coach Crawford as well . Mr. Crawford was actually pretty funny . He said ,” Don’t thank me , I didn’t score any goals or block any shots .”  We (the fans all around clamouring for autographs) still thanked him and told him we were happy he was here .

 I know that this blog is not my normal “all about the game blog” but sometimes , I get so caught up in what has happened to me during a game and I get so much more excited when we blow out our opponents that my ADD and ADHD tendencies rise to the surface . Thank you for bearing with me .

 Oh yeah , and if you have The Dish Network , switch . They have decided not to carry over twenty of Our Stars games that they have access to . Direct TV will be carrying those game . If you switch , you will miss the six games on the Versus channel , but if you do not , you miss over twenty from the jerks at Dish network who flat out lied to me saying that other providers would also be blacked out . That is NOT true . Our Stars website has all of the games listed that Dish – AND ONLY DISH - has decided not to carry . Most other providers are going to carry all of the FSN games . Good luck with your provider .

Another Shootout Loss …. Really ?

 This is getting old and it is only four games in to the season . In my first blog of the season , I think I said that a shootout loss was alright as long as it did not become a trend . Well , guess what ? Three shootout losses is a trend and now it is definitely not okay .

 I am going to change things up this time from my usual blogging style so just bear with me . 

 I am going to give out MY STARS of the game first instead of last .
1. Brad Richards – He played very well and his smart sneaky goal he put in behind Luongo earned him his spot here . Not many players would have been aware enough or confident enough to have even tried that move .
2. Mike Ribeiro , Brenden Morrow and Jamie Benn – All three of them played well . The Cap’n had two assists and Ribs and Benn both had goals . Of course that was not all they contributed . Benn was great in front of his hometown audience . Ribs did pretty well on the dot . The Cap’n gave the Canucks plenty of trouble everywhere he could .
 3. Stephane Robidas – After taking a giant cut on his chin and still coming back onto the ice to finish the game AND he played well , he deserves at least this if not more . Robi never gives less than 100% even if his jersey is covered in blood when the game is finished .  

I was pleased that Jere Lehtinen was in the line up for the first time this season . He made a difference but , like Craig Ludwig said in the telecast , he cannot solve all Our problems . Other players need take a cue from the three time Selke Trophy winner and be a little more conscientious about stick and body positioning . We might be a little better on the penalty kill . Which leads right into …..

 Our penalty kill is absolutely terrible . Not like I am telling you anything you do not know , but it is a very frustrating thing to see OUR team struggle with . The troubles on the penalty kills really start with all of our players’ sticks’ positions . We are not blocking passing lanes often enough . That follows right into being in the right place at the right time , body positioning . The goals scored against us were when we were out of position , scrambling like mad to try to cover somebody who easily slipped away from coverage . Sometimes it can even be something as simple as the opposing player got his stick free for just the one second that it took for him to score on us . We absolutely must be better on the penalty kill . I have no doubts that we will get better but right now I am very frustrated with the penalty kill . Which follows right into …….

 Our best penalty killer must be the goaltender (Razor always says so) . Recently Our goaltenders have not been the best player on the penalty kill . That goes for BOTH Auld and Turco . Marty just looks bad because of the doubt that has been cast on him from last season that nobody has still given him a break on . He has not done worse , the team in front of him has not been doing their respective jobs as well as they should have . That is one part of it . The other part of the equation is that when we won with Auld in net , the Flames were fairly worn out from the game before – not really an excuse for a team to lose , but it does have an effect on players and their abilities , about that , there can be no doubt . I do think Marty is not seeing the ice as well as he used to when he used to post shutouts all the time or simply allow one goal a game . I also think that he will be better . Don’t count him out yet . 

 Another thing that frustrated me is that we allowed easy entry into Our zone far too often . We worked hard to get anything going in the Canucks’ zone while they never seemed to have any problems coming into Our zone . They ran over us while we kept fighting for every inch of space . I am not saying we did not force them out of Our zone in an orderly fashion (most of the time) , but it was the entry that seemed to be too easily accomplished . It seemed that four of their five players would always meet us at their blueline no matter where they were mere seconds before that . We need to have that kind of puck support all the time .

 I need to do something now that I normally do not do and something that I really frown on . I have to complain about the excellent job the officials did . (Before you start your lecture about how I know nothing about their job , step back and let me vent . I do not want nasty comments about this .) The referees allowed all kinds of penalties from the Canucks . Tripping , slashing , interference and hooking ran rampant and we all saw it passed off as good puck pursuit . I may make people angry with that , but it is true . Even Marc Crawford noticed that one of the refs seemed to be “overly friendly” with Luongo . I am not accusing anybody of throwing the game , I just do not think the game was called correctly . I do not know that even if the game would have been properly called that we would have won , but at least it would have been called properly . In all fairness , we could have been called for several more things as well . I just feel like the referees need to do their jobs correctly and that they did not do so in this game .

 We are a good team and we have good players . I want us to play like it . All the time , not just sometimes . I have faith in Our Stars , I know the season will get better and I look forward to every game . I do not know if you are going , but I am so looking forward to Wednesday’s game against Trashville . I got free tickets from Razor . I hope to see you there .

Our First Win Of The Season !

 Before the game started , we discovered that Mike Modano would not be back for probably any of the rest of the games in Canada due to a stray (or not so stray) stick in the ribs . We also found out that Jere Lehtinen would still not be playing due to his nagging injury . Then we discovered that Alex Auld would be the starting goaltender for the evening . Cool . I have been interested in seeing how he would do for us . I have noticed (and if you view my comments from the last blog) that people have been saying unpleasant things about Marty Turco . I feel no such doubts about him and will not say negative things about him . Last season he was simply overworked . He may be close to being old for a hockey player but he still has gas in the tank . 

  Game summary ;

 The first period started out with a bang when Mike Ribeiro scored his first goal of the season with a rebound goal a mere sixty-seven seconds in . When the Flames (please remember that the “F” is silent) finally got a decent attack together , Alex Auld came up with big saves . Unfortunately , Niskanen took a holding the stick penalty in an attempt to help Auld . The Flames powerplay was not terribly dangerous but Auld answered when he was needed . With less than eight minutes remaining in the period , Our Stars finally started hitting with feeling . Bowmeester took a penalty late in the period . Our Stars had great chances on the resulting powerplay but McElhinney made some huge saves . Our Stars took command of play and kept the pressure on for the remainder of the period . This period was fantastic . Everybody came to play right out of the gate . That is what we always need to do . Playing hard from the start is very important . Our Stars looked like the team that was 4-0-0 when the Flames looked like the 0-0-2 team . We may have gotten scrambling a few times but , we pretty well owned this period .

 The second period looked scary when the Flames came out hard but , Our Stars took over fairly quickly . Once Our Stars took control , Brian Sutherby scored his first goal of the season relatively soon after that . Things were going well until Steve Ott took an interference call and Dion Phaneuf scored right off of the faceoff . It seemed that Tom Wandell and Brad Richards took exception to that goal and they teamed up for a solid attack that (quite literally) netted Tom Wandell his first goal of the season . The Flames attacked back relatively hard but it was amplified by the miscues that Our Stars suffered . Our Stars came back and Richards , Eriksson and Ott all had fabulous attacks . Ott beat McElhinney but caught pipe instead of net . The Flames had a really solid attack at the end of the period , but they did not get anything done except for late hits on Grossman and Robidas . We played very good hockey in this period , so did the Flames for that matter . I still think we out played the Flames despite the fact that they scored once . 

 Jamie Benn drew a call relatively early in the third period but the resulting powerplay was not all that good . On a weird play , Brunnstrom scored but Ott was thrown in the box and the goal was waved off because Phaneuf tossed Ott into McElhinney on which the refs called goaltender interference . Whatever . Unfortunately , the penalty kill ended early when Bourque caught a rebound that Auld had no chance to stop . Lots of great hockey followed that . Then , a short time later , Richards spied a net driving Loui Eriksson who tapped the puck into the back of the net for his first goal of the season . A little later on , Benn took a tripping call (that Razor disagreed with)  . There were some interesting events during the penalty kill , but it still ended safely for us . With a mere 1:09 left in the game , McElhinney left his net unattended . Ott missed his shot from the blueline , but Richards who was a bit closer did not miss the empty net despite the defenseman standing in the crease . That pretty much ended the game .

 My Thoughts ;

 We all played right from the start . Nobody was along for the ride . That is what should happen every game .

 We won this game both on the ice and on the scoreboard . We out-worked and out-played the Flames and it showed .

 Our defensemen looked like the Stars that they are while the highly touted Flames defensemen made more than a few mistakes .

 I know that Our Stars were well rested and the Flames played and travelled the night before this game , but we played very well and we deserved to win .

A few players who , I felt , had a stand out game were Tom Wandell , Jamie Benn and James Neal . They did not run the table the whole game but , they all played at the top of their game . The best part is that they seem to be getting better .

 MY STARS of the game ;
 1. Alexander Auld – He played very well and allowed goals that were nearly impossible to stop . While he did well , I do not see him taking over the full-time job . I have a hard time thinking that the coaching staff will bench a five-million-dollar-a-year-player for the majority of the season . I was impressed with Auld and I am pleased that we have him to back up Marty . 
 2. All of Our forwards – They all played hard . Nobody really carried the game . They all played with intensity and drive . It was truly a team win .
 3. All Our defensemen – They too played solid . If one player messed up , there was always somebody there to help them out . It was that way from both forwards and defensemen . The only reason that the defensemen have the third Star is that only forwards scored .

 This was truly an excellent hockey game and not just because it was Our new coach’s and Our new G.M.’s first win . We won this game the right way . As a TEAM . I am proud of Our Dallas Stars .

Re-runs Are NOT My Favorite

 Especially when the results are a loss – shootout or not . Points maybe points and we do have two , but , I would rather have four points instead .
 Before the game , we all found out that the shot to the ribs from a stick from the previous game was going to keep Mike Modano from playing . We also discovered that Jere Lehtinen would still not be making his on-ice debut this season . I was not encouraged by this news . 

 Game recap ;

 The first period started out with plenty of turnovers and puck mishandling . Those two things resulted in the Oilers’ first powerplay . We actually looked good on it until Our defencemen forgot all about Mike Comrie who was camped out right in front of Marty . Unfortunately , he scored fairly easily . A very short time later , The Cap’n took a shot towards the goal that pinballed off an Oiler defenseman and the goalie and in for Our Stars’ first goal . Barch and Sheldon Souray looked like they wanted to fight but , all that really happened was Souray pretty much just tossed Barch to the ground repeatedly . After some improving play by Our Stars , Ribeiro was called for holding , but the cross check in the back that The Cap’n took went uncalled . The resulting penalty kill definitely had some scary parts to it but , thankfully , the Oilers were held off . Our Stars were rewarded with a powerplay a little later , but we were unable to get anything at all for our efforts . Grebeshkov crosschecked Tom Wandell in the back , head first into the boards . He was called for his transgression and received a single minor instead of the double minor that Razor (and I) thought he deserved .
 This period , we were not given any time or space with the puck . We could not seem to get any sustained pressure or any kind of momentum . It seemed like the only signs that we were alive came very late in the period on the powerplay . Slow starts to games were what plagued us last season , we do not need that again this season . Our faceoff win percentage was terrible in this period .

 The second period started with a mere forty-one seconds remaining on our powerplay . Ott and Stone fought a little later after Stone put a very late hit on Nick Grossman . Eriksson took a slashing call and Marty filled in Grebeshkov on the delayed call when Grebeshkov was standing in his crease . The penalty kill resulted in Marty Turco making a long pass down the ice an James Neal scoring a beautiful shorthanded goal . Sadly , though , the Oilers scored with about ten seconds left on that same powerplay . Horcoff was called for tripping Skrastins and after great attacks , Stephane Robidas scored from the point . Our pressure on the Oilers stayed solid until Dustin Penner beat Woywitka and then promptly put the puck past Marty . James Neal and Brad Richards had a great last second attack and Strangis and I both thought Richards scored when we saw the water bottle pop up , but unfortunately , the shot just hit the post hard enough to make it look like he scored .
 This second period was a lot like the home opener . We were playing better as the game progressed . Unfortunately , we were still not winning enough puck battles and still not dishing out enough hits . Our faceoff statistics remained in the toilet .

 The thrid period started with a four on three powerplay for us . The two off setting roughing minors from Stortini and Sutherby expired at the same time that The Cap’n scored for a second time . We continued to look good until Barch took a holding call . That penalty technically had ended but the Oilers managed to bounce a puck off of Grossman and past Marty to tie the game up again . The remainder of the period , Ott , Brunnstrom , and Wandell played great . Every time they took the ice , the Oilers seemed to back pedal . In the final seconds , The Cap’n almost won it when Khabibulin juggled his shot . Shamefully though , the puck stayed out of the goal .
 This period , we were better on puck hounding and it also seemed that some of our players finally woke up .
 The overtime period was very fast paced . Both teams certainly had their chances , but we had the better ones .
 Unfortunately Hemski scored the only shootout goal to send us away with one point instead of two .

 Overview ;

 This was a winnable game from the start . We just needed to get a better start instead of starting so slowly . We need to be ready to play from the first drop of the puck and I do not think we were .
 I felt like we turned over the puck far too often . Turn overs are what we are supposed to be forcing and creating not doing ourselves .
 The Oilers started out hitting and we came close to evening the number by the end of the game but we were still out-hit . That needs to change .
 Faceoffs . We may have evened out by the end of the game , but we were freakin’ horrible on the dot and we did lose quite a few of the earlier faceoffs .
 We did play well but I think this loss is because of work ethic . Few players were playing from the beginning to the end . We only seemed to be interested in playing at the end of the first and in the second . EVERYBODY needs to buy in from the start not just James Neal and The Cap’n .

 MY STARS of the game ;
 1. James Neal – Repeat performance ? I see good things in his future . If he can only get better , he will outshine everybody on the team .
2. The Cap’n - Brenden Morrow – With two goals and an assist he should have been a shoe-in for the first star except that he could not manage to motivate his line to get things going better . Other than that , he was great and I love to see him anchored in front of the net like he does so well .
 3. Carlis Skrastins and Stephane Robidas – They both played very well I am continually impressed with Skrastins and Robidas does what he always does and remains a consistent hitter and is always a scoring threat .
 4. Steve Ott – He would have been higher up on the list if he had shown that he was on the ice earlier the game . His line (with Wandell and Brunnstrom) ran things late in regulation . I really wanted to see a good hockey fight before this game started and he and Barch attempted to oblige me but I am still not satisfied with the results of either fight . Maybe he will do it for me again except maybe against the Flames (the “F” is silent) he will fight Iginla .

Oh, and by the way , if you had tickets to the home opener , Razor has agreed to get us new tickets because he guaranteed a win . For information go to http://blog.dallasstars.com/archives/2009/10/man_of_my_word.html . Try not to bankrupt poor Razor but do remember to look for me at the next Preds game , thanks to Razor , of course .

 Until next game ……