OT Stars Hockey

[terpsfball09]

Check out goligoski! Everyone was hating on him, and yes, I was by far his biggest hater, but he's playing like our best D man with Dillon right now. And look at Connauton! He's playing like the big man he is too. And then Seguin is being Seguin. I will say, something worries me about this team. I read an article, and Mike Modano sort of said the same thing. We are a team with two top players. Seguin and Benn lead our team in points by like 30. Behind them, the drop off is huge. If smart, fast, good teams learn to shut Benn and Seguin down, who do we turn to? Especially in special teams situations. I don't know, maybe I'm just nitpicking here, but I feel like when playoffs times come, if we're in the playoffs, we could be in trouble because of this.

Then again, I don't really expect us to make it past the first round anyway. The playoffs this year is EXCEEDING our expectations IMO. Its not to win the cup, its to give these young guys experience. But I'd like to here what your thoughts are

 

[WilltheThrill]

Check out goligoski! Everyone was hating on him, and yes, I was by far his biggest hater, but he's playing like our best D man with Dillon right now. And look at Connauton! He's playing like the big man he is too. And then Seguin is being Seguin. I will say, something worries me about this team. I read an article, and Mike Modano sort of said the same thing. We are a team with two top players. Seguin and Benn lead our team in points by like 30. Behind them, the drop off is huge. If smart, fast, good teams learn to shut Benn and Seguin down, who do we turn to? Especially in special teams situations. I don't know, maybe I'm just nitpicking here, but I feel like when playoffs times come, if we're in the playoffs, we could be in trouble because of this.

Then again, I don't really expect us to make it past the first round anyway. The playoffs this year is EXCEEDING our expectations IMO. Its not to win the cup, its to give these young guys experience. But I'd like to here what your thoughts are

My thoughts are that we're slowly getting there but it's gonna be another year or two before we're ready to tangle with the big boys.

Lack of depth is absolutely a problem. The top line is as good as you will find in the NHL outside of Pittsburgh and Chicago. But the guys who make up the 2nd line, some combination of Whitney, Cole, Eakin, Chiasson, and Peverley, are more suited for 3rd line duty on a true top team. We need secondary scoring. The Cup team had Nieuwendyk and Langenbrunner to back up Modano-Hull-Lehtinen.

The defense is still a work in progress but getting better by the day. Goligoski has always had the talent. It's just a matter of confidence with him. Lately he's been much better. Dillon is legit. Connauton has been a pleasant surprise lately too. Even Jordie Benn has been better. Daley, Rome, and Gonchar won't be with the team in the future. The D corps will be: Goligoski-Dillon-Oleksiak-Nemeth-Gaunce-Connauton-Klingberg-Benn. That's possibly 8 deep on D, depending on how Klingberg and Gaunce turn out. Very, very solid.

Goaltending is the only area I'm worried about going forward. This year the duo of Lehtonen and Thomas is great. But 3 years from now when the team hopes to contend? Thomas will be retired and Kari will likely be elsewhere on the downside of his career. Who does that leave? Jack Campbell has not resembled the franchise goalie they thought they were drafting over Cam Fowler. He is a major question mark. Christopher Nilstorp has been hurt a lot and fairly inconsistent as well. They might have to get Kari's eventual replacement from free agency. Someone I think they should attempt to sign is Ben Scrivens of Edmonton. They just traded for him, but he's a soon-to-be free agent. I also like Bishop from Tampa Bay.

As for their chances this year, I think they could upset Anaheim in round 1 and also win against San Jose, Colorado, or Minnesota in Round 2. But if they run into Chicago, St.Louis, or Los Angeles in any round, I think they will be simply overmatched. I see those 3 teams as the best in the West (despite the current standings).

 

[terpsfball09]

I don't think Jack Campbell has had the opportunity to even make an impression in the nhl. The guy just turned 22 years old. Goalies often develop later than skill players anyway. Look around the nhl and you'll hardly find a starting goalie under the age of 27. Kari, Henrik, Luongo, Fleury, Hiller, Niemi, bishop, price, miller, crawford, and all the other best goalies are over 27. The only great one that comes to mind that's under is Varlamov from Colorado and tuuka from boston, and he turns 27 in like 3 days. I think Campbell will be just fine. I remember being worried about Turco at first, and look how he turned out.

I will agree that our second line is very worrisome. I wish we would've made a move that would've brought in a good young 2nd line center like Kadri. We have a whole offseason to worry about that though. This isn't a team that's gonna win a cup. I'm hoping that Nill can pull some more magic in a second offseason that's probably more talented than his first. Also, he should have more money to deal with. It's gonna be interesting.

 

[WilltheThrill]

I don't think Jack Campbell has had the opportunity to even make an impression in the nhl. The guy just turned 22 years old. Goalies often develop later than skill players anyway. Look around the nhl and you'll hardly find a starting goalie under the age of 27. Kari, Henrik, Luongo, Fleury, Hiller, Niemi, bishop, price, miller, crawford, and all the other best goalies are over 27. The only great one that comes to mind that's under is Varlamov from Colorado and tuuka from boston, and he turns 27 in like 3 days. I think Campbell will be just fine. I remember being worried about Turco at first, and look how he turned out.

I will agree that our second line is very worrisome. I wish we would've made a move that would've brought in a good young 2nd line center like Kadri. We have a whole offseason to worry about that though. This isn't a team that's gonna win a cup. I'm hoping that Nill can pull some more magic in a second offseason that's probably more talented than his first. Also, he should have more money to deal with. It's gonna be interesting.

Well, Campbell has just been very average to mediocre in every level of the minors since the Stars drafted him. Usually goalies show signs of improvement as they move up through the minors. Several scouts have commented that he hasn't shown the promise typical of a quality NHL goalie. Maybe he will blossom later on, maybe not. But I know he's nowhere close to ready to starting for a contender in the NHL. I saw him play live for the Stars in the preseason and he was quite bad. He gave up a lot of really soft goals, didn't control his rebounds, and was quite poor positionally. He's young so I wasn't expecting greatness. But he just looked far off from being a capable NHL goalie. I hope he proves the scouts wrong and the one outing I saw was just an anomaly.

 

[Bmurph]

Seguin and Gologoski were solid tonight from what i got to watch of the game

 

[The Commish]

Seguin and Gologoski were solid tonight from what i got to watch of the game

I think "solid" may be a bit of an understatement. Seguin had a hat trick and a couple assists.

 

[terpsfball09]

I think they said that was only the 3rd or 4th 5 point game in the NHL this entire season. Seguin is somethin else.

 

[terpsfball09]

Biggest night for the stars in years is tonight. Modano brought many sellout crowds in his prime, and it looks like we're gonna sell out one more time for mo

 

[Justinkm83]

Biggest night for the stars in years is tonight. Modano brought many sellout crowds in his prime, and it looks like we're gonna sell out one more time for mo

It's definitely electric in the building. I hope they can pull it out. The Caps came back form 2 down after 2 to beat PHX 3-2, so we got some help. If we could at least get a point we could separate a little.

 

[terpsfball09]

THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST AND MOST EXCITING GAME OF THE YEAR RIGHT NOW!

THIS is a hockey crowd. Getting flashbacks of reunion arena in our heyday. Seguin just scored the tyer. Minnesota is looking more and more like our sole rival. We need to pull a point out of this

 

[terpsfball09]

omg eric cole!!! He's played his ass off lately its nice to see it finally pay off on the stats sheet!

 

[RobToxin]

 

[The Commish]

Fun, fun game.

 

[Justinkm83]

Hell of a win. I wish I would've gone.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Awesome game, awesome night.

I seriously wish someone would paralyze Matt Cooke though. He has no business being anywhere near a hockey rink. He has been the dirtiest player the NHL has seen since Bryan Marchment back in the 90's. Supposedly Cooke is a "reformed" player who doesn't play dirty anymore. Then tonight he deliberately knee-to-knee hits Nichushkin. Ludwig said it best after the game- there's just no place in the game for that cheap kind of attempt to injure. The only thing that's going to stop Cooke from trying to injure other players is if someone does it to him and ends his career.

 

[RevSader]

Awesome game, awesome night.

I seriously wish someone would paralyze Matt Cooke though. He has no business being anywhere near a hockey rink. He has been the dirtiest player the NHL has seen since Bryan Marchment back in the 90's. Supposedly Cooke is a "reformed" player who doesn't play dirty anymore. Then tonight he deliberately knee-to-knee hits Nichushkin. Ludwig said it best after the game- there's just no place in the game for that cheap kind of attempt to injure. The only thing that's going to stop Cooke from trying to injure other players is if someone does it to him and ends his career.

Damn....I would expect that kind of talk from me.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Damn....I would expect that kind of talk from me.

Haha... yeah. Normally I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But Matt Cooke is as gutless and dirty as it gets. The whole hockey world hates him for good reason. He's made an entire career out of being a coward who intentionally tries to severely injure players by cheap-shotting, blindsiding, and slew-footing them. Dude needs to be put out of commission. His intentional knee-to-knee on Nichushkin tonight is as bush league as it gets. We're really lucky Nichushkin wasn't injured there. That kind of cheap shot can end a guy's career.

 

[Bmurph]

Hell of a win. I wish I would've gone.

A helluva comeback, the Cole goal was awesome to ice it. no pun

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Loved Modano. He was to the Stars what Dirk is to the Mavs. Both stand-up guys that you do not have to worry about what they are doing in their free time and are always ready at game time.

 

[terpsfball09]

I want everyone to please watch the video highlights on nhl.com. When the crowd starts counting down and then when regulation ends, the arena goes ballistic. I've never, in my life, heard AAC that loud. It really reminded me of the Miracle on Ice crowd when they were counting down. When Cole scored it was insane as well. That night was perfect. You really couldn't write it any better. I don't think I've seen an NHL game this entire season that rivals this one. Intense, fast, extremely hard hitting, and well played by both sides. Good rivalry.