Dallas Stars Vs Detroit Red Wings Preview

As a Dallas Stars fan for many years and an Eddie Belfour fan for my whole life, I have nothing but contempt for the Red Wings. My contempt for them caused me to hate Derian Hatcher and Brett Hull, two of the most important pieces of the ‘99 Cup run. I could write prose on just my pure hatred for the Red Wings, but you have to respect them. They aren’t dirty, by hockey standards, they aren’t too pretty, they just play the game the right way, and they are very good at it. 3 Cups in the last 12 years should tell you all you need to know. They have been the best team in the NHL from the beginning to the end this year. If that does not sound ominous enough, historically they own the Stars. The Stars have never beaten the Red Wings in a playoff series. All of that means nothing because hockey, more than any other sport, a seven game series any team can beat anybody. Marty Turco is 2-10-5 for his career against the Red Wings… (wow).

This Stars team is different, Marty Turco is different. This Stars team can play with speed or with physicality. This Stars team plays with all the fire and heart of their captain. However, this Stars team has not played a team like Detroit in these playoffs. They are a true puck possession team, and in previous seasons we could not counteract that. Now we have three lines that can fore check and score, and 6 defensemen that can all skate and move the puck. Hell they have 8 defensemen who can do that. So here is the breakdown.

Offense: Red Wings, hands down they had one guy score more than an entire team last series (Franzen had 9 goals while the Avalanche had 8 ) and he is not on their first line. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are two of the top 10 players in all the league, in my opinion they are both top 5. They are the headliners of a team that scored the third most goals per game in the regular season.

Defense: Even, the First four of the Red Wings is marginally better than the Stars but at 6 deep it is even. Detroit allowed the fewest goals in the regular season and the Stars were sixth, but the Stars were without Zubov and Boucher for significant time this season. For Detroit Nick Lidstrum is widely regarded as the best defensemen in the NHL, and I won’t argue. Brian Rafalski is solid, and you better keep your head up when Niklas Kronwall is on the ice, he’s a headhunter.

Special Teams: They are very alike in how they do things, they have guys who can play pretty and dust the puck off (Ribeiro Modano Zubov, and Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrum) and the grit guys in front of the net (Holmstrom for the Red Wings and Morrow for the Stars) .

Goaltending: Stars, Turco has been just spectacular so far in these playoffs. However, his history against the Red Wings scare me. Osgood is good but has not really been tested in these playoffs. Unfortunately the way the Red Wings play negates one of Marty’s strengths, his puck play.

I am picking the Stars in seven because I believe in Morrow and Turco. No other reason, the Red Wings have the better team 5 on 5 on paper but the Stars have the better goalie and this Red Wings team has never won Lord Stanley’s Cup. The growth that the Stars have gone through in the playoffs, and the chemistry the Stars have right now make me think this series will come down to one game, in Detroit.

Stars Can’t Close Off to San Jose for Game 5

Stars lost tonight in a game that looked simply like the Sharks wanted it more, I do not really see this as a reason to be worried. I am in no way saying the Stars did not want to win the game, they wanted to win it but they had played three games in four nights and won the first two. Both teams came in to the game tired so the extra energy went on the side of the team with their backs to the wall. With all their pride carrying them, their coaches job on the line, and some of them their careers in San Jose, they came out faster and hungrier than the Stars. These are evenly matched teams and the bounces went the way of the team that earned them tonight.

Some thoughts, Turco was outstanding again, especially in the third period. He made some big time saves early in that period to give the Stars a chance but after 6 big time saves, he let one in. Still I have no complaints about Turco. I felt we did not test Nabokov nearly enough, he looked really shaky in San Jose and we only got 18 shots against him. As the Sturminator likes to say, “they dominated field position” however the reason why they did this was in the faceoff circle. It really seemed like the Sharks won all the big faceoffs tonight. The numbers were about even but when the Sharks needed to sustain pressure they won a lot of the big draws, while we did not especially on the powerplay. It seemed like they won a lot of the draws on both their penalty kill and ours.  That might have been where the presence of Stu Barnes would have been mostly missed.  Maybe he could have won a few draws on the penalty kill.  Hell he would have been the one on the ice instead of Toby Peterson on that last penalty kill where the Sharks took the decisive lead.  With all of that I still felt the real difference was the fact that they stayed out of the penalty box and we did not in the third period.

Secondly, I love Sergei and I will always bow down to his greatness but he was not good at all tonight, and I do not mean because he made that one mistake, I am ok with that mistake from Zubie. Hes like Flozelle Adams, you know Flozelle is going to false start one play a game but you accept that because he keeps Romo’s jersey clean at a pro bowl level. I felt Zubie was just slow tonight, he got beat alot on just flat out speed. Thats what worries me, he got beat in his first game back too, he took a hooking penalty in the first period of game 2 because he was slow and a guy flew right by him. However, if Tippet(who needs to bring back the mustache) plays him another 25 to 30 minutes on Friday I won’t complain. I will only critique how he plays because I trust Zubie to be on the ice. I want him on the ice.

On a positive note, I thought Niskanen has put together two back to back solid performances. He has not made any glaring errors in my account and he saved a goal on a wrap around in game 3 and he made the outlet pass that sprung Hagman that earned him his penalty shot.

I think the Stars will win game 5 because it will be close, the Stars will be as hungry as the Sharks and it will come down to the goaltenders. If it comes down to that I take Marty any day.

If anyone was still wondering why we traded for Brad Richards

Wow, thats all I can say after watching a team that in past years had to have everything go right for them in the playoffs to get results. They would always have excuses on why they could not come back on the road in the third period. Then they would blame the goaltender. This game is definitely a game that the Stars in the past 5 years would have lost.

The Sharks were dominating and as great as Turco was they took a 2-1 lead on a goal by Michalek. And the Stars, who had already accomplished their mission by winning game one could have just played the same way, hoped for a bounce to maybe give them a chance but just be happy with a split. But no, thirty seconds into the final stanza Brad Richards creates a steal and takes advantage of it by depositing a puck over the blocker of Evgeni Nabokov. Richards dominated the third period with three other assists and showed us all why he won the Conn Smythe trophy back in 2004.

One other thing to look at for those of us who think this series is going to be easy, the Sharks were actually a pretty average at home, as most teams are, but they were one of only two teams that won more games on the road than at home. The other was Phoenix but they did not win many at home. That worries me, plus so does the fact that the games are back to back, we need to win game 3 because a loss in game three and we have to play them the very next night. I do not know how big a factor that will be because its playoff hockey the momentum swings all the time. Plus, it really seems like this team welcomes adversity that is why we dominate the third period in these playoffs.

I say lets get greedy, let our three centers dominate and win game three, step on their throats.

Oh Captain My Captain, what a steal

This is playoff hockey, you rarely see teams win road games like the Stars did against the Ducks in round one, games are won by very close margins. In all evenly matched series the winning teams normally have their goalie steal a road game, at least one, and Marty picked a good time to steal it. Game one was about Marty, he kept the Stars in the game the whole night and the Stars took their chances. Marty still could be better but he stole this game. Marty seems to have established himself as something we do not need to worry about anymore. Hes gonna have some good games he will let in the occasional softie but I am no longer afraid having Turco as my goalie. To be honest that changed after the series against the Canucks, three shutouts in seven games should earn him the benefit of the doubt. Hes not Eddie, but then again Eddie’s name is on the cup no how drunk he is in Sweden right now.

Now a word for the man who I center my prediction of this series around. I don’t care what sport it is, how old he is Brenden Morrow can be my captain any time. He does all the things you want in a captain and more. Hes the first one in the corners to fight to get the puck back, he does not take stupid penalties, he is the first one down to block shots, he give up his body for the team, he plays at 100 percent no matter the score, and if you mess with one of our guys you have to answer to him, and he makes you pay. Oh and there’s this other small thing, he leads the team in goals. And he’s the guy who scores the big goals. He takes the pressure off of Modano and all the other big guns because they can look to him and whatever the team needs Morrow gets it for you.

Watching all the great captains of the NHL, and other sports, you have to put Brenden Morrow up there with Iginla, Mark Messier, Jason Varitek and well Jesus.

What a difference a year makes.

Speed, speed, and more speed normally how you would describe the opponents of the Dallas Stars in the last 5 or 6 seasons. The Stars have always been conservative, defensive and overly dependent on their goaltender. Tonight, against the cup champs, the Stars look like the red army from the 1980 Olympics. There is speed everywhere on this team even Turco is fast. We will get back to that later, but for the game tonight.

In my last post I talked about special teams and goaltending as the key to playoff success and it was no different tonight. Turco made timely saves and did not give up any softies. This game was not won in the net however it was won right in front of it. The Dallas Stars powerplay was dangerous again tonight with two more powerplay goals. But that did not win the game, the game was won at the beginning of the third period. After Morrow took a dumb penalty at the end of the second period, Modano gets called for a questionable trip, then Richards gets another trip. Six straight minutes of powerplay time for the Ducks. Six minutes for the cup champs having five guys on the ice while we have four. The Stars do what they do, the best penalty kill in the league was awesome, the Ducks were held scoreless. As it happens so often when the officials give a team a lot of power plays they are looking to at least give the other team one to even things up. Sure enough the Stars got a power play right after all their good work on the penalty kill.

The momentum had switched as so often does in the NHL often times the goal follows the change in momentum instead of being the change of momentum itself. The momentum was changed by the penalty kill and it was turned into a goal by Modano who unleashed his bazooka of a slap shot from the blue line, putting it shelf on the glove side on a screened Giguere who had already gone down to take down the higher percentage of the net. That momentum was turned into another goal 55 seconds later by Brad Richards but it was a play made by Joel Lundquist who took a hit from Mathieu Schnieder and made a pass to turn it into a 2 on 1 for Loui Erikson and Brad Richards and they made it count. The power play has to continue to produce and the penalty kill has to be good for us to keep winning.

Now for the make up of the team, last year I was saying this team was old slow and depended on Modano too much. I complained all we drafted were defense men and two way forwards not scorers. Well this year that worked out because Boucher and Zubov missed lots of time and we got to see all these draft picks play. They have been impressive, more than impressive considering their age. Now all of them are playing with a veteran, Nisky with Boucher, Grossman with Norstrom, and Daley, whose establised as a solid NHLer eventhough he is just 24, with Robidas. Grossman and Nisky have been immense we are rolling all three sets of defensemen and are not afraid to play the kids. All of the young guys are fast and now the defense is fast as well as physical which is a change from previous seasons outside of Zubie. The forwards can be best described in this fashion, Mike Modano is our third line center. Mike Modano, the all time US-born scorer, is our third line center, he is our defensive stopper, a side to his game he is not given enough credit for. This team now has speed all over the place, and guys scoring goals that are more than just crashing the net. Erikson for example who I believe will be a 40 goal scorer in this league one day is big fast and has great hands. Evidence is his goal in game one he takes a place skates to the slot and roofs a beautiful shot off the elbow of the posts. Hagman has speed, Richards and Modano are just mustard( to borrow an english football term) Erikson has it, and Ribeiro can absolutely fly. Ribeiro is the key to everything though, he puts everyone in there place. He is the point producer and everyone else knows it, and he delivers. That Morrow, Ribeiro, Lehtinen line is dominant. Hopefully this continues, go Stars, go Turco, go Playoff beards.

What A Start

A long run in the playoffs, especially in Stars history, is carried by two things, special teams and goaltending. The Stars get both tonight and get them in spectacular fashion. This game was 4-0 and the score was nice to the Ducks, the Stars had many more quality chances to score that they squandered than the Ducks did. The powerplay was spectacular and Turco was very good when he needed to be, like at the beginning of the game. Turco has 4 shutouts in his last 7 playoff games, I expect him to be solid and not revert back to the old Turco, the one who blinked first, and the one who did not make the save that keeps the momentum on the Stars’ side.

On that note, after the Stars had taken the momentum completely there were a few opportunities where the Ducks had the pendulum of momentum ready to swing the other way. They stopped the momentum and had it swinging the other way and there was 35 ready to repel it and send it the other way. The first one was after the Stars went up 3-0 and the Ducks came back strong and got a great chance that Turco stoned a Duck in front of the net off a rebound, the puck then flutters up in the air and in previous years that goes in but Turco got to it somehow. The puck then is sitting on the ice waiting to be shot at a sprawling Turco and someone is on the ice, giving up his body, getting pounded by fists and sticks alike. Its our captain our leading goal scorer. The second time was with the Stars up 4-0 and the game should be over, but in the new NHL no lead is safe and Brad Richards, who played very well, decides to dangle in front of the net and made a nice move putting the puck between his legs but Chris Kunitz was there to lift his stick and get a one on one with Turco and Turco repelled that shot, very calmly as well, and the game goes on and it goes unnoticed.

The powerplay was great thats all that needs to be said there, tho some of it looked like the Ducks cared more about sending a physical message than playing the puck tonight. As the series moves on there is one thing I can tell you, Gigure will play well enough to steal a game by himself at one point if not a few games and Turco must match him. Another is that the Ducks will not stop hitting and we will see if it wears on the Stars. In previous years I would say that the Stars were not equipped for that but now the Stars have three lines to withstand that kind of pressure. This will be a tough series, Stars in six. Blackout in games three and four hope everyone does it , it would look cool. One more thing all you stars fans… PLAYOFF BEARDS, it has to be done, no questions asks if you’re girlfriend complains she shouldn’t be talking anyway its playoff time.

One more thing Dirk is money at all times, hes William Wallace, hes Mark Messier and hes got way to much heart to let us go one and done this year.