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Stargazing: Turco, Ott, Frustrate St. Louis Blues

Stargazing is a daily assortment of Dallas Stars  and Texas Stars news, and whatever other random ramblings are bouncing around inside our heads. Note: These posts are not intended to be in-depth analysis articles, but rather a gathering of news from around the internet on the Dallas Stars.

You can put me in the category of glass half-empty Stars fans that maintains they've still lost more games than they've won. Sorry, but they're still in need of consecutive wins, and I won't truly rest easy until they put a nice streak together.

With all of that said, I think that's a really, really nice win last night. The Blues, having destroyed Dallas last season, and having kicked us all in the groin to end the preseason, are a team I have a lot of respect for. Our very own Doug Armstrong is doing good things there, and St. Louis is a tough place for the Stars to play. Knowing that Dallas only has to go back there once more this year is nice.

The Stars now get three well earned days off, coming off a road trip that saw them collect five of a possible six points. Their next task is to figure out what that "home ice advantage" thing is they've heard so much about. The Leafs come to the AAC on Wednesday. Until then, enjoy this quality victory.

 

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Mike Heiks sums it all up:

Stars goalie Marty Turco had what he felt was his best game of the season, stopping 27 of 28 shots, including some breakaway chances. Richards was tremendous on a line with Loui Eriksson and James Neal, who each scored goals, and the Stars' depth players added goals on a Tom Wandell rebound and a Brian Sutherby unassisted breakaway.

"That was probably as well as we've played for 60 minutes so," Turco said. "We did a lot of things well."

Good goaltending, production from your best players, strong special teams, depth scoring (Sutherby, Wandell). They seemed to have it all last night.

After the jump, even more talk about the Ott shenanigans, and reaction to a solid Stars victory...

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From the St. Louis Today, Colaiacovo is rather unhappy with Mr. Steve Ott:

"There’s 18,000 people that will agree with me and say that was a dirty hit," Colaiacovo said. "Hopefully the league will take a look at it, and do what’s right."

Here’s what Dallas coach Marc Crawford had to say about the hit: "I don’t know . . . Colaiacovo . . . I don’t even remember that one. I’d have to look at that one. Earlier in the game, they got away with a lot . . . as usually happens, it ends up evening out as you go along. It was a hard game to referee tonight because there got to be a lot of emotion in it."

Brandon covered the Steve Ott "thing" earlier today, and it's already been talked about ad_nauseaum. Otter played a dangerous game last night, and now has to be ready to accept whatever punishment comes his way.

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Lost in the rubble that Steve Ott begot last night was the strong game of one Marty Turco. Mark Stepneski explains:

Saturday night there was a lot to like about the game. I thought they played a pretty good first period. They got outshot 10-8, but Marty Turco was excellent, they killed two St. Louis power plays and had some good chances that were turned away by Ty Conklin.

Marty Turco made a great pass to help set up the first goal by Neal and then the Blues seemed to come unglued after the Steve Ott hit on Carlo Colaiacovo, the Stars got a long power play and cashed in to make it a 2-0 game. The Blues, who had played the night before, were chasing a bit after that and the Stars were playing too well to be caught.

Say what you like about Auld, but the team seems more comfortable to me when Turco, their third d-man, is back there handling the puck. He led the league in assists from goaltenders last year and is well on his way to repeating that feat.

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Dallas Stars.com recaps some of that "depth-scoring" I mentioned earlier:

Up 2-0 after 40 minutes, the Stars increased their edge when Wandell scored his second of the year almost five minutes into the third. Steve Ott, who was at his agitating best once again throughout the contest, had his shot from the right circle blocked by St. Louis goalie Ty Conklin. Fabian Brunnstrom swatted the rebound into Conklin's pads before it ricocheted out to Wandell in the slot. Wandell promptly shoveled it home.

Sutherby made it 4-0 with his second of the season, scoring on a breakaway after stealing the puck away from former Stars forward Brad Winchester just outside the St. Louis blue line.

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St. Louis, looking for a positive from last night, can point to Alex Pietrangelo, who scored his first NHL goal.

Alex Pietrangelo looked pretty solid again tonight and both he and Erik Johnson showed an offensive penchant by carrying the puck deep to the net when the opprtunity presented itself. It's been a long time since we've seen such a talented defense here and these two could be really, really fun to watch in the coming years

Congratulations to the young man. It's a shame for him that it had to come under those circumstances.

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So what's next?

The Stars have three days off and then play four of the next five at home. They start out with three teams (Toronto, Florida and Nashville) who have three of the worst records in the league right now. They then start November with games against Calgary, Vancouver and Minnesota before taking four days off.

There is certainly the chance for failure there, but there is also the opportunity for success _ an opportunity that could put the Stars in a place where not many thought they could be.

By the way, is there any doubt that the Stars and Blues are in for three additional hotly contested games? The teams will next meet on November 25th in Dallas. The Blues crowd will have to wait until March 4th to seek their revenge, on what I'm calling "Steve Ott Voodoo Doll-Pincushion Night."

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I know this aint the right place, But...

Hey, I didnt know we had Brad playing with the Texas Stars….I wonder if he will get to have any play time with the Stars(Dallas).
http://www.texasstarshockey.com/stats/playerstats/

by k9mike on Oct 25, 2009 9:30 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

He's not actually part of the Stars system.

He’s just playing for Texas this year.

Defending Big D: A Dallas Stars blog on SBN: easy to use, free to join.

by Brandon Worley on Oct 25, 2009 10:25 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions   0 recs

?

What do you mean Brandon, on load? Who has the rights to him? I really like when Brad played for the stars. Could the stars call him up?

by k9mike on Oct 25, 2009 10:53 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

I believe

The Can’tnucks own his rights.

by Brad G on Oct 25, 2009 11:38 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

They do..

Brad would actually be playing with the Canucks this year if it wasn’t for the fact taht Vancouver is fairly deep on the blue line and the salary cap prevents Brad from being a part of the team unless someone goes down with a long term injury.

by Art_M on Oct 26, 2009 10:11 AM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Man....

Thats too bad. He would have been a great insurance player. Like it when he was on the team.

by k9mike on Oct 26, 2009 12:37 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Sure hope we win that game….Would kinda suck if we lose to his former team….lol

by k9mike on Oct 25, 2009 9:47 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

And no one really wants to be known as, “the first team to lose to Toronto.” :P

Dallas Stars 4 Life: Stars Blogging From Hockeyville, Iowa

by Brad_Richards_Rocks on Oct 26, 2009 12:16 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

Goal Differential Average

Dallas is currently at .73 a game, which is 5th in the league behind only Pittsburgh (.82), the Rangers (.91), Buffalo (1.13) and the big surprise, Colorado (+1.18).

Hopefully in the next two games they can increase their average. They should at least.

by agvdstars on Oct 26, 2009 12:33 PM CDT reply actions   0 recs

the numbers

indicate how many goals more they are averaging. for example, Toronto currently is at -2.50. Atrocious!

by agvdstars on Oct 26, 2009 12:34 PM CDT up reply actions   0 recs

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