Dallas Stars Daily Links: Brenden Morrow Returns To Form

by Erin Bolen on Dec 21, 2011 9:30 AM CST in Dallas Stars Daily Links

We were all so worried about Brenden Morrow.

And to be fair, there was every right to be a little concerned about the Dallas Stars captain for the start of the season. Sure, the stats were... alright, I guess. But he just didn't seem himself on the ice, particularly when it came to his mobility.

He's never been the quickest guy on any team. After all, his nickname in juniors was "Chunks" for a reason. But dealing with a combination of back, elbow and knee issues made him look like a player firmly on the downside of his career.

Not so much recently.

Since sitting out two weeks, Morrow has looked much more like the Morrow of old. He has a seven-game point streak, which, not coincidentally, is every game since returning from injured reserve. But more important, he passes the eye test now, just looking a lot more comfortable.

And it's not all in our heads.

"When he was sitting out this is what we wanted to transpire today – we’ve got a healthy captain back," Gulutzan said. "We kind of stumbled around without him and in the beginning he wasn’t playing full capacity, he was 70 percent. To have him back and playing his game has been a huge lift for our group."

This is such a storyline, it's featured on both main outlets that cover the Stars today, here on ESPN Dallas and here in a paywalled story on DallasNews.com.

After the jump, more on tonight's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, a Dallas-area prospect goes down and please oh please let Patrick Roy become the next coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

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Also impressed with Morrow's recent resurgence are the fine fantasy hockey folks employed by the league. [NHL.com]
Mike Heika gives his take on one of the more awesome moments from the win over the Anaheim Ducks - the always fun and sometimes surprising physical play from Mike Ribeiro. [DallasNews.com]
Stars prospect Austin Smith was in town for Monday's highly amusing win over the Ducks, and Mark Stepneski caught up with him to get the latest happenings at Colgate. [ESPN Dallas]
Brandon gave you a nice update on the Stars prospects on Tuesday, and these guys give you a primer on which prospects to watch at the upcoming World Junior Championships. [The Hockey Writers]
I was all set to give you fun profiles of Seth Jones, son of former Dallas Maverick Popeye Jones who is one of the top draft prospects. But alas, this Tweet caught my eye instead. [Twitter]
This collection of notes is nominally on here because it brings up the Jim Lites quote about attendance. But it's really on here because I love the hilarity that could ensue if Patrick Roy was named coach of the Montreal Canadiens. [Vancouver Sun]
One day I will manage to teach people that Matt Niskanen had less-than-negative trade value. Like I've mentioned, I haven't paid one lick of attention to him with the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he could have turned into a nice solid piece there. But in Dallas, he was mentally, physically and emotionally done, and he was likely given to Ray Shero rather than Shero "fleecing" him from the Stars. [Puck Daddy]
The strange path and ultimately awesome ending to a tangled college hockey history in Birmingham. [ThePostGame]
Meet the enemy, part the first: HBO camera crews of the world rejoice. It appears Claude Giroux will return tonight for the Philadelphia Flyers. [CSN Philly]
Meet the enemy, part the second: While Giroux might be on the mend, the Flyers still have a laundry list of injuries to deal with, not the least of which is the loss of Chris Pronger for the season to post-concussion syndrome. [New York Times]
Around the Pacific Division: The only division team with a Tuesday night game was the Phoenix Coyotes, who took a late first-period lead and never looked back in a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers. New Panthers coach Kevin Dineen was, shall we say, less than pleased with the zebras. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Whether you love him, hate him or just wish he would stop scoring so many goals against the Stars, you can't argue that Teemu Selanne has had quite the eventful career. [Down Goes Brown]
Glen Gulutzan meets the media following practice, discussing, among other things, the status of Adam Burish for tonight's game.

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Comments

Always like reading these...

You’re an excellent writer Erin.

Defending Big D's "Official" Western New York Representative

by Mike Russo on Dec 21, 2011 9:44 AM CST reply actions 1 recs

ditto

how i start my mornings.

by agvdstars on Dec 21, 2011 10:00 AM CST up reply actions

Awww

Thanks guys!

Follow me on Twitter @ErinB_DBD

by Erin Bolen on Dec 21, 2011 11:05 AM CST up reply actions

I wish the video embeds would work on the mobile app :-(

"He punched the highlights out of her hair.... He punched the HIGHLIGHTS out of her hair!!!" -- Young Neil

by Tsudbury on Dec 21, 2011 10:16 AM CST reply actions

Morrow

I was certainly one of those knocking Morrow’s play earlier in the season. To learn of all those injuries he was carrying though, in hindsight leads me to think I was unfair about criticizing his play. It seems the criticism should have maybe been levied more at the coaching staff for playing him through those injuries when he was “70%” as Gulutzan put it, though the argument then becomes “Is a 70% healthy Morrow better than no Morrow?”. That’s for a different thread :-)

Really nice to see him back to his old self, and hopefully he’ll continue on with his solid play tonight against the Flyers. You could definitely see more him more rejuvenated in recent games.

Go Stars!

Twitter: @murrayvwhite

by MurrayW on Dec 21, 2011 10:49 AM CST reply actions