Dallas Stars Daily Links: Jamie Benn Dominant In Win Over Oilers

by Erin Bolen on Jan 8, 2012 6:00 AM CST in Dallas Stars Daily Links

The Dallas Stars have happily embraced the Twitter hashtag #peskystars as almost a moniker for this season, putting on T-shirts and their official webpage.

I now submit Jamie Benn should go ahead and try to do the same thing with #BeastMode.

When the 22-year-old center gets going, there is precious little in the NHL that can stop him, and he proved that again in Saturday's 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Benn scored the game-tying and game-winning goals and was the best player on the ice.

And that had his coach singing his praises.

"A real big night for Benny. He was our best guy up front tonight," said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. "Double shifting him, mostly in the third, you can see it paid dividends. The more you play him the better he gets. I thought he was strong tonight in all aspects of his game, not just the two goals. He was physical, he played both ends and it was fun to watch for all of us."

Benn has nine points in the last four games and is on a four-game multi-point streak. Yup, I'd say #BeastMode is warranted.

After the jump, more on the Stars win over the Oilers, which NHLPA representatives voted for realignment and two NHL teams lose their minds.

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While Benn is getting a deserved amount of attention, it was another eventful day from center Mike Ribeiro, who tried a cage, got kneed, put a brace on and took his cage off, then came back and scored two goals. Gerry Fraley details some of that in this paywalled article. [DallasNews.com]
Like Brandon did yesterday afternoon, Mark Stepneski breaks down Adam Burish talking about the NHLPA's realignment decision. [ESPN Dallas]
Our friends over at Copper and Blue wrap up what was a horrendous road trip for the Oilers, not only because they lost all but one game but because they also lost several key players, including Jordan Eberle to a knee injury on Saturday. [Copper and Blue]
There's not a whole lot of national outrage about the Steve Ott hit on Anton Lander, and there is absolutely none about the Andy Sutton hit on Loui Eriksson. Is that precursor to nothing from the Shanahammer? We'll probably find out Monday. [Backhand Shelf]
The Edmonton Journal also takes on those injuries in an extremely comprehensive look at the game, including the only mention I saw anywhere other than Dallas outlets about the Sutton hit, though the writer does try to excuse him a bit. [Edmonton Journal]
I thought this was a fairly comprehensive look at the realignment vote with informative links to things I didn't know, such as that the vote from the PA was 28-2 and the only teams that voted in favor of it were the representatives from the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings. Considering that there were several other teams really helped by the realignment who also voted against the proposal, that tells me a lot. [ProHockeyTalk]
Why oh why can't some Montreal Canadiens fans let go of the fact their new coach doesn't speak French? I mean, even though it was silly, I could stomach the initial outrage. But it's been like a month, people. Why protest now? [Toronto Sun]
Meet the enemy: There is so much unintentional comedy in this story about how the Anaheim Ducks should take a lesson from the Boston Bruins about not trading their superstars. Because losing Joe Thornton was painful, yes, but it absolutely set the stage for last year's Stanley Cup win. Of course, since this is a Vancouver paper, I can see that they might not want to acknowledge that fact. [Vancouver Sun]
Around the Pacific Division, the winners: Shane Doan had the first hat trick of his career, scoring his third goal at 19:59 of the third period of the Phoenix Coyotes' 5-1 win over the New York Islanders. And the San Jose Sharks look to be starting their spring surge early with a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals. [Arizona Republic/San Jose Mercury News]
Around the Pacific Division, the loser: The Los Angeles Kings were back to their old offensive problems in a 1-0 shutout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets where Grant Clitsome had the only goal of the game. The gallows humor from Jarret Stoll is kind of awesome in this story. [Los Angeles Times]
The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. Seriously, both of these teams lost their minds a little bit, including lowlights from Alex Burrows and Brad Marchand. [Puck Daddy]
Thinks I learned from this Glen Gulutzan post-game interview - Richard Bachman has relaxed since Kari Lehtonen returned to full health, Loui Eriksson is sneaky and Eric Nystrom is the team's Typhoid Mary.

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Haha...Gultutzan on Benn

Made him sound like a bull in a china shop.

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by Taylor Baird on Jan 8, 2012 8:31 AM CST reply actions

I think he is

Theres only 2 players ahead of him in both ES P/60 and PP P/60 their names are giroux and H sedin

by can we get hatcher back on Jan 8, 2012 9:54 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

Any article from the Vancouver Sun is always comical

especially when it deals with any team besides their own.

They might actually write less accurate things than Time Cowlishaw does about hockey.

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

by Tsudbury on Jan 8, 2012 10:08 AM CST reply actions

Be nice if Benn can keep up the pace.

Especially if Ribeiro keeps playing the way he has lately.

The Stars will be very dangerous once they get all of their D-men back if the top two lines can stay productive.

by Travis Drybread on Jan 8, 2012 10:10 AM CST reply actions

I'm definitely looking forward to Souray and Larsen returning...

Now that we have a reliable back up, and our top 2 lines are clicking, that seems to be the only piece left to really see how this team will compete.

Hopefully they’ve gotten all of their injuries out of the way now. It seems like we’ve had a ton of man games lost this season.

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

by Tsudbury on Jan 8, 2012 10:17 AM CST up reply actions

I hope we get first 20 games Souray back

not the previous 20 games.

I’m excited that he’ll be back, but I’m afraid his tread might be thinning. we shall see.

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by graylikethecolor on Jan 8, 2012 11:23 AM CST via iPhone app up reply actions

Little random guestion

But what happened to the lone banner the thrashers won? Did they put a jets logo on it and hang it at the MTS center?

by Lone star hockey32 on Jan 8, 2012 10:23 AM CST via mobile reply actions

I don’t think we took any of the North Star’s banners

We DID carry over the retired numbers, but put them on a different banner.

by Jeff D on Jan 8, 2012 11:38 AM CST up reply actions

Only Columbus and Detroit voted for to approve realignment. Yikes. #unionvote

Note: Do not confuse a player rep on a team as a player rep for the team.

by cC Dallas on Jan 8, 2012 10:40 AM CST via iPhone app reply actions

This.

Love Burish, but he dropped the ball (or turned over the puck) on this one. As the team representative it was his responsibility to place the team’s best interest first. While he was saying how nice it was for Eastern Conference teams to be able to sleep in their own beds at night and why would they want to give that up and we must think about what’s good for everyone, do you think any of those Eastern Conference teams took into consideration what the Stars or the Wild or Red Wings have deal with? I understand the ultimate decision came down to issues beside the point of travel for teams (ii.e. the whole power grab thing) but evidently all the discussions about doing what’s best for the game or for the fans were forgotten along the way.

by KellyM16 on Jan 8, 2012 11:15 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

I agree with burish

They are right about the playoff scenarios. It is completely unfair to the teams in the 8 team conferences. Personally, I have always had reservations about the plan. I still say that van moves to the pacific, Winnipeg to the NE and Dallas to the central

by Lone star hockey32 on Jan 8, 2012 11:23 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

My complaint about the format was the playoff scenarios as well.....

So from that standpoint, I can 100% agree with the NHLPA rejecting it.

But the “travel” argument is pure bupkis, except for the FL teams.

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

by Tsudbury on Jan 8, 2012 11:27 AM CST up reply actions

I agree

I think the people on the website r reacting negativly because we were just glad to be out of the pacific

by Lone star hockey32 on Jan 8, 2012 11:30 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

Personally, I'd rather be in the new division with the wonky playoff set up

so I agree with those fans.

But from a players standpoint, I understand their hesitation.

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

by Tsudbury on Jan 8, 2012 11:34 AM CST up reply actions

You will never have a perfect playoff scenario...

You don’t there are teams in the Central who wish they played in the Pacific or team in the Atlantic jealous of the Southeast division leader? Or even look at last year Stars make the playoffs with room to spare…if they were in the East.

by James DeBoi on Jan 8, 2012 12:09 PM CST up reply actions

I don’t think the reps were voting strictly on whether or not they liked the change

I think they were also looking ahead to the upcoming CBA, and this was more about "Do we want to give this away for nothing, or do we want to push back and get something in return for it"

by Jeff D on Jan 8, 2012 11:35 AM CST up reply actions

How did he drop the ball?

Burish has played for teams other than the Stars, and it is not inconceivable that he will play for teams other than the Stars in the remainder of his career. The same goes for many of his teammates.

If the players look at what any changes mean only to the team they currently play for (but might not still play for at the end of this season, let alone in another season in which these changes might take effect), THAT’S when they’d be dropping the ball.

I know that this sucks for the fans, but I think the players have some legitimate gripes here… It isn’t all cut and dried.

by WingnutInStarsCountry on Jan 8, 2012 11:43 AM CST up reply actions