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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
- The Kings, in a matchup of Pacific Division titans (huh?) beat the Coyotes 5-3. Five for Howling has the coverage
- The Sharks took down the Thrasher in Atlanta, 4-3
- The OC Register says the goaltending let the Ducks down as they were beat by Columbus, 6-4
- The Sharks play back to back tonight against the Flyers.
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Dare we peak at the standings this early? Hmm. Still 4 points out of 1st and 4 points out of 11th, so...better to continue leaving those standings out of site and out of mind.