Well after last night's games the Stars now sit in the eigth spot in the Western Conference, but are tied at 65 points with Minnesota, Edmonton and Anaheim. It's becomin an even tighter playoff race than before and it makes how the Stars handle these recent injuries all the more important.
There's no doubt that this team has the drive and motivation to play as well as they can. The question becomes do the Stars have enough internal chemistry to overcome injuries to some very vital and talented players? They will rely on Turco more than ever before and he may not get a day off for the rest of the season, or at least until the Stars' playoff fate is decided one way or the other.
Mark Stepneski takes a look at the standings and determines where exactly the Stars sit in terms of points percentage.
| RK | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | PTS | PTS% |
| 1 | San Jose | 58 | 41 | 8 | 9 | 91 | .784 |
| 2 | Detroit | 60 | 39 | 13 | 8 | 86 | .717 |
| 3 | Calgary | 60 | 36 | 18 | 6 | 78 | .650 |
| 4 | Chicago | 59 | 34 | 17 | 8 | 76 | .644 |
| 5 | Vancouver | 60 | 30 | 22 | 8 | 68 | .567 |
| 6 | Dallas | 59 | 29 | 23 | 7 | 65 | .551 |
| 7 | Minnesota | 59 | 30 | 24 | 5 | 65 | .551 |
| 8 | Edmonton | 60 | 30 | 25 | 5 | 65 | .542 |
| 9 | Columbus | 61 | 30 | 25 | 6 | 66 | .541 |
| 10 | Anaheim | 62 | 30 | 27 | 5 | 65 | .524 |
| 11 | Los Angeles | 59 | 26 | 24 | 9 | 61 | .517 |
| 12 | Nashville | 61 | 29 | 28 | 4 | 62 | .508 |
| 13 | St. Louis | 60 | 26 | 26 | 8 | 60 | .500 |
| 14 | Phoenix | 61 | 27 | 29 | 5 | 59 | .484 |
| 15 | Colorado | 61 | 28 | 32 | 1 | 57 | .467 |
With Chris Conner and Tobias Stephan officially recalled the Stars now have a full roster of 13 forwards, 8 defensemen and 2 goalies. Expect Conner to go back to his right wing spot on Modano's line and Parrish and Sawada to alternate on the fourth. If lines at practice are any indication of what they'll be at the game tomorrow night then we should expect this:
Ott - Ribeiro - Lehtinen
Neal - Modano - Conner
Lundqvist - Eriksson - Brunnstrom
Barch-Sutherby-Sawada/Parrish
The Stars are facing yet another critical three games in four days stretch this weekend, starting with the Blues tomorrow night. The Stars will face Anaheim on Saturday and Pittsburgh on Sunday. Based on the look of the standings above, saying these games are important is an understatement.
Mike Heika over on the DMN Stars blog starts to take a look at various trade prospects for the Stars. He brings up one guy I didn't mention yesterday: Derek Morris.
Richard Durrett gives a report on last night's highly successful casino night.
Darryl Reaugh takes a look at games 40-60, the real telling point of how good a team is.
Around the West: Results from last night's games
Anaheim 3, Buffalo 2
Montreal 3, Vancouver 0
Calgary 4, Columbus 1
Edmonton 5, Tampa Bay 3
Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 1 (SO)
Nashville 5, Chicago 3
St. Louis 2, Phoenix 1
Atlanta 4, Colorado 3
