So the Dallas Stars, the team that could do no wrong in their building between October 30th and December 22nd, have lost five in a row at home. Should they stop this slide and beat Edmonton on Tuesday it will have been 21 days since they sent their faithful home happy, which is unfortunate for several reasons not the least of which is the big crowds they had attracted during the holiday season.
Sports is funny like that sometimes. Of course if you had told us about this streak before the year started we might have concluded that it would wreck their season, if indeed wrecked it had not already been. Little did we know that the team that couldn't win on the road last year would have a six game game streak going AWAY from the AAC, keeping them afloat. Again, sports is funny like that sometimes.
Side note: There was much talk on the radio last night about how rare it is to acquire someone else's captain in mid-season, which is true, but Mattias Norstrum was Los Angeles' captain when traded to the Stars, unless I am very much mistaken (likely). Jeff Halpern was Washington's captain but he left them as a UFA to come to Dallas.
- The Morning News has a transcription of Razor's thoughts on the Langenbrunner trade. Here's a snippet: "They have two lines that are a match with any other team in the league, the Richards line and the Mike Ribeiro line. And they have Burish and Ott, who work wonderfully together on a third unit. Good penalty killers, gritty, all that stuff. Now, if you can move one more guy into the mix, and just like that, you turn a two-and-a-partial-line team into a three-line team, you're better immediately." [DMN]
- Local Michigan paper taking a lot of pride in Stars prospect Jack Campbell and his WJC 2011 performance. [TheTimesHerald]
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Fabian Brunnstrom has scored in four straight games for Texas but they fall last night to end their point streak. Call me crazy but why not call up Fabian sometime? (if injury necessitates it and provided the 10 game, 30 day rule applies to him not having to re-clear waivers.) [Hundred Degree Hockey] ...Of course, I forgot about reentry waivers.
- The Sporting News likes the Langenbrunner trade. A lot. Probably too much. [The Sporting News]
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The standings are as tight as ever, oh by the way. Though, the Blue Jackets are starting to fall pretty far back. And the Wild and the Kings have the same number of points? Who saw that one coming. [NHL.com]
- The Dallas Morning News, if you haven't heard, is going to start charging for their online content in the next month or so. It will be $16.95 a month and that will get you an Apple app and access on their web site. It's a risky move, some say, but newspapers need to do something as their content is largely getting consumed for free. Obviously we rely on Mike Heika quite a bit for our news so this will affect us in what we can link to and what we can tell you without undermining their paywall. So get ready for that. [Dallas Morning News]
- Here's Crawfords post game press conference in case you missed the post game show last night. [Fox Sports Southwest]