With the early 5:00pm CST start time there will be no morning skate for the Dallas Stars, so no one will be quite sure who's going to start in net until pre-game warm ups.
Most of you in North Texas are probably doing what I'm doing today, which is to say watching NFL playoffs and trying to figure out what this white fluffy stuff is falling from the sky when last week it was 70 degrees outside. Which is also to say that I want to sit on the couch and not write blogs.
So who starts tonight if you're Crow? Lehtonen has been very good lately allowing only two goals in each of his last three starts. I know some of you feel that his second periods against Colorado and New York were not his best but when you're only allowing two a game you should win most of the time.
Then there's Raycrfot who hasn't started since Nashville on December 28th. In Raycroft's last three starts on the road he's stopped 103 of the last 110 shots he's faced. (.936). He seems to be due in this spot.
Also, with the lines looking like this:
Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn
Burish-Ott-Langebrunner (though sometimes it's hard to tell who's doing the center work between Ott and Burish)
It leaves Wandell, Segal, Barch and Sutherby to comprise that fourth trio, with Petersen coming back from IR next week. Who do you sit tonight?
With Wandell on the 4th line it gives the Stars real quality throughout their lineup, particularly when Petersen comes back. It should be quite a luxury, but it needs to manifest itself in two points more often than not because they've still lost 5 of 8.