The pervasive mood around the media, the organization and the players today was that there's not much left to say after five days of waiting around. It's time to get back on the ice and restart the conversations out there.
Glen Gulutzan said Mark Fistric is the odd man out tonight and indications throughout the week seem to have been that Tom Wandell will sit in favor of a Jake Dowell-Toby Petersen-Krys Barch fourth line.
"We thought [Barch] had a really strong game the other day," Gulutzan said of Barch staying in the lineup after Saturday's game. "He provided us with some energy and some big hits. He had six hits that game. You have to reward guys that do that and he certainly earned it."
A focus of the Stars tonight needs to be the offensively challenged (of late) Avalanche and their top ranked road power play at 38.1% and Gulutzan was asked about that as well after morning skate.
"We watched them here the last couple of games and they put shots at the net and they go," said Gulutzan. "They've got tempo. They've got two real good units and they do a lot with speed, attack and shots. The last two games they haven't been quite as efficient as they were but they have so much pace and they like to shoot the puck."
That starts with denying them opportunities, of course.
"So we have to one, stay out of the box as much as we can against them and two, we have to make sure we're going four or maybe even five units to kill that penalty off because our killers have to be pacey too."
Things are very quiet around here otherwise. Jamie Benn looked up to full speed after taking that shot in his ailing wrist earlier in the week. Kari Lehtonen will start in net. I have seen Nick Grossman's face and it is a pretty gruesome sight.
Bob Sturm will be on the television and radio with Ralph Strangis tonight as Razor is off doing Hockey Night in Canada. Bill Jaffe of NHL Network fame, formerly with the New York Islanders (Mike Heika informs me) will be with Ralph on Sunday afternoon (despite rumors Mike Modano might do it).