It's not-quite 12 hours later (or it will be by the time you read this), and I'm still not quite sure what the heck happened at the American Airlines Center last night.
We've grown used to the Dallas Stars grinding out wins over opponents that are allowed to outshoot them as long as the truly dangerous chances are limited. We've seen some epic goaltending from Kari Lehtonen, and we've had to resign ourselves to the fact that the depth scoring is still a little bit limited.
None of those things played true to form in Friday's game against the Colorado Avalanche. The young Avs, especially Matt Duchene, had all sorts of wonderful scoring chances, Lehtonen didn't have a night to remember and some of the less-frequent scorers came up with huge points, though none had bigger nights than Loui Eriksson (2 goals, neither of which he actually put directly into the net, and an assist) and Jamie Benn (1 goal, 3 assists).
And the Stars still won.
I think Sheldon Souray summed it up best in this quote from the ESPN Dallas recap.
"Who says goal scoring is down, right? You get a game like this every once in a while," said Stars defenseman Sheldon Souray, who had one goal and one assist in the game. "It's probably going to be a long night for the coaches, looking at video."
After the jump, more on the Stars wacky 7-6 victory, Lehtonen and Souray get some national pub and Glen Gulutzan explains where his fashion sense came from.
- This is about as close to a glowing report as I've seen from Mike Heika in a while. He nailed several of the things Stars fans should feel really good about at this point in the season. And as a bonus, it's all free! [DallasNews.com]
- Mark Stepneski also put together a collection of post-game notes, including an explanation for the non-call on the stick that clipped Adam Burish. [ESPN Dallas]
- And here's the paywalled gamer from the DMN. [DallasNews.com]
- Lost a bit in the talk about the Stars comeback was a heck of an offensive night from the Avs, led by wunderkind Matt Duchene. [Denver Post]
- Our friends over at Mile High Hockey offer their unique, sarcasm-tinged play by play of the game, along with a few notes from the Avs perspective. [Mile High Hockey]
- Bob Sturm not only fills in for Razor on the Stars broadcast, but he also writes articles for us to peruse. This one tackles the question that a lot of us are too afraid to ask: Are the Stars for real? [Fox Sports Southwest]
- There's not a lot of new ground covered by this PD article about the team, but it is nice to see things like the Kari Lehtonen and Sheldon Souray moves getting some national attention. God, that Lehtonen trade is looking better by the day. [Puck Daddy]
- We try to keep you appraised of how the Stars prospects are doing throughout the season, but the Hockey's Future staff also put together a very comprehensive look at the system along with their updated system rankings. [Hockey's Future]
- If you're really sick of explaining how Tom Hicks put the Dallas Stars in financial trouble, point whoever you're talking to to the case of the New Jersey Devils, who appear headed down the same path. [Forbes]
- Meet the enemy: The Carolina Hurricanes were steamrolled by the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Friday. If you have time, go find the .gif of Jeff Skinner's celebration-turned-tantrum after an apparent goal was disallowed because the ref had lost sight of the puck. [News & Observer]
- Around the Pacific Division: Dallas was the only team with a Friday night game. But in other news around the division, I seriously can't get over that the San Jose Sharks gave Joe Thornton a freaking woolly mammoth tusk that's apparently worth more than $10,000. [San Jose Mercury-News]
- Speaking of Sheldon Souray, Puck Daddy has found a game that combines his and his girlfriend's careers in a way I never imagined possible. [Puck Daddy]
- Okay, so I was going to link to the fairly nice post-game interview with Souray, but then Glen Gulutzan had to go and be really insightful in his press conference to make me think about it. The tipping point was the joke he cracked about Loui Eriksson helping him with his fashion sense.