It's far too early in the season to be worried about nagging injuries, right?
Not if you're the Dallas Stars, who are taking a very conservative approach with a trio of banged-up returners. Jamie Benn, Adam Burish and Brenden Morrow are all on the list of players the team is being careful with, and Benn and Morrow will not be in the lineup for tonight's 6:30 p.m. game at the Florida Panthers.
Burish, who is nursing a sore groin according to ESPN Dallas, is on the preliminary roster for the game against the Panthers, but the roster has 15 forwards on it, so there's a strong chance he might not play either. Benn, who also has a sore groin, and Morrow, who tweaked his knee in the preseason opener, have each only played in one preseason game. Morrow has also been held out of practice, spending his time riding a stationary bike instead.
The Stars did get some good news on the injury front last weekend as Stephane Robidas, who had been held out while recovering from "major" hip surgery that was done in April, returned to action Saturday against the St. Louis Blues. He seemed none the worse for wear, playing 23:02.
The other notable camp injury is to prospect Scott Glennie, who "tweaked" something as yet unspecified early in training camp. He has had very limited participation in practice and has not yet played in a preseason game.
After the jump, Razor brings us delightful videos from the Stanley Cup era, a look at the tradition of championship rings and Shanahan's suspension parade will see a whole new batch of participants after last night's Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers game.
- Read about the past, present and (hopefully) future of the Stars goaltending depth in this paywalled article that focuses on Richard Bachman and Tyler Beskorowany. [DallasNews.com]
- Fans who have been around since the Stars' run to the Stanley Cup in 1999 will remember the wonderfully absurd commercials ESPN ran that "documented" what the players did on their days with the Cup. But like many things from the earlier days of the internet, the videos never really found their way online. Razor, delightful blogger that he is, set out to remedy that. He promises that he will post one of the five commercials each day this week. I can remember three clearly, including this one featuring Mike Modano and Brett Hull, and have an educated guess about the fourth, but can anyone remember all five? [Razor With An Edge]
- I think Mark Spector is a little bit off in his estimation of why, exactly, Mike Modano retired, but he does make an interesting point in that veteran-heavy teams like the Dallas Stars in their glory years are no longer the most successful. The grind of a season is often too much on the body. [Sportsnet.ca]
- The Stars aren't mentioned in this story, but their 99 championship ring is shown in the photo gallery as part of the history of the tradition. Also amusing to Dallas fans will be Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spouting off about rings being "done." [USA Today]
- Confirming what we had already guessed, the New Jersey Devils announced they will be retiring Scott Niedermayer's No. 27 during their Dec. 16 home game against Dallas. They had already announced they would use the night to honor the defenseman, but the jersey retirement confirmation didn't come until late Monday. [Star-Ledger]
- Scouting the enemy: Florida goaltender Scott Clemmensen, who was scheduled to start tonight, had knee surgery on Monday and is sidelined indefinitely. [NHL.com]
- In what has turned into an almost-daily feature of the NHL, arbiter of justice Brendan Shanahan has handed down more suspensions to players who just refuse to abide by the new rules. On Monday, he gave the rest of the preseason plus the first three regular-season games off to Brad Staubitz of the Minnesota Wild for a hit from behind and the rest of the preseason plus eight games to Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman and noted repeat offender James Wisniewski for an illegal check to the head. [USA Today]
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Brad Richards never knew a preseason game could be this much fun. In Monday's tilt between the Rangers and Flyers, Sean Avery accused Wayne Simmonds of calling him a homophobic slur (that, as a bonus, was caught on video), and former Nicklas Grossman head-hunter Tom Sestito earned himself a long, unpaid vacation for a pretty vicious hit from behind. [Puck Daddy/Puck Daddy]