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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Dallas’ Dads Could Be the Stars’ Good-Luck Charms

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

It’s a great time for the Dallas Stars dads to be on the road with the team. They’re getting to enjoy some great victories – and at the same time, to provide some guidance after games don’t go according to plan, says Mike Heika.

Heika has written his report from the first week of the annual Fathers’ Trip, and it’s full of details about how much these hockey dads have influenced their sons:

Taking the fathers on a road trip is a hockey tradition that honors the fact the dads took the kids on a ton of road trips a few years back. And maybe the most intense memory of those road trips was the wisdom of your father, delivered over and over and over again.

“He used to scream, ‘Skate!’ and ‘work hard,’ ” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said of his dad Leeson. “You could hear him in the middle of a shift — ‘Skate! Skate!’ And if you had a bad game, the first thing you’d hear when you got in the car was, ‘You didn’t work hard enough.”

Vernon Fiddler says he’s trying to model his hockey-dad image after his own father, Bob:

Fiddler said he gets asked by parents his secret to getting to the NHL and he spreads the gospel of the positive message. He said he’s trying to do the same thing with his son Blake.

“You definitely get a new perspective now,” said Fiddler, 35. “You’re trying to be the hockey dad, and so you really understand what your dad was trying to do for you.”

Read the whole thing courtesy of The Dallas Morning News. [SportsDayDFW]

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The Stars’ most recent win over the Blackhawks may be their biggest of the season – and shows that the #MDK may not be Chicago’s to lose anymore, says Jeremy Layton. [Sports Illustrated]

Patrick Eaves has had terrible career luck with crashing the net, but risking another injury paid off with his second career hat trick. [SportsDayDFW]

Mark Stepneski posted a Jason Spezza update from yesterday’s practice.

He also had some potential good news regarding Jason Demers.

Last night in the Central:

Shane Doan now holds the records for most points and power-play goals in Arizona Coyotes history. His three-point game helped stop the Yotes’ five-game losing streak with a victory over the Calgary Flames. [Arizona Republic]

The free-falling Minnesota Wild are desperate for offense. Where will they find it? Jared Clinton speculates on what the team can do to get back in the playoff race. [The Hockey News]

The Steven Stamkos rumor mill continues a low-key churn. Mike Johnston names five potential Bolts trade partners who could try to make a deal before the deadline. [Sportsnet]

Does the Washington Capitals‘ Braden Holtby already have this year’s Vezina Trophy wrapped up? Greg Wyshynski takes a look at the #fancystats and sees a case for Red Wings G Petr Mrazek. [Puck Daddy]

When @HockeyAsAnimals compares you to a dog, you know you’ve made it, probably. Mattias Janmark, please come forward and accept your honor.

People hate the new NHL.tv so much that you may forget, occasionally, how much they also hate the new NHL website. [SB Nation]

Dobber Hockey has posted a list of the top 50 NHL prospect defensemen, and two Texas Stars are on the list – including one in the top 10. [Dobber Hockey]

And don’t look now, but Dobber’s also posted his top-200 prospect forwards list, and it might as well be a monolith, because my God, it’s full of Stars. [Dobber Hockey]

When Martin Brodeur was a seven-year-old forward, he also started playing goalie for a different team, just because it meant more hockey. As it turns out, he was pretty good at netminding. Now that the New Jersey Devils have retired his number and immortalized him in bronze, he looks back with The Player’s Tribune.

Meanwhile, Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien decries as “speculation” a report that goalie Carey Price is out for the season with the injury he suffered in November. [CBC]

Kerry Fraser sees a pattern developing with the Philadelphia Flyers‘ Radko Gudas and takes another look at how he escaped supplementary discipline after a “predatory” check to the head of Buffalo Sabres rookie Daniel Catenacci. [TSN]

The AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters scored three shorties in just over one minute the other night. Yes, it’s every bit as insane as it sounds.

With the birth of twins and his Cinder-Fella All-Star Weekend behind him, John Scott gets back to work tonight for the St. John’s IceCaps. [ESPN]

And the Texas Stars play back-to-back games in Cedar Park Center this weekend. On tap for tonight:

Finally: You knew someone had to do it, and the John Klingburger must not have been obvious. A Nashville Predators defender learns how to make milkshakes in Mattias Ekholm, Swedish Chef. Enjoy.

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