The Stars had an off-day yesterday. Presumably to recover from the whirlwind trip to the California coast. Or, if you’re Jamie Benn, to get a tattoo.
Another long stretch though for the Stars between games with three days off before the matchup with Calgary. Could somebody look into NHL scheduling? Five days off early in the season, and then a back-to-back. And now, a back-to-back followed by three days off. Spread the wealth people! Let’s pace ourselves!
Ahem.
What I meant to say was, Mike Heika mused yesterday on the topic of trust. A tenth of the way through the season, and everybody has questioned this team’s direction. Don’t lie to me, I know you’ve questioned it. There are some off-season moves that are looking great, namely a transaction with the Bruins, and there are some off-season moves that aren’t panning out, namely every other transaction.
And there are definitely things that so far we can’t trust. We can’t trust the defense to not leak like a sieve and give up large numbers of shots per game. We can’t trust Ryan Garbutt to know the difference between agitating and crossing the line. And we unfortunately can’t trust Kari Lehtonen to stay healthy. But then, on the flip side, we can trust Kari to be Kari when he is playing. We can trust Alex Chiasson to score goals. And we can trust that Jim Nill knows what he’s talking about when he says this: “We’ve got some players who have bad habits that need to be broken.” And that he’s going to do something about it. At least, I hope we can trust that.
Speaking of the defense encouraging shots on goal, everyone knows that Jack Campbell, after being given a cup of coffee in the NHL, and having it blasted out of his hands to the tune of 47 Ducks shots on goal, is returning to the Texas Stars. Fond memories of his first/only start in the big leagues?
“It’s my favorite; a big challenge. I was really happy I got to play against Anaheim. I just wish I could have played a little better and helped the team win. But it was a lot of fun, and it’s great to play against some of the best players in the game on Anaheim.” [Stars Inside Edge]
I’m sure that’s exactly what Campbell was thinking when he was staring at a wide open Teemu Selanne three minutes into Sunday’s game.
* * *
Bite-size recaps of the last five Stars games, with a little perspective thrown in. In other words, no need to panic! [Razor with an Edge]
Ryan Garbutt has a date with the NHL Department of Player Safety on Wednesday. [NHL.com]
Anybody who follows radio broadcasts of the Stars, 1310 The Ticket now has an FM broadcast on 96.7 [The Ticket]
So Travis Morin is kind of rocking it down in Austin. Call him up! [Sports Day DFW]
Dustin Penner’s eventful day dealing with trolls on Twitter, Martin Biron gets Trampled by Hertls, and Brent Burns‘ gums are sore. So he didn’t play last night. Oh, and if any of you were amongst those trolling Penner, careful. I’ll sic Tuba on you. [Puck Daddy]
Game previews, and a history of the Battle of Trafalgar. In one place! The nature of Daily Links means this is a day late. Sue me. October 21st was an epic day, 200+ years ago. [Conference III]
Couple of 1-0 games last night, with the best besting the next best. San Jose over Detroit, and Colorado over the Pens. You’ll note West beat East, again. Also, J.S. Giguerre got his second shutout on the season. Know how many games he’s started? Three. I want that backup goalie. [NHL.com]
Hockey’s going the way of baseball’s sabermetrics, although we’ll need a new term for it. I’m sticking with fancy stats for now. Imagine this, the league is actually catching up to us devoted fans at a somewhat decent pace. [SB Nation]
And lastly, the Oiler’s have been plagued by injuries the last few years. Turns out it’s due to stagnant energy. Poor team chakra don’t you know? Maybe somebody can investigate this with the Stars defense. [Puck Daddy]