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Dallas Stars Daily Links: The Stars Are Going The Wrong Way In The Central Division

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

The Dallas Stars lost another game to the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night. They also got another stark reminder, as if they needed one, about how important, and how tough, it is to win in the Central Division.

Stars digital correspondent Scott Burnside drove these points home in his latest Five Takeaways post:

[A] month into the regular season, the Jets have proven themselves to be a legitimate playoff-caliber team — and they are arguably, along with Los Angeles and St. Louis, one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

Dallas? Not so much, as they saw a five-game home  winning streak come to a crashing end as they imploded in the first,  allowing a goal 26 seconds into the game. Then another with 55.9 seconds  left in the first. And a Patrik Laine power-play goal in between to put themselves irreparably behind the eight ball on this night.

Never mind that only three points separates these two teams in the standings,  right now, the Jets exist in a galaxy far, far away from the Stars.

He also weighed in on the “well, why not” trial of the week:

The Jamie Oleksiak left-wing experiment didn’t really pan out as he played 2:10 in the first and 1:45 in the second and 4:44 overall. Not really his fault, Hitchcock said. But it’s not fair to throw a longtime defenseman on to the left wing and then say, “Hey, go get a goal.” Hard to imagine that experiment is revisited, even if Tyler Pitlick and/or Radek Faksa, who both missed Monday’s game, can’t go Friday.

Scott has much more at the Stars’ official site. [Dallas Stars]

Stars stuff

Sean Shapiro shared his thoughts on Trevor Strader’s heart-wrenching performance at the Stars’ Hockey Fights Cancer game.

Friday night is Buckner Night at Stars vs. New York Islanders. You already know you can bring books and toiletries for disadvantaged kids, but did you know that the first 200 donors get two free tickets to the Jan. 2 Columbus Blue Jackets game? Now you do.

Around the league(s)

All #MDK, All the Time

  • The St. Louis Blues’ top line wrote the story in a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. [St. Louis Game Time]
  • And the Nashville Predators feasted on the Blue Jackets’ power-play troubles (and absence of Sergei Bobrovsky in net) for a 3-1 win. [On The Forecheck]/

Kyle Turris is now a Predator, thanks to the three-way trade that sent Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators. Yesterday, he shared this goodbye to his Canadian fans.

This Friday and Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche will play the Sens in the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe – and Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog is relishing the chance to play host for an NHL game in his home country.

Meanwhile, the Team Sweden netminders (including former Star Jhonas Enroth) at the 2017 Karjala Cup are wearing these ads on their goalie pads. Is this the NHL’s inevitable future?

Jordie Benn played a season-high 25:51 (and scored his first goal of the season) in the Montreal Canadiens’ 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights – which prompted NHL analyst Mike Kelly to revisit his September assertion that, no matter what you think you know, Yukon Cornelius is the best available partner for marquee 1D Shea Weber.

The man-games lost to injury and illness keep piling up for the Anaheim Ducks – and now captain Ryan Getzlaf will be out for two months after surgery to repair a fractured zygomatic (cheek) bone. [ESPN]

The women of Team USA opened the 2017 Four Nations Cup with a bang, defeating Team Finland 8-2 in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Six different USWNT players scored, with Emily Pfalzer earning a hat trick.

I’m pretty sure Dave Lozo isn’t being serious when he suggests that every Canadian NHL team needs to move to the States, but darn it if he isn’t pretty convincing. [Vice Sports]

The Jets need help naming their new security puppy. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. (Warning: They’ve already drawn the line at Doggy McDogface, so don’t even try it.)

Which Star binge-watches “One Tree Hill”? Which is into “Game of Thrones”? And which NHL’er has actually read the books? Questions will be asked! And then destroyed! By answers! in the latest installment of “Puck Personalities.”

Finally

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of a very special day indeed: the moment Mike Modano entered United States hockey history. Can any current American players catch him? Jared Clinton evaluates the suspects. Enjoy. [The Hockey News]

Talking Points