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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Mattias Janmark Is Making a Case to Stay in Dallas for 2015-16

The Dallas Stars‘ up-and-down preseason went through another round of peaks and valleys on Tuesday night, as they dropped another decision, 4-1, to the St. Louis Blues.

The team rolled out a near-complete NHL lineup, but once again prospect Mattias Janmark grabbed the spotlight. The young center scored the only goal of the night and in general continued to look like the player who wants to push the team into one of those tough decisions they’ve been talking about all summer.

Josh gave the recap here, and here’s the highlight video from the Stars’ official site. One obvious place the Stars could do better is on the power play: The team went 0-5 with the man advantage – virtually inconceivable given the level of talent in its forward corps. [Stars Inside Edge]

Mike Heika went into the good news (Jamie Benn and Ales Hemsky looking good in their first game since their hip surgeries in April) and the bad (the same old defensive and goaltending problems):

Just as it was Sunday against Florida, the Stars could look at the possession metrics and say they played well. Just as it was Sunday, the Stars did a lot of things right. Just not enough.

“It’s not acceptable,” Ruff said. “I thought this game would be a good compete game for us. It was good for 30 minutes.”

Read the rest at The Dallas Morning News. [SportsDayDFW]

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In the spirit of shaking off another preseason run-through OH LOOK LOOK AT THE THING BOB STURM POSTED!

Razor is as hacked off about the red line through the logo at center ice as everyone else, and he’s decided to do something about it. [Razor With an Edge]

A team’s logo is a shared source of pride between corporate, players and fans. (Just as the league’s shield is; because that shield or crest represents the best hockey league on earth and it is – as it should be – ALWAYS presented unobscured) Individual team logos should NEVER be defiled, debased or dishonored. That’s why jerseys – even practice jerseys – never hit the floor and why dressing room carpet logos are never treaded upon.

I know its too late for the 2015-16 season but I’m making it my mission to get this unnecessary practice of “striping” the team logos either altered or abolished going forward.

The oddsmakers have released their preseason favorites for the 2016 NHL Awards, and Jamie Benn is listed at 10/1 for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. [theScore]

Meanwhile, NHL Central Scouting has released its Players to Watch list for 2016. (Didn’t we just leave this party?) [NHL]

Last night, the Pittsburgh Penguins played the Tampa Bay Lightning in Cambria County War Memorial Arena, which was immortalized in the movie Slap Shot. Johnstown, Pennsylvania got the exhibition game (and $150,000 in arena upgrades) as the first winner in Kraft’s Hockeyville USA campaign. And the Penguins got an inspirational pre-game speech from the Hanson Brothers. [NBC Sports]

Currently racking up a good point-per-game with the ZSC Lions, 2016 ultra-prospect Auston Matthews has made a silky-smooth transition from the USHL to the Swiss pro leagues, except that he really misses his In-N-Out Burger. [TSN]

Also on TSN: Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor the current gloom of the Canadian dollar will stop Québecor from completing its bid to bring back the Nordiques.

Meanwhile, Bill Foley – the Florida billionaire who moved to Nevada in order to be closer to his pet project – also made his pitch yesterday, for a Las Vegas expansion team. The Las Vegas Review-Journal is treating this as a developing story and will continue to update at this link. [LVRJ]

Is Taylor Hall about to take over the Edmonton Oilers captaincy from Andrew Ference? This story presents an interesting microcosm of the whole youth-movement-vs.-savvy veterans argument we’ve gone over ourselves, with a dash of Lindy Ruff in Buffalo for added relevance. [NBC Sports]

Speaking of the Oilers, their hitherto celebratory preseason has taken an ominous turn after right wing Jordan Eberle went shoulder-first into the boards during their game against the Arizona Coyotes last night. The resulting injury was “not good,” according to a source. [Puck Daddy]

Ted Leonsis, chair and majority owner of the Washington Capitals, comes right out and says that the Caps’ moves over the 2015 offseason have been about getting a Stanley Cup for Alex Ovechkin. [NHL]

Finally: If you take away nothing else from last night’s Penguins-Lightning game, remember Evgeni Malkin in Hanson brothers glasses during warm-ups. You’re welcome.

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