New Dallas Stars new head coach Glen Gulutzan has been described over and over as detail oriented. And as the Stars move further into the installation of Gulutzan’s system, we’re starting to find out exactly what “detail oriented” means.
There are a couple very interesting tidbits in this notes package from Mark Stepneski of ESPN Dallas, namely that cuts will begin as soon as today and Stu Barnes has taken a non-coaching hockey operations position in order to spend more time with his family, but I thought the most interesting bit was the top, where Gulutzan laid out how he plans to utilize his practice time this season.
“Going forward we are going to use our practice days to practice our backbone and pregame skates to practice our specialty teams,” Gulutzan said. “We’ve got to maximize that game day opportunity. That 50 minute skate in the morning, instead of just having a loosen up skate that maybe we’d have during the regular season, we have to use that hour or 50 minutes for specialty teams.”
The team will get its first chance to practice that today as the Stars have a pregame skate in P.E.I before packing up and flying to Montreal for their first preseason game at 6:30 p.m. Central. Radio coverage of the game will be aired on The Ticket, and Razor has Tweeted that this will be the only preseason game with Dallas radio coverage, so if you’re ready for an R&R fix, now’s your chance.
After the jump, just how far Adam Pardy has come in the last few years, more about the impending sale and a phrase you never thought you’d see associated with former Star Fabian Brunnstrom.
- Also from Stepneski, a profile of new defenseman Adam Pardy detailing just how quickly he’s risen up the ranks since the 2005-06 season. [ESPN Dallas]
- The daily video wrap up from the official site. Highlights include Steve Ott talking about why he didn’t get any new tattoos this summer, Ralph and Adam Burish getting a little… friendly and Loui Eriksson talking about how hard he was to work to keep weight on during the season. Curse him. [DallasStars.com]
- Remember that Dallas Morning News story about Jamie Benn that was behind a paywall a few days ago? Here it is for free, running in sister paper the Sacramento Bee. There are some nice quotes from Gulutzan and his brother Jordie Benn in particular. [Sacramento Bee]
- For you legal buffs out there, Tom Gaglardi announced his team of lawyers today. [DallasNews.com]
- We had this as a separate update earlier today, but it’s noteworthy enough that I figured I’d include it as well: Chuck Greenberg’s lawyer told the Delaware bankruptcy court that’s handling the Stars case that Greenberg is interested in making a bid for the team. [Business Week]
- The Wall Street Journal (free article because it’s a blog) guesstimates about the eventual sale price and puts that in context of several other recent NHL team going rates [WSJ.com]
- Scouting the enemy: Summing up some of the position battles that need to be sorted out in Montreal Canadiens training camp. Among names Stars fans might recognize is Jeff Woywitka. Several of these players will likely get a look-see tonight against the Stars. [TheHockeyWriters.com]
- Helene St. James is a legend among NHL writers, having been with the Detroit Free Press since 1995. But I can’t say I agree with her description of former Star and now Detroit Red Wings tryout player Fabian Brunnstrom in this story. The enigmatic Swede is many things, but “someone who’ll be hard to knock off the puck” is not one of them. [USA Today]
- Anyone want to get their blood pressure up today? Try the first several paragraphs of this story, which is a complimentary piece about native Texan Ross Mancuso finding his place in the BCHL. I have a lot of sympathy for writers from small papers who are usually young and learning what works and what doesn’t, but going for the stereotype is never a good idea. [Merritt Herald]