After a rip-roaring start to the Traverse City Prospects Tournament, the Dallas Stars prospects sure ended with a whimper. The prospects lost their third consecutive game of the tournament Wednesday as they fell 4-1 to the Minnesota Wild wannabes and finished in sixth place.
Jamie Oleksiak, who has been blogging for NHL.com throughout the tournament, sums up his thoughts here.
I think as the tournament went on, I got more accustomed to the pace and everything. This wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but I think I did pretty well with this opportunity to kind of prove myself; it was a tough game. We came out hard and Soupy (goalie Jack Campbell) stood on top of his head. They got a couple good chances and buried their chances and worked hard in front of the net. We weren’t able to capitalize on our chances so I think it was frustrating. At times I think I had a tendency to do too much when that pressure got me down … you just get frustrated at times.
Matt Carter scored Dallas’ only goal, and the Stars were outshot 41-33. For you stat hounds, the boxscore is here.
The baby Buffalo Sabres won the tournament with a 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers. Buffalo scored three goals in the third period to turn a tied game into a blowout.
But the end of this tournament only means the preseason, then finally the regular season, is inching closer. Players will officially report to Frisco for the first time Friday morning for headshots and physicals before flying to Prince Edward Island for the start of training camp.
One of the prospects who was in Michigan is unexpectedly packing his bags for the Metroplex. Brett Ritchie, Dallas’ most recent second-round pick, was added to the training camp roster on Wednesday, according to ESPN Dallas.
After the jump, an in-depth look at several defensemen, another potential bell-weather for the next Jamie Benn contract and the NHL cracks down on Tweeting.
- Everyone’s favorite walking broken nose talks about his personal expectations for the upcoming season as well as his thoughts on the new defensemen. Fact that made me sit up and take note: Only two other players on the current roster were with the Stars when Stephane Robidas arrived for his first tenure in 2002 (bonus internet cool points for guessing them in the comment). I knew there had been turnover in the past decade, but it just underscores how spoiled we were as fans during the lengthy careers of Jere Lehtinen and Mike Modano. [Fox Sports Southwest]
- Nicklas Grossman was just as frustrated with his recurring injuries last season as anyone else. And yes, you will see the exact same quote from Robidas in this story and the one previous. Check the bylines if you want to know why. [DallasStars.com]
- A brief snippet from a conversation with general manager Joe Nieuwendyk at Traverse City is at least vaguely encouraging about the upcoming negotiations with defenseman Alex Goligoski and forward Jamie Benn. [ESPN Dallas/ESPN Insider]
- Speaking of Jamie Benn, another possible bell-weather contract for his upcoming negotiations was signed Wednesday when the Boston Bruins‘ Brad Marchand inked a two-year, $5 million deal. He scored 21 goals and had 41 points last season. [Boston Globe]
- We had a little on this when it broke two days ago, but I like this article about the Stars decision to use a helmet sticker to honor the memory of Karlis Skrastins. There are some nice quotes from players who didn’t comment in previous articles. [NHL.com]
- There will be a public funeral for Skrastins at the Arena Riga on Friday in Riga, Latvia. Also, the wife of former NHL player Kevin Dallman has set up a small charity that will provide all the proceeds to the families of those lost in the plane crash. [Latvijas Reitinji/Facebook]
- Former Stars first-round pick and best Srabble name ever Jason Bacashishua is trying to get back in the NHL with a team that is in a perpetual goalie search – the Philadelphia Flyers. [Philadelphia Sports Daily]
- The more things change, the more they stay the same. The NHL has implemented its first social media policy that officially restricts the times players may use social media like Twitter or Facebook. There’s a blackout before, during and after games, during practice and during other official team events. No word on the timeframe around games, but everything else seems like common sense to me. As much as I’d love live Tweeting of team meetings (seriously, the comedy could be fantastic), teams would have established their own policies on this if the league didn’t. [CBC.ca]