by Damien Franco on November 4, 2008
My knee jerk reaction goes something like this:
Mark Parrish is a veteran scorer with a right handed shot and we need that.
His defensive side has much to be desired, but at a low, low price we can fill holes with him on the offense.
He’s played with Mike Modano before in All-Star games so at least there’s some chemistry already there.
He says he’s fit and hungry to play so that works for me.
I do feel that we needed to look more on the defensive side of things because scoring isn’t necessarily our biggest concern.
I’m interested to see which line he’ll be on. I see him fitting well with Brad Richards more than on Mike Modano’s line, but he could do well on either.
I guess I’m still waiting to get Jere Lehtinen and Sergie Zubov back before a real assesment of the Dallas Stars can be made, but dealing with key injuries has to be a big concern for a team that was picked pre-season to be a Stanely Cup contender. Maybe this is the kind of spark that this team needs. We’ll see.
by Damien Franco on October 30, 2008
Well, the guys looked much better tonight, and no this wasn’t all about a new goalie in Tobias Stephan working like a brick wall.
Everyone stepped up in all three zones and played with tenacity and hunger. This is how Dallas Stars hockey is supposed to look.
Performance nods go to some usual suspects in Brendan Morrow and Mike Ribeiro which is good, because you want your star players to show up every game.
Brad Richards looked especially good this game as well. He was really flying around the ice tonight and seemed to be involved in every play. Plus, he was really pulling the trigger tonight with a rather large number of shots on goal.
Welcome back Steve Ott; we missed you. Steve always makes the game more fun to watch and I love it when he scores a goal. I think he may have put a hit on every one of the Wild players on the ice tonight. I guess he was making up for lost time.
The Dallas Stars forwards out-worked and out-hustled the Minnesota Wild. They seemed to really give the Wild some trouble with their fore-check and some fantastic offensive zone turnovers led to great scoring chances and a couple of goals.
Dallas’ defense-men looked solid and in sync throughout the entire game. When the Wild did get manage to get a breakaway the back-checking forwards were there to break it up.
Tobias Stephan looked solid, at times, in his first game this season (only his second NHL start). He was noticeably nervous/shaky in the beginning with a few questionable passes and a misstep behind the net. His nerves did seem to get under control after a while and I don’t think anyone is going to fault him for either of the goals tonight. The first one was a blister of a slapshot that may have had the speed to break the sound barrier. The second? Still not sure exactly what happened with that fluky goal. So, not a bad seasonal debut for the young netminder.
By the way, I love teaming Steve Ott and Sean Avery on the same line with Brad Richards. Seriously?! Which opponent line is going to volunteer to go against that trio? “Gee coach, I think I’d like to play against two obscenely abrasive checking power forwards that consistently crash the net and try to check anything moving not in a Dallas Stars jersey. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to forget about the precision passing center with an accurate shot. Put me in coach, I’m ready to play.”
Welcome back Ott.
by Damien Franco on September 20, 2008
Mike Modano looks like he might be playing along side Brad Richards and Sean Avery this season as the second forward line-up. Seems that Dave Tippett will be trying out this trio during the preseason match ups. Sounds great to me.
If this line is able to mesh well together the Dallas Stars will have a great starting six.
Let’s face it. Mo’ is getting a little long in the tooth as far as hockey players go, but he still has mad skills. He needs someone like Avery to create some room on the ice and free up Modano to skate with that blazing speed of his. With Brad Richards at the helm of this combination we should see some flashy skating, brilliant passing, and some knock down grit.
I’m stoked.
