Ready, Set . . .

It has been a very busy day in Stars~land! In fact, not even the official website chose to keep up with all the goings-on. Credit Mark Stepneski on Andrew's Dallas Stars Page for nailing down all of the transactions today and this week. Allow me to sum up:

*Dallas waived defenseman Doug Janik, who was then claimed by Chicago, and then reacquired him later today in a trade with Chicago (for a conditional seventh round draft pick)

*With the expectation of them staying put, the Stars "assigned" James Neal and Mark Fistric to nearby minor league teams

*The NHL allowed the Stars a long-term injury exception for Sergei Zubov, which allowed them enough salary cap relief to "call up" Neal and Fistric

*Dallas assigned Chris Conner and Francis Wathier to minor league teams; earlier in the week they did the same with Dan Jancevski, Garrett Stafford, Ivan Vishnevskiy, Landon Wilson, Maxime Fortunus, and Matt Climie; they also released Konstantin Pushkarev

All of the moves left the Stars with 23 active players: 14 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Zubie makes #24 but he is on IR. Of course, when he returns (no less than 10 games or 24 days), Dallas will have to adjust the roster again in order to comply with the salary cap allowance.

Now on to the good stuff ... the Dallas Stars square off against the Columbus Blue Jackets in approximately 46 hours! The team has lost some pieces and added some others, but all-in-all, I fully expect them to produce similar results. Without question they are Cup contenders! Some people/sites have them repeating last year and losing to Detroit in the WCF's, while others have them not even making the playoffs. While I think the latter is ridiculous, I actually don't believe the first one either. This team is ready ... they can win this year. From Tom Hicks to Brett Hull and Les Jackson to Dave Tippett and his staff - the organization is top-notch. Brendan Morrow is the very definition of Captain. They have the perfect mixture of veterans and youth. Most importantly, they have a room full of guys that believe in the system, believe in each other, and believe they can win now! It is going to be a fun and exciting campaign ... and I am thankful to have a front-row seat for all of it!

One injury note: Jere Lehtinen is once again dealing with a groin problem. He did not practice on Wednesday and may not play in Friday's home opener. Let us sincerely hope this does not linger.

Opening Day Roster:

Forwards - Avery, Barch, Brunnstrom, Crombeen, Eriksson, Lehtinen, Lundqvist, Modano, Morrow, Neal, Ott, Petersen, Ribeiro, and Richards

Defensemen - Boucher, Daley, Fistric, Grossman, Janik, Niskanen, Robidas, and Zubov

Goalies - Stephan and Turco

Since the season preview site was unable to be finished in time, here are some of my predictions for 2008-2009...

*Brad Richards will hit the 90-point plateau, making him only the 7th player in franchise history to do so; Morrow and Ribeiro will each score 60+ points

*Brunnstrom will win the Calder trophy; Turco will finally be at least mentioned for the Vezina

*Otter, Avery, Barch, and Crombeen - the Stars may lead the league in PIM's - and that will be a good thing

*Eastern Conference playoff teams, in order - Canadiens, Penguins, Capitals, Rangers, Devils, Lightening, Flyers, and Senators (Thrashers in last place)

*West Conference playoff teams, in order - Red Wings, Stars, Flames, Sharks, Ducks, Wild, Blackhawks, and Oilers (Kings in last place)

*ECF's - Canadiens over Lightening (in 6)

*WCF's - Stars over Red Wings (in 7)

*Stanley Cup Champions - DALLAS STARS (in 6)

Previous Blog - Ready . . .

Ready . . .

*I still have spots open in 2 fantasy hockey leagues on yahoo ... email nephew23_1@yahoo.com if you are interested*

The door bell rang the other day and as usual the dogs let me know about it. By the time I got there I heard the best sound in the world … the UPS truck was driving away! Sure enough, the email I received just two days prior – telling me a package had been shipped – was, in fact, telling the truth. Since I mostly home office, the UPS driver frequently visits our home. Only this delivery was particularly important, because the package was filled with highly valuable contents. Inside was my nine-month long Christmas gift … my Dallas Stars season tickets! Family, dogs, work, and anything else going on immediately went to the back burner. Most people would say it was simply two books of colored cardstock, but for me it was paid entry to nine months of the ultimate fun! Work has been relentless since school began so there has been little time to focus on hockey. Receiving my tickets brought me back to the entrance of my happy place, and keeping track of the Stars’ first pre-season game last night thrust me through the doors. My hockey pants are fully jumping! I cannot wait to head to the AAC tomorrow night to watch the Stars take on the Avalanche … and Friday, October 10, is getting closer by the minute. Are you ready?!?!

After a third-place overall finish and two wins away from the Stanley Cup Finals, the Dallas Stars are chomping at the bit to get back on the ice and challenge the hated Detroit Red Wings for stellar intergalactic domination! Of course other teams stand in the way, but odds are that in May of 2009, Stars vs. Wings II will take place for a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. I find it hilarious that Eklund has Dallas not even making the playoffs! In fact, I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! What happened during the off-season that would make this team finish out of the post-season? Will the loss of Barnes, Norstrom, Halpern, Jokinen, Miettinen, and Hagman hurt us that bad? Was it a bad decision to bring in Richards, Avery, and Brunnstrom? Is it wrong to go with a rookie backup goal-tender and three rookie defensemen? The Stars may have been the 6th seed two years in a row, but keep in mind they had a comfortable lead in the division last season way into early March. San Jose went on an amazing run and several key Stars went down with injuries. Furthermore, the team scored more goals in the Western Conference than any other team but Detroit. They may have lost some goal-scorers in the off-season but they certainly added some as well. Finally, last time I checked, Marty Turco is still in net. I mention all of that to make this point – there is no question this team will make the playoffs. The question, barring major injuries of course, is will they have enough left in the tank to finish off the champs? I firmly believe the answer is YES!

Some quick notes on this early season…

*Dallas lost to St. Louis last night 3-2; Eriksson and Avery had the goals; the Stars had 66 minutes in penalties – Barch, Avery, and Otter were the main culprits; rookie Tobias Stephan gave up all 3 goals in 2 periods of net-minding; rookie Matt Climie replaced Stephan for the third period, giving up no goals on 4 shots … we are beginning to hear his name more around here.

*Coach Tippett is experimenting with multiple different lines, including putting Mike Modano on a wing with Richards and Lehtinen or Avery; another line that clicked well in practice today was Eriksson, Ott, and Crombeen – according to www.dallasstars.com, during a scrimmage, the line was a +5 with Crombeen scoring a natural hat trick and Otter scoring the other 2 goals – its only practice, but that’s pretty impressive.

*Also according to www.dallasstars.com, defenseman Philippe Boucher has a sore enough foot that he will not even put on skates for 10 days??? Not sure what happened, but I was fully expecting him to be healthy and ready to go after last year’s injury-plagued season.

*The Stars sent 5 players back to their junior teams – Tyler Beskorowany, Luke Gazdic, Sergei Korostin, Guillaume Monast, and Colton Sceviour. This takes the roster to 43 players.

Our Team, Our Time … GO STARS!