It’s been impressive what the Stars have been able to accomplish in the past week since the trade deadline, in the past three games the Stars are 3-0-0 scoring twelve goals in the streak. New leaders have arrived as well as players like Vernon Fiddler, Eric Nystrom and Alex Chiasson have thrived in bigger minutes and bigger roles for the team. Tonight the Stars face off against the injury-plagued Nashville Predators. Nashville missing key players like Paul Gaustad and Gabriel Bourque from it’s lineup tonight. Dallas also missing Kari Lehtonen will rely on Richard Bachman until Kari is back from his lower body injury. Dallas jumped on the Predators early in the game and never took their foot off the gas in this game as Nashville was simply no match for the Stars tonight.

First Period

It was clear from the beginning that Dallas was going to take advantage of the inexperience of the Nashville lineup which they did holding Nashville without a shot in the first ten minutes of the period. Nashville did out shoot Dallas 6-5 in the period, but Dallas made their shots count as Dallas scored two goals within a short amount of time at the 6:04 mark of the period when a hardworking shift by Nystrom-Fiddler-Cole resulted in a goal as Eric Cole fired a slapshot past Nashville goaltender Chris Mason for his fifth goal as a Star and eighth of the season. Shortly after at the 8:40 mark of the period, while on the powerplay Dallas cashed in when Ray Whitney was set up for a one timer on the left face-off dot by Alex Goligoski for his tenth goal of the season. After Dallas obtained the two goal lead Nashville looked for ways to get themselves back into the game and got some momentum when Rich Clune who spent the entire first period looking for a fight and finally got one towards the end of the first period when Antoine Roussel answered Clune’s challenge. Before the end of the period Nashville cut Dallas’ lead to one goal as Taylor Beck scored his third goal of the season at the 18:42 mark of the period making the game 2-1 after the first.

Second Period

Dallas struck quickly to regain their two goal lead as the fourth line got on the score sheet when Tom Wandell finished a play created by Ryan Garbutt and Antoine Roussel for his first NHL goal in over a year. Nashville tried to answer throughout the period, but Richard Bachman held the Predators scoreless in the second stopping all nine Nashville shots. Dallas created a deeper hole for Nashville at the 11:12 mark of the period when Alex Chiasson scored his fourth goal of the season. Dallas ended the period with a big penalty kill and took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.

Third Period

The period was mostly a mop up one for the Stars as they were just playing the last twenty minutes. At the 7:03 mark of the period Alex Chiasson scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the season giving Dallas a 5-1 lead. Nashville had a small attempt at a comeback at the 12:12 mark of the period when Bobby Butler scored his second goal of the season, but the comeback was soon put away when Sergei Kostitsyn got a boarding major at the 16:31 mark of the period putting the game away and giving Dallas a 5-2 victory for their fourth victory in a row.

Game Extras

• Richard Bachman won his fourth straight decision and five of his last six
• Vernon Fiddler earned two assist tonight, pushing him to a five game point streak. Fiddler has fifteen points on the season (3g, 12a) and eight of those points have come during the streak.
• Playoff  Update: With the break, Dallas was three points behind eighth place Detroit in the west. With the win tonight Dallas is only 1 point behind Detroit with eight games remaining.
• Alex Chiasson didn’t register a point in his first NHL game, but has in his last four including all five goals.
• Three Stars of the Game Chosen by Nashville Media: 1. Alex Chiasson 2. Ray Whitney 3. Vernon Fiddler
• The Stars return home to face the Sharks tomorrow, puck drops at 7:00 pm

Riding the momentum of an epic win Sunday against San Jose, the Stars needed any kind of spark in their game tonight against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings are 8-1-1 in their last ten games against the Stars in the American Airlines Center, and with players like Justin Williams and Jeff Carter playing really hot right now and Jonathan Quick looking like the MVP he was last season, the Stars certainly looked to have their hands full tonight, but as the young players have stepped up the past few games tonight the veterans took charge and lead the Stars to a 5-1 victory over Los Angeles.

First Period

It didn’t take long and the Stars were already on the penalty kill as Loui Eriksson took a double minor for high sticking only 34 seconds into the game. Los Angeles didn’t take long on converting the first powerplay into a goal as Drew Doughty scored his fourth of the season. Dallas killed off the second opportunity and began to grind their way back into this game with physical play. Dallas dominated the last ten minutes of the period and were able to draw the Los Angeles Kings into two penalties they didn’t score on the first one, but six seconds after it expired Alex Goligoski scored his second goal of the season on a slapshot from the point tying the game at one. At the 14:18 mark of the period the game went into a tv timeout and during the break, Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen had skated off the ice and went down the Stars’ tunnel with the teams medical staff and Richard Bachman had entered the game. Bachman had a combined 34 1/2 minutes played in his previous two games and hadn’t had a start since February 26th. Dallas made it the rest of the period allowing three shots on Bachman in the final five minutes of the period. The Kings and Stars were tied at one after one period.

Second Period

No goals were scored in the second, but none the less this period was one of the best the Stars played all season. The Stars penalty kill was really put to the test this period as an Aaron Rome double-minor for high sticking put the Stars in a corner, but a round of applause to Richard Bachman, Eric Nystrom, Vernon Fiddler, Alex Goligoski, Stephane Robidas, Trevor Daley, Brenden Dillon, Cody Eakin, and Eric Cole as they kept the Stars in the game and gave them a big momentum push killing off two penalties in the second period and not really allowing a premium scoring chance for the Kings. Dallas faced 17 LA shots in the period and eight on the powerplay, but they stood strong and kept the game tied at one going into the third period.

Third Period

The Stars opening rush into the offensive zone paid off greatly as Alex Chiasson set up Ray Whitney for his eighth goal of the season just 52 seconds into the period. This seemed to have a domino effect on the Kings as Dallas scored three additional goals this period, including another one by Ray Whitney and two by Vernon Fiddler. Dallas dominated Los Angeles in the third period and shut them down to just five shots giving Richard Bachman 22 saves on 22 shots as the Stars defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1.

Game Extras

• Congratulations to Ed Belfour who was named as a member of the 20th Anniversary Team
• Kari Lehtonen left tonight’s game with a “Lower Body Injury” and will be re-evaluated Wednesday.
• PLAYOFF WATCH: With tonight’s win Dallas leapfrogs over Columbus to ninth place in the west and only two points behind eighth place Detroit, and nine games remaining this season and the regular season finale will be against Detroit this year.
• Stephane Robidas and Trevor Daley both ended tonights game a +4 on the scoresheet. The +4 brings Daley and Robidas to an even 0 on the season.
• With tonight’s win Richard Bachman has won his last three decisions in a row including the game against the Minnesota Wild where he played a full 2:32 to pick up the win.
• Kings’ player names you heard a lot of tonight: Regehr, Richards, and Quick. Names you didn’t hear a lot of: Kopitar, Carter, Williams
• Official Attendance for tonight’s game: 16,367
• Three Stars of the Game chosen by John Tranchina of the Associated Press: 1. Ray Whitney 2. Vernon Fiddler 3. Stephane Robidas
• Keep Dallas Pesky honorable mention to Richard Bachman as he made 22 saves on 22 King shots in relief of Kari Lehtonen tonight.
• The Stars have a couple of days off before they travel to Music City to finish their season series against the Nashville Predators Friday, puck drops at 7:00 pm

(Photo taken by Melissa Grissom)

NHL 13 is the new hockey video game created and published by Electronic Arts in their sports division. Electronic Arts is also responsible for such video games as The Sims franchise and the legendary Madden franchise. NHL has come a long way in developing its hockey series including new things each year like Winter Classic Mode or the use of NHL legends which were new features in NHL 12, or the constant work they put into their already successful modes such as the EASHL (Electronic Arts Sports Hockey League) which is an online mode in which players ”create a pro” and through playing online games build their players attributes from rookie to legend status, or HUT (Hockey Ultimate Team) which is a league in which players create the ultimate team through the use of hockey cards starting off with a bunch of players not really heard of around the world and then working to build the ultimate team.

Earlier this week the team and player ratings for NHL 13 were released and including a statement from EA saying that they have changed their system of rating players. In NHL 12 players attributes and overalls were considered by their playing style so many times tough guys had higher overalls than a two-way forward or grinders, but that didn’t mean they were a better player. For example George Parros in NHL 12 had an overall of 82 as a tough guy and Alex Goligoski’s overall was 83. That doesn’t mean that George Parros is just as good as Goligoski, but as a tough guy he is 83 overall not as a general hockey player. For NHL 13 they have based the overalls on the players skills overall and not by what type of player they are, so for starters this season George Parros will have a rating of 69. Below we will look at the Dallas Stars’ updated team rating and player ratings from the end of NHL 12 and the starting ones for NHL 13

» Continue reading “NHL 13 Dallas Stars Team and Player Ratings”

Derek Roy (Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr)

Center/#11

May 4, 1983 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

5’9″/184

GP: 80

G: 17

A: 27

P: 44

+/- :  -7

Contract Status: 1 year deal for $4 million

On July 2nd, the day after the free agency frenzy, the Dallas Stars traded fan favorite Steve Ott and defensemen Adam Pardy for center Derek Roy, who will take the spot of departed center, Mike Ribeiro who was traded to the Washington Capitals. A few weeks later after the trade, the Stars learned that Roy needed surgery for a posterior labrum on his shoulder and he will be out until November. The situation with trading Roy for Ott showed confidence of the front office and a risky trade but maybe after Roy comes back from surgery, he will prove to the NHL that he can be that second line center, the Stars have been looking for. Derek Roy did tell the media that he was willing to play with the shoulder injury but the Stars didn’t want to take a risk with him, making the injury worse. Here’s more on Roy talking about the shoulder injury via from Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News:

Roy will likely be out until late November after he had surgery to tighten up a loose shoulder he had been playing through since last season. Roy had a very difficult season injury-wise, and he spoke with John Vogel of the Buffalo News in April as the Sabres were cleaning out their lockers. Here was his quote:

“Doc said it was going to take two years to get back to 100 percent. I had a tough stretch. I missed the exhibition games when I got injured (shoulder), and I got injured in July working out (a hamstring injury before last season), as well. Nobody knew about that one, but I took maybe a month off this summer. I pulled my hamstring in the summertime. That was tough working out. I took some time off and had to come in and do therapy every day on it. That was a tough stretch, then training camp came around and I got injured again (with the shoulder). Usually, I’m not injury prone at all, and it was tough to start the season off with those two injuries. I had a hard time going, and it’s still bothering me now to this day with both injuries. I’m going to take a month off and do absolutely nothing and try to rest and get back into shape and get ready for the season.”

» Continue reading “Player Profile: Derek Roy”

future of the Stars (Photo taken by Melissa Grissom)

Dallas Stars free agency campaign were a big player, as General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk backed by Stars owner Tom Gaglardi certainly completely changed the look of this team with the free agent acquisitions of Jaromir Jagr and Ray Whitney and trade acquistions of Cody Eakin and Derek Roy, but how will the lines look this season, what the team might be missing, and who else might suit up in a Dallas Stars uniform this season:

Line 1: Eriksson  Benn  Jagr

After the Jagr deal was announced media members stated on a board in GM Joe Nieuwendyk’s office there was a board with these three names written on it, obviously if Jagr can do with Loui Eriksson and Jamie Benn what he did with Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux last season with the Philadelphia Flyers then this line will be a big threat of size and skill.

Line 2:  Whitney  Roy  Ryder

The remaining top offensive forwards will go to the second line where in Ray Whitney and Derek Roy you have guys who like to create plays and in Michael Ryder and once again Derek Roy who like to shoot the puck. The line is also a lot more capable of handling business on the defensive end of the ice, which is why Mike Ribeiro was dealt this offseason to have a better two way threat with his centers.

(Note: the third and fourth lines are complete speculation and how I would do the lines with the players left.)

Line 3:  Morrow  Fiddler  Vincour

Vernon Fiddler, one of only two Stars to play all 82 games last season would center the third line once again, but with new linemates in captain Brenden Morrow and young Tomas Vincour. Fiddler would be looking to keep up the pesky play he brought last season and Brenden Morrow will be looking for a bounce back season and Tomas Vincour will get more ice time with this new opportunity.

Line 4: Nystrom Eakin Garbutt/Wandell

This fourth line would be a real bunch of hard-working blue collar types who will simply outwork their opponents and this way Cody Eakin is not pushed too fast and can develop into the center that Dallas wants him to be. » Continue reading “Stars Lineup: Forwards”

Dvorak: Part of the Stars Plans (Photo Taken by Melissa Grissom)

#20/ Right Wing

March 9th, 1977 in Tabor, Czech Republic

6’2/ 195 lbs

GP: 73

G: 4

A: 17

P: 21

+/-  -16

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent

Part of the free agent splash last season Radek Dvorak brought a gritty veteran bottom six presence that Dallas had been missing for a while. His instant chemistry with center Vernon Fiddler and later left wing Eric Nystrom  the trio were often looked at as the best checking line in the NHL. Early in the season Dvorak was off to a real slow start, then after the acquisition of Nystrom Dvorak’s numbers in November and December improved greatly but once the new year came the trio’s production halted greatly and they were often exposed going head to head with the top lines of other teams, hence the negative sixteen rating to end the season.

Radek Dvorak has been a long time NHL veteran and came to Dallas on a one year deal to bring a veteran presence and that is probably it. The Dallas Stars have many young prospects like Tomas Vincour, Colton Sceviour and the Smiths (Austin and Reilly) looking to crack the NHL roster and Dvorak’s services with the Stars have probably ended.