The Dallas Stars are in survival mode, with six of their top nine forwards injured and Ales Hemsky and Mattias Janmark already done for the season. It’s been a brutal fall for the Stars, a Stanley Cup contender in many people’s estimation — but not with the roster they iced this week in Alberta.
The Stars lost three players at the World Cup of Hockey, when Hemsky injured his hip, while Radek Faksa (concussion) and Tyler Seguin (broken bone in his heel) have since returned. Now, Jason Spezza has come up with a hip flexor issue, Jiri Hudler has been felled by a virus and missed his sixth game Friday, Patrick Sharp has missed 11 games with a concussion, and Cody Eakin (knee) hasn’t even played yet.
Eakin and Sharp are close to returning, as is Hudler, we can only assume.
“You can’t use excuses (as a team),” said Jamie Benn, who had off-season core-muscle surgery, and to these eyes isn’t yet up to speed. “I’m good enough to play.”
Everyone gets injuries, sure. But it’s all about how many, and how important the injured players are. We’re 15 games into the season, and the Stars are maxing out in both categories.
“You have to get the job done,” said head coach Lindy Ruff, whose hobbled Stars pulled off an impressive sweep of Alberta late in the week. “You just look at the personnel you have and you have to make it work. You still have games to win and the personnel you have has to play well.”
Ruff, who comes from a little town called Warburg, which lies 50 minutes southwest of Edmonton, had a long look at the new Rogers Place upon his first visit Friday.
“Fabulous facility,” he marvelled. “I shouldn’t probably say this but you come from Calgary and you go from small to big in a hurry. The whole project here is incredible.”
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Victims Services
Speaking of Calgary, the quote of the week comes from Calgary Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan, who watched his team erase a 2-0 deficit to Dallas on Thursday, but fail to take that momentum through the third period in a 4-2 loss.
“We’re finding ways to lose,” Gulutzan said post-game in Calgary. “There are certain things we’re doing well, but we’re finding ways to lose. We need somebody now to step up and find a way to win, and stop playing the victim. That’s really what we need.”
Stop playing the victim? Where do you think that comes from?
Sure, the Flames are 5-9-1 out of the gate, tied with Vancouver but just three points removed from the playoff line. Their first-line centre, Sean Monahan, has had a terrible start, with four goals, two assists and a minus-10 thus far.
But playing the victim? We love the quote up here in the press box. Not sure how it will go over in the Flames dressing room, however.
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The McDavid Show
The best line on Connor McDavid’s speed came from Sidney Crosby, when he said, “If you’re even with him, you’re in big trouble.” Most guys, you’re OK with being beside on a rush. Not McDavid, who has a gear that no one else has.
The 19-year-old showed us a few things on the Oilers’ recently completed five-game road trip. He had just two points in five games heading into Detroit, with the score 1-1 late in the second period. Then McDavid drew a penalty, won the ensuing faceoff, and set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a power-play goal. Boom — game winner.
Then in Pittsburgh, in the much-hyped first meeting between Crosby and McDavid, the young Oiler had three assists going head to head with his childhood idol. We’re not saying McDavid is a better player today — we’re not saying that — but he was a better player in that game, with pride on the line from both sides.
Did Crosby have any fun in his first game against McDavid?
“Yeah, after [Crosby’s minus-2] first period,” he chuckled to the media in Pitt. “It’s one thing to kind of watch games and see it. Out there, you can tell that he really needs no time and space at all. If you’re even with him, you’re in big trouble, so you better make sure you’re a step ahead.”
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Rocky Goaltending
What’s up in Colorado, where the Avs are off to another pedestrian start; 5-7 and dead last in the Central heading into Friday night’s visit by Winnipeg? Well, one major issue is goaltending, with Semyon Varlamov’s numbers (3.67 goals-against average, .881 save percentage) simply not good enough.
Varlamov has two more years after this season left on his deal, with an AAV of $5.9 million. The money is huge, but that isn’t what’s killing the Avs. It’s sub-par goaltending that undermines everything a team is trying to accomplish that really hurts. Varlamov has to turn things around. He’s only 28, an age that should be a goalie’s prime.
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Win Some, Lose Some
I have to say, I’ve got the ultimate respect for both Flames GM Brad Treliving and Canucks GM Jim Benning when it comes to looking at a hockey player and knowing whether he’ll be a player or not. It’s a lot harder than it appears. But a couple of developments this season are proof that every GM has his bad moments.
We’re all wrong on a player now and again, but when Treliving signed Nicklas Grossman, all I could hear were the many voices in Philadelphia and Arizona who had told me, “Great guy, but he can’t keep up anymore.” Then, along comes 22-year-old Brett Kulak — a fourth-round pick of Calgary’s in 2012 who is really developing into an NHLer this season — and Grossman finds himself clearing waivers and on his way to AHL Stockton.
UPDATE:
Kulak is young and mobile, while Grossman is 31 and, well, used to be mobile. Had Treliving projected Kulak at training camp he might never have signed Grossman. But again, it’s impossible to predict when players are going to take a step — forward or back.
And you can dig up my tweets from the day the Canucks signed Philip Larsen. I didn’t think he could be an effective NHL defenceman then or now, and I suspect he’ll be back in Europe before long. He is just too small to play five-on-five defence in the NHL. Larsen was a healthy scratch for the last two games, and can’t keep young Troy Stecher out of the lineup.
He has four assists this season in 13 games, but his five-on-five play doesn’t cut it. He’s very small.
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Obama Connections
There has been plenty of action at the White House this week, which had former NHLer Fernando Pisani talking about being a Chicago Blackhawk when they visited the President Obama after winning the 2010 Stanley Cup.
“Brent Sopel walks right up to President Obama and he says, ‘Hey, what’s going on with my green card?’” Pisani recalls in disbelief. “I mean, who does that?!?”
The President gave Sopel the business card of someone who could help him. I guess sometimes you just have to ask.
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Virtanen Deadline
An old time hockey coach once joked: “These are the two biggest lies in hockey. My roommate is a heavy sleeper, and we’re only sending you down to the minors for a couple games.”
The Canucks finally farmed out Jake Virtanen after a couple of games in the press box as a healthy scratch. We can all agree, the worst decision you can make regarding a 20-year-old player is to let him languish, and Virtanen’s ice time in the last three games he played was diminishing: 11:33, 8:33 and 7:13. He has one assist in 10 games.
But here’s where we have questions. GM Benning announced that Virtanen would play two games in Utica and the rejoin the Canucks.
Why tell Virtanen he’s only going down for two games? What if he doesn’t play well, or for the sake of conversation, what if he brings a bad attitude and doesn’t give it his all?
You can call him up after two games if you wish. I wonder though, why announce it to the world when you don’t have to?