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| Stars backing down at the wrong time |
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| Pacific |
| Written by Curtis Zupke |
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 02:06 |
Only a pair of overturned goals in the final minutes Sunday kept the Stars' playoff hopes alive. Once atop the Pacific Division, Dallas needs a few more prayers answered just to squeak in with a low seed.If the Dallas Stars make the playoffs, it will be because of a frantic, adrenaline-filled push that goes down to the regular season finale.If they fall short, it will be because they peaked too soon. Neither scenario reflects well in the long term for the Stars, who have fulfilled projections as a team with little depth in the first season of the post-Mike Modano era. Dallas led the Pacific Division on Jan. 14 with a 26-13-5 record but has gone 13-15-6 since, including 2-5-3 in the past 10 games. That remarkable start was fueled by a healthy lineup and a goalie, Kari Lehtonen, who has ably replaced ex-Star Marty Turco. But when star center Brad Richards and defenseman Nicklas Grossman, among others, missed significant time with injuries, Dallas reverted to the fifth-place Pacific Division team that most pundits pegged them for in the preseason. Even after Sunday night’s 4-3 victory against Anaheim that kept them in contention, at least one Star player mentioned their second-half fade. “We’d like to be able to kind of dictate your own pace a little bit better, but we let a lot of games slip and we’re looking at those as mistakes that we made,” captain Brenden Morrow said.  Part of their struggles came because late-season forward call-ups such as Tomas Vincour, Brandon Segal and Jason Williams haven’t had significant offensive contributions.Dallas is in the second year of coach Marc Crawford’s puck-possession system, and they might not have the depth or the defense in front of Lehtonen to fully implement it when injuries hit. The Stars were 15-6 in one-goal games before Jan.15 and 7-10 afterward. They finished 9-10-5 in the Pacific Division. Add to that the franchise’s uncertain ownership situation and the impending free agency of Richards, and this appears to be the flip side to the club’s annual playoff runs earlier this decade. But there are positives to build on. The Stars’ core group of forwards – Richards, Morrow, Mike Ribeiro, Loui Eriksson and Adam Burish – can be as effective as any in the division. Defenseman Alex Goligoski has turned out to be a useful pickup in a trade with Pittsburgh. Dallas has four winnable games remaining, starting Tuesday against Columbus, followed by two games against lowly Colorado and then Minnesota. It will have to win out to avoid missing the playoffs three years in a row for the first time since 1974-76, when the franchise was in Minnesota. How close were they to being effectively eliminated Sunday? The Stars barely escaped out of Anaheim when the Ducks had two goals waved off in the final two minutes. When reporters entered the locker room, one could almost hear a collective exhale. “Everyone’s smiling here, so that’s a good thing,” Ribeiro said. “Usually when you win, you get on a roll. There are no more (finding) ways to lose. You have to find ways to win and today we did.” NotesAnaheim G Ray Emery was an obvious nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy for dedication and perseverance after he came back from career-threatening hip surgery … Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray had a meeting with slumping winger Dustin Penner last Friday after he felt Penner’s work ethic was lacking. “I needed to see more,” Murray said. “That was the basis of the meeting. I liked what I saw (Saturday). I saw the improvement. I saw a greater attention to get things accomplished in the offensive part of the game. It was a good start.” … Former Ducks C Andrew Ebbett has ably filled in for Martin Hanzal in Phoenix. Ebbett won 10 of 13 faceoffs in a 2-1 victory against Dallas last week … If the first Ducks-Kings playoff series doesn’t happen, another Ducks-San Jose series might have just as much vitriol given last Saturday night’s game in which Douglas Murray knocked Lubomir Visnovsky out of the game and Ducks coach Randy Carlyle jawed at the Sharks after the final buzzer. The teams play again Wednesday.Photos by Getty Images
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, April 05, 2011 02:41 |
