MVN - Most Valuable Network

Stars stumble in Motown

So let me see if I can sum up tonight’s game between the Stars and Detroit in one neat little line.

“Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” No… that doesn’t seem right.

“Ya win some, but you lose most of ‘em in Detroit.” Meh… close but not quite.

How about: “Stars end up looking like deer caught in the headlights belonging to mack truck driven by the Red Wings”

Ya know that pretty much sums it up.

Make no mistake about it, Detroit is a great team… the best in the league and head and shoulders ahead of any other team - west or east - and when you get them at home? With them sporting a 17-3-1 record at Joe Lewis Arena, fuggehtaboutit!

Not only that, but Marty Turco has never won at the Joe.. He’s 1-9-5 against them and with that one win coming from a shootout victory he has yet to beat them in regulation. Not that Turco was really the problem tonight mind you, 22 saves on 26 shots and the four goals that were scored on him were quality chances that many goalies - even the top tier ones - would have had issues stopping.

Johan Franzen able to walk in alone to deke Turco out of his pads in the second… Dallas Drake’s first as a new/old member of the Red Wings off of a one-timer… Pavel Datsyuk’s beautiful redirection tip in front of Turco off of a Nicklas Lidstrom point shot. Marty was thrown into a lion’s den tonight and unfortunately unlike Detroit’s football lions, the lions Marty faced on the ice are plenty enough fierce. You could argue he should have stopped the first goal scored by Daniel Cleary and I’d listen to it and possibly agree… He also could have been better against Franzen and maybe shouldn’t have bitten so hard on the deke, but Franzen is a quality puck handler so I don’t know if I’d fault Marty for it.

Besides, the fact he has such a poor record against the Wings has to rent space in his head. I won’t claim to know how exactly Marty approaches every opponent he takes on night in and night out, but the thoughts running through his head against any of the other 28 teams has to be different than the ones he has when he’s about to face the Red Wings. I’d almost blame the whole being deked silly by Franzen on him over thinking in the net against these guys.

Loui Eriksson did end up picking up a goal late in the third for the Stars as he scored on a wraparound chance as the Stars managed to catch every Red Wing - including goalie Chris Osgood - out of position and scrambling a bit. Joel Lundqvist and Mark Fistric picked up the helpers… for Fistric it was his first NHL point so congrats to him.

And just why was Fistric in the lineup tonight? Because Zubov stayed behind in Dallas with a slight hand injury he picked up after getting hit with a puck during the Nashville game. That meant three rookies on the blueline along with equally young Daley, Robidas and a still getting back into game shape Norstrom.

You know I think the world of the Stars youth on defense and see very bright futures for Niskanen, Fistric and Grossman.. but did they honestly have a chance in Hockeytown against the NHL’s best offense?

They too like their goalie were indeed like a deer caught in the headlights.

One kid that did impress me with his play tonight though was Brad Winchester who finally saw some game action and was quite a spitfire at times for the Stars. Maybe just maybe he’s earned himself a little more icetime with his hard work.

Chris Conner - a Michigan native - also had himself a solid game and had a clever way of trying to get a goal in the first period.. after falling during a goal mouth scramble at the Wings net, he quite literally ‘punched’ the puck into the net. Nothing sneaky really about it and clearly saw by the ref and quickly waved off. More good for a chuckle I’m sure than anything else.

Mike Modano was honored before the game by the Red Wings and owner Mike Ilitch who also happens to own the Little Caesars pizza chain that sponsors/owns the youth hockey team that Mike played for back as a child.. They presented him with a framed Little Caesars jersey with his name and number. Very classy move for Ilitch and the Wings and the Detroit fans seemed to love that they were honoring one of their hometown - or suburb of their hometown as it were - heroes.

Dave Tippett tonight very much tried to roll four lines against the Wings and no one player had less than 11 minutes worth of action on the ice… But by mid-way through the second it was apparant Tippett was not only rolling all four lines but switching the lines up - including putting Modano in Ribiero’s spot on the top line while putting Ribs with Halpern and Ott - in order to get something… anything from the Stars forwards who suddenly have hit a dry spell goal scoring wise.

Granted the Stars had their chances, but really they didn’t generate traffic in front of the net or get many second chances off of rebounds and the like. Then again, that could also be attributed to just how good the Red Wings are. They can easily shut down any team in the league just like they did to the Stars tonight.

Yes the Stars looked slower… Yes they looked more tentative… Yes they could have used a few timely saves… But is that all on the Stars? Or is it because Detroit is just that good? I gotta be honest, I’m leaning towards Detroit being that good. I think Dallas fans can take heart that their Stars aren’t the first team to look like a second rate club against the Wings. I’ve seen them do the same to quite a handful of other teams this season.

The possibly bad news is Dallas gets another shot at them on Saturday - thankfully at the AAC. Between now and then though is a visit to their old stomping grounds Minnesota for a Thursday match against the Wild who themselves have issues with not only the Red Wings but of course the Stars in recent weeks.

Game time from Minny is 7 pm Dallas time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.