Everyone more pessimistic than me is a doomer, everyone more optimistic is delusional.
This weekend sucked, but it's kind of hard to get upset about a couple of losses coming off a 7 game win streak where they outright stole 2 games and played some of the others close enough to be coin flips. Sucks that the division seems out of reach now, but I think that was always more of a hope than anything. Colorado's not unbeatable in a 7 game series with home ice, even if a Miro-less Stars are the underdogs.
Watching Winnipeg play grown man hockey against a surging St. Louis team while Dallas putt putts around versus also-rans doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I think I just turned to the dark side.
I started seeing the Ceci we know from the playoffs over the weekend, especially the Pitt game, horrendous turnovers, bad pinches, and then whatever the hell he was doing when he ran into Harley. Ceci fades badly when overused. 20 min a night for him is a recipe for disaster.
I’ve liked Dumba much more as the season has gone on and like that 3rd pair. Perfect 8-13 min 3rd pair.
The doomerism is well warranted if Ceci is playing 20+ per game in the playoffs.
Stars are desperate for RHD. The mikko trade still has made zero sense to me, not only this season but now the 8 more after. I get it if mikko was the type of player that didn't need literally anyone else (i.e. mcdavid/mack/eichel esque) to succeed on a line but I really don't think mikko is that guy. Time will tell I guess but we have like zero RHD potential even in the system. I'll gladly eat my words when the stars finally get "that" goal from someone in the playoffs and it's mikko
Hard the read a lot into these games at this point in the season. They've been playing for over 6 months, they're ready for the season to be done and they just want to get through these last few games without anyone getting hurt. This team is better than last year and the year before. Even with the injuries we've got the best chance to win the Cup in a long time. On to the playoffs!
What I have seen in the last few games is the other team regardless of who it is are charging the red line on Dallas. They are taking the puck and heading it back into the Dallas zone so quick that thevDallas players are going up ice while the puck is going to other way. In the mean time Dallas doesn’t have control of any section of the ice on defense. Somewhere teams haved watch film and saw that crowding Dallas red line was the way to beat Dallas. Since the NHL is a copycat league all the teams know it now. How does it change other than the Stars making better passes I don’t know. I do know even the best teams can’t stand to get outshot by 30% every game and still win.
So, still focused on the D corp when Miro returns and this article kinda backs up what I saw over the weekend. Lian makes some mistakes for sure but he just shows up when he is on the ice and he gets better by the game. Based on how we have been outhit in the past during playoffs I don’t see how we can sit him. So right now here are my top six and the 7th guy if Miro is back…
Everyone more pessimistic than me is a doomer, everyone more optimistic is delusional.
This weekend sucked, but it's kind of hard to get upset about a couple of losses coming off a 7 game win streak where they outright stole 2 games and played some of the others close enough to be coin flips. Sucks that the division seems out of reach now, but I think that was always more of a hope than anything. Colorado's not unbeatable in a 7 game series with home ice, even if a Miro-less Stars are the underdogs.
Watching Winnipeg play grown man hockey against a surging St. Louis team while Dallas putt putts around versus also-rans doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I think I just turned to the dark side.
I started seeing the Ceci we know from the playoffs over the weekend, especially the Pitt game, horrendous turnovers, bad pinches, and then whatever the hell he was doing when he ran into Harley. Ceci fades badly when overused. 20 min a night for him is a recipe for disaster.
I’ve liked Dumba much more as the season has gone on and like that 3rd pair. Perfect 8-13 min 3rd pair.
The doomerism is well warranted if Ceci is playing 20+ per game in the playoffs.
I will do some hockey GM hindsight now, but not really since I wanted Nill to go after a Top 4 D even before Miro's injury.
How about going after Dobson for a similar but slightly smaller package that would have included Stankoven?
Would this have affected the offense that much since we were really not that bad before Rantanen and with Seguin's return?
The D before the return of Miro would have been something like this:
Harley-Dobson
Lindell-Lyu
Bichsel-Ceci
And with Miro:
Harley-Miro
Lindell-Dobson
Bichsel-Lyu
Would that be a much better roster for the PO?
And let's not forget the lower amount of Cap space for Dobson's extension that could have been used for either Duchene, Granlund or Benn.
1000000%
Stars are desperate for RHD. The mikko trade still has made zero sense to me, not only this season but now the 8 more after. I get it if mikko was the type of player that didn't need literally anyone else (i.e. mcdavid/mack/eichel esque) to succeed on a line but I really don't think mikko is that guy. Time will tell I guess but we have like zero RHD potential even in the system. I'll gladly eat my words when the stars finally get "that" goal from someone in the playoffs and it's mikko
Hard the read a lot into these games at this point in the season. They've been playing for over 6 months, they're ready for the season to be done and they just want to get through these last few games without anyone getting hurt. This team is better than last year and the year before. Even with the injuries we've got the best chance to win the Cup in a long time. On to the playoffs!
What I have seen in the last few games is the other team regardless of who it is are charging the red line on Dallas. They are taking the puck and heading it back into the Dallas zone so quick that thevDallas players are going up ice while the puck is going to other way. In the mean time Dallas doesn’t have control of any section of the ice on defense. Somewhere teams haved watch film and saw that crowding Dallas red line was the way to beat Dallas. Since the NHL is a copycat league all the teams know it now. How does it change other than the Stars making better passes I don’t know. I do know even the best teams can’t stand to get outshot by 30% every game and still win.
So, still focused on the D corp when Miro returns and this article kinda backs up what I saw over the weekend. Lian makes some mistakes for sure but he just shows up when he is on the ice and he gets better by the game. Based on how we have been outhit in the past during playoffs I don’t see how we can sit him. So right now here are my top six and the 7th guy if Miro is back…
Miro
Harley
Lindell
Lybushkin
Lian
Dumba
Ceci