How is this for full disclosure? I hate the Stars. I hate Modano. I hate Barnaby. I hate Jussi Jokinen. I really hate Eric Lindros. Hell, I still hate Bill Guerin, and he doesn't even play for them anymore. But they are a damn fine hockey club. That applies to regular season only, of course, because we've all seen firsthand how this team loves to golf in April.
I could talk about some of the things that went wrong for Colorado: Svatos making a change while the Stars were rushing to score the tying goal (21 games in, and we are still seeing the Avs do stupid things like this), Klee starting to show some chinks in the armor, Budaj coming back down to earth...but the truth is that Dallas is a hell of a team that played a strong, strong game. Colorado got beat by a better team tonight, and that's the end of the story. Besides, we've got the Ducks to worry about. You know, a team we actually have trouble with in the postseason.
The Lines
- Sakic, Brunette, Svatos. 6 shots. 3 goals
- Stastny, Wolski, Hejduk. 3 shots. 1 goals
- Arnason, McLean, Laperriere. 8 shots.
- Richardson, Laaksonen, Rycroft. 3 shots.
Defensive Pairings
- Clark & Skrastins
- Liles & Brisebois
- Vaananen & Klee
Quick Hits
- OLN, er Vs unveiled a new RailCam last night. Or, as I like to call it - That Annoying Thing Blocking The Game. Nice concept. Let's try it again when the camera is a little bit smaller than the big copy machine at Staples.
- Was that really Patrice Brisebois laying two separate bone-crunching body checks on a Dallas player? I kid. As I've mentioned here before, Brisebois is more physical in his own end than people think. The stuff about him making bad passes in his own end is all true, however.