Make It or Break It

With just a few games left, the remainder of the regular season is critical for the Stars.  It’s scary tight in the Western Conference.  Just 3 points separate the Stars from 9th place.

Last night’s win against Edmonton was critical.  Sure, it looked like an easy win on paper, but the Oilers have been playing very well lately, playing spoiler for some playoff-chasing teams.

Not the Stars, thoguh.

Nope they took advantage of a weaker opponent and picked two very important points.  It also helped that the hockey gods were on our side, as San Jose and LA both lost in regulation.

The bad part in al this?  The Stars’ remaining games aren’t exactly rainbows and butterflies.  Vancouver, San Jose, Nashville, and St. Louis comprise the remaining games.  It’ll be tough, but we’ll see if they can pull this off.

GO STARS GO.

Don’t Let This Be the End

Times are tough, and things are tight for the Stars right now.  I hate that losing two games in a row is devastating.  I hate that teams aren’t cutting anyone slack and just falling out of the playoff race.  I hate that teams like the Oilers are so damn useless.  I mean, COME ON GUYS.  Help us out a little, yeah?

Tomorrow’s game against Phoenix is as must-win as a Game 7 in the playoffs is.  This game could/probably will make or break the Stars.  With a win over Phoenix (preferably in overtime), the Stars take control of the Pacific and make it that much easier to vault themselves into the playoffs.  So, yeah, it’s pretty damn important to get two points tomorrow.

Sure there are excuses for why we’ve slid the last two games: Souray and Dvorak are both out; Winnipeg is fantastic at home; Chicago’s a good team; first home game back after a long road trip… Whatever.

But here’s the thing.  I’m so tired of missing the playoffs.  I mean, yeah I’ll act like we’re terrible and have no business being there, but it’s about damn time we make it back.  We have a great team full of wonderful guys who can do this.  It’s time to stop doubting the Stars and OWN IT.  We ARE  a good team.  We deserve to be in the playoffs.  Sure we’ve had some bad luck what with ownership and injuries and stuff, but that’s not a good enough excuse.  At this point, anything less than a playoff seed is a failure.  Quite frankly, we’ve made it too far to back down now.

Please, Stars.  Let this be the year

On Top

Oh hey, look who’s at the top of the Pacific!

Technically, the Stars and Coyotes are tied at 75 apiece, but Phoenix lost to Pittsburgh yesterday, so we’re there because of total wins.  Hopefully the Stars can pull off a win against the Canucks tonight, though I’m not really expecting it.  It sure would be nice, though…

Anyway.  Here’s a fun story: Even though he’s departed the team, it came out today that we’ve been spelling Nicklas Grossman’s name wrong all along.  See, it’s actually spelled “Grossmann.”  With another N.  Ever since his rookie season.  And he never corrected anyone.

“I guess when I was young coming up I didn’t want to say anything.  That’s the way they put it on the shirt, and I just was going with it.”

He sounds a lot like Jerry from Parks and Rec when his own name was revelaed to be Gary (I was shocked and I nearly died laughing)– doesn’t want to correct anyone for fear of stirring something up.  It’s kind of sweet, actually.  So now I’ll associate Nick Grossmann with Jerry Giegrich.  And I’m totally cool with that.

Yeah.

GO STARS GO.

Roll With It

Yesterday’s win against the Canucks was huge in so many ways.  We got two points that we never expected.  We won against the best team in the league.  We came together in a perfect, flawless comeback that I won’t forget any time soon.

The first period started off well: a 0-0 deadlock, which is more than anyone usually asks for when playing Vancouver.  However, the Cancucks made it 2-0 in the second off of a couple of soft goals.

Michael Ryder countered with a hell of a one-timer late in the second to cut it to 2-1.  The score stayed like that for awhile…until the final minute of regulation actually.  After receiving a lucky icing call, the Stars managed to get that tying goal with the sixth attacker on.  Steve Ott wonderfully won the faceoff, Sheldon Souray settled it down, and Alex Goligoski shot a perfect shot that deflected off of Mike Ribeiro’s stick and into the net.  My, it was a magnificient tip.

From ESPN Dallas:

“It was a big draw. Otter won it pretty clean, so it gives you more time to do something with it,” said Ribeiro. “Great heads up play from Goose We kind of looked at each other and it was more of a shot-pass than anything else and I was just trying to redirect it on net. I was lucky enough that it went in.”

By the time overtime came, the Stars were buzzing and much more relaxed than they had been the entire game.  They dominated that overtime period.  Vancouver registered no shots to the Stars’ 4.  That last one was the one that mattered, because that was when Trevor Daley took a pass from Steve Ott and sent to a lonely-in-the-front-of-the-net Loui Eriksson who sealed the win.

“It was a great pass,” Eriksson said. “I was open there … so it was pretty easy to put home.”

Here are just some random tidbits about the game…

• The Canucks were previously 5-0 in overtime until the Stars played spoiler and made them 5-1.
• This four-game winning streak is the first the Stars have had since October-November.
• It was a great crowd.  The final attendance number was 18,010, a pretty big draw for our lowly Stars.  The fans came out and were treated well.  But most of all, they treated the team well, chanting “Let’s go Stars” and making me smile.
• The trade deadline is now over, and the Stars did absolutely nothing. That’s ok, though, because I wouldn’t split up the team right now.  Not now that we’re actually #winning. A week ago I wouldn’t have said good things about the Stars, but now there’s this belief all around that we CAN do this.  We CAN pull this off.

Just roll with it. 

And that’s the story of how the Dallas Stars made a huge comeback against the Vancouver Canucks to stay in the eighth playoff spot.