This must be denial.

I have mixed feelings about this trade.  I feel depressed, reluctantly optimistic, angry, and stressed all in one. So, let’s get started, shall we?

I love James Neal, and I’m extremely sad to see him go.  However, it’s not his hot-n-cold play that I’ll miss.  No, it’s his lovely face I’ll miss most.  It hurts so much to see a guy that I love go to my least favorite team in the world.  That’s what put me in denial and made me look like this: 

However…let’s face it: Neal has proven himself to be a one-trick pony who isn’t really good at backchecking, but doesn’t make up for it in scoring colossal numbers.  We’ve waited and waited to see him reach his so-called potential, but it hasn’t happened, and it would have done no good to keep him around and wait even longer.

As for Matt Niskanen, I will truly miss taking out my frustration on him.  Really, I will.  I’ll miss his doofy goatee and that deer-in-the-headlights look he got every time he was forced to make a play.  I’ll miss calling him Niskers and nearly having a heart attack when he does something correctly.  However, I have one thing to say to the Penguins: he’s your problem now. YEAH I WENT THERE.

And one big positive that comes from all of this is that the Stars have freed up some cap space, which, you know, might mean good things on the B-Rad front.  See, Neal would have been paid $3.5 million next year, so that’s a nice salary to get off the books.

As for the new guy, Goligoski, I’ll just wait and see.  As a Penguins-hater I don’t watch many of their games, so I don’t really know anything about him.  All I know is that he’s not as pretty as Nealer.  And that’s a damn shame.

Welp, that’s it for now.  I’m really curious to see how everything plays out.

GO STARS.

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Just a Little Teaser…

quote courtesy of Glee

I can’t wait for tomorrow night.

GO STARS GO.

Let’s Hear it for the Preseason

After last night, the stars are currently 1-1 in preseason games thus far.  They play St. Louis tonight, and I’m not expecting great things, unless the Blues put out their AHL roster.

But whatever.  Let’s talk about Kari Lehtonen.  None of these games have been (or ever will be) on TV, so I haven’t gotten to watch.  But according to those who went to the Colorado game last night, Kari played his butt off to the tune of 32 saves and only one goal. It’s nice to see that he’s acting like a solid, legit number-one goaltender.

From the looks of the scoresheets, B-Rad is just picking up where he left off last season.  He had the primary assists on both goals scored.  I haven’t checked yet to see if he has hair this year, but that’s on my list of things to do.  For B-Rad, the power is in the hair.

And how about Severin Blindenbacher? According to those who attended, he was really making a case for himself to be on the Big Stars this season.  If you can recall, we signed him over the summer, and he’s kind of a Europe vet.  I mean, Blindenbacher’s no rookie; he’s 27. I’m hoping that he gets a roster spot. He’s already making himself more useful that Matt Niskanen and that useless meatsack, Jeff Woywitka.  Plus, he’s got one of the greatest names ever.  If he makes the team, I’m greatly looking forward to calling him a mixture of “Blender,” “Severus Snape,” and “Blindy.”By the way, Blindenbacher will fit on a jersey.  It’s got the same number of letters as Langenbrunner.  Just in case anyone was curious.

Preseason doesn’t really matter, but it is getting me excited for hockey.  The only thing preseason is good for is evaluating the youngsters, assessing whether Jonathan Cheechoo still has it in him (he doesn’t), and picking a backup goalie (the battle’s still, uhm, “raging”).  I won’t believe anything until I see it for myself on October 8.

This post needs a gif…

"I'm busy." "SHUT UP."

Priorities…

So James Neal still hasn’t been re-signed.  Neither has Nick Grossman.  With Hjalmarsson signing an offer sheet from San Jose today, I’m a teensy bit worried. 

Those so-called “experts” say that there’s nothing to worry about because losing an RFA to an offer sheet is, like, really rare.  Bullshit.  I’ll be worried about those two until they’re both re-signed.  Admittedly, I’m more concerned with Neal than Grossman, but that’s mostly because Neal is very appealing to other teams.  You know, teams with money.

GM Joe needs to hurry up and sign Nealer and Nicky because this is getting very worrisome.  I’m not even going to mention Niskers and Bunny.  No offense, but they’re irrelevant to this team moving forward.

If Neal doesn’t come back, I won’t be able to make fun Mean Girls-inspired pictures of him.  That would be a damn shame.

Finally some news

The Stars have extended offers to a number of RFAs including James Neal, Nick Grossman, Matt Niskanen…and Fabian Brunnstrom?  Yeah, I don’t get it either about those last two.

I suppose that Niskers and Bunny could be signed to two-way contracts and get that AHL seasoning that they were originally deemed too good for.  They’d have to go through waivers, but it’s not like we’d ever need them.  I want both of them to have a season with the Baby Stars and then come back to the big leagues.  That’s the ideal situation but it’s not likely.

Nope, two words:  Trade.  Bait.  Maybe we could finally get that number-one defenseman we need!  You know, Tomas Kaberle’s available.

I just can’t see why anyone would want Brunnstrom though.  He’s a bust…as  a Dallas Star.  However, he might thrive in a different style of game for another team.  Think Ville Leino being a bust for the Red Wings, before ultimately tearing it up with the Flyers. 

 I think the thing with Fabian is a pride issue more than anything.  Nobody wants to admit that their big free agent signing was a bust.  The Stars battled then Red Wings and won Brunnstrom, so I don’t think they’re going to give up on him after working so hard to get him.

I don’t know…that’s all I’ve got.

That Three-Game Winning Streak? Not Happening.

I waited to post this because I thought the Stars might actually oull the magic winning streak out of a hat.  Sadly I was wrong.  Oh well.

Stars 5, Sharks 1

If we somehow miraculously made it to the eighth seed, San Jose would be very afraid.   I love this era of owning the Sharks.  Sure we’re playing for pride at this point, but it feels nice to win against the Sharks.  It’s like a reward for the woes of the rest of the season.

And how about Steve Ott?  I’m not gonna lie, but when he got his hat trick, I jumped off my couch and did a happy dance.  Hat tricks make me happy, especially when they come from one of my favorite guys, Steve Ott.

Way to go, Otter.  You earned it.

Stars 6, Oilers 3

It’s funny, but if you were sitting at that end of the AAC, you saw every goal.  That was just sort of random and funny, I thought.

Anyway, all I can say is that I love Jamie Benn.  That kid is a monster.  Just…wow.

I was glad to see Modano and Lehtinen have such great games.  It was very reminiscient of the old days.  It was also painfully sad to watch them knowing their careers are almost over.

Stars 1, Blues 2

They didn’t play too badly, just not good enough.  I thought Lehtonen was fine as was the Benn line.  It was Niskanen that really played badly.

It was sort of a lifeless game, in my opinion.  It had its moments, but it was  pretty boring.

And how about this?  Brad Richards is only one point away from his career high 91 points.  He’s also three away from the franchise record of 93, set by Mike Modano.  Come on Brad, get some points and break some records!

Yeah…this season’s over.  But whatever.  Let’s go out with dignity, okay, Stars?  Be the spoilers just because it’s fun to do that.

Next Up: the Blackhawks. 

Make it happen.

Go Stars.

Points in a Back-to-Back and Whoa, Niskers!

So basically the San Jose game was awesomely amazing while the LA game wasn’t.  I’m glad that they got points in both games, but this horrible-shootouts-excpet-against-the-Sharks thing is really getting old.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Sharks game because it was, in the end, an epic goalie battle as it usually is.  Best of all, Niskers got the shootout winner.  I KNOW, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT EITHER!  So kudos to Nisky. 😛

As for the LA game, they didn’t get slaughtered, and that made me feel better about the loss.  I fully expected, like, 10-0 Kings to be the final score.  Well, not exactly 10-0, but I figured it’d be a stinker.  Luckily it wasn’t. 🙂

However, we have to ALWAYS remember that this is a team in transition.  The results won’t come immediately, so we shouldn’t be too hard on the young guys.  Especially Nisky.  If I keep telling myself that, will that make it true?  I hope so, because I’m constantly bordering on frutration with the Stars.

So next time there’s a bad loss, let it go.  There’s always next year for a deep playoff run.

Go Stars!