Five for Fighting

Lines

Nothing very new here:

Hagman-Modano-Jokinen
Morrow-Ribeiro-Eriksson
Halpern-Ott-Barnes
Winchester-Lundqvist-Barch

Brodeur tribute

The Devils had a quick tribute to Martin Brodeur to celebrate his 500th victory, which he achieved last week. Nice presentation, showing Brodeur's first, 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th and 500th triumph. Pretty impressive feat, when you think about it. He's just the second netminder to do it behind Patrick Roy.

And he probably has a few years in him.

Scoring

Hey folks, allow me to play devil's advocate here for a second:

I know the big thing entering this season was the Stars needed more scoring. Just a question to everyone: Is that still a huge issue? Checking the stats today, the Stars are currently sixth in the league in scoring, averaging 2.96 goals a game. Not too shabby, especially considering the Stars finished last season 22nd in that category.

So is this team OK as is on that front?

Marty tonight

Marty Turco will be in net tonight against the Devils. Antti Miettinen skated today and is still listed as day to day.

Mattias Norstrom got the OK for contact and should be joining the team soon. He probably won't play until Monday at the earliest, but it still gives him a chance to work out with the team.

Bob Gainey story

To anyone who has been a Stars fan since the Bob Gainey era -- or to anyone who admired Gainey back to his playing days -- there's a story on TSN you should read. The former Stars GM broke his silence on the death of his daughter last year.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=223801&hubname=

Surgery for Lehtinen

Turns out the announcement was true last week. Just early.

Jere Lehtinen will have surgery for that sports hernia that took him out of the lineup beginning last Friday. Apparently, Lehts had a bit of an inflammation, and they were waiting for that to diminish before going ahead with surgery. He'll be out 8-10 weeks.

The Stars have been working some of the younger guys into the lineup more with this injury, and they haven't been doing too bad. Looks like they'll get a little more work now.

Six in a row

Yeah, I had to type that to realize that the Stars really are on a six-game winning streak. That's their first since Jan. 23-Feb. 1, 2006, when I believe they had the second best record in the league. I was most impressed with the Stars in overtime. There have been times in the past where it just looked like they were trying to get to the shootout, but not on Monday. They got that puck and didn't let go, and their skating cycles looked like they were driving the Islanders nuts.

I know we've all be talking about winning ugly games, and they have been. But here's the question: Isn't winning those the sign of a good team? We always assign the "snakebit" or "bad luck" tags to the teams who lose those icky ones, so where do the Stars fall? Are they for real after all?

Shoot, score, win

Mo wins it 35 seconds into the extra frame. Robidas shot it in, and Mo got the rebound high over DiPietro.

Make it six in a row.

Let's play five more

It's been a while since we've had overtime, so why not? Speaking from a journalistic standpoint, I have no problem with OT when the deadline time is on my side.

Now if this were L.A. ...

By the way, Robidas came close to ending this one with that last shot. Great stop by DiPietro.

Islanders tie it

Miroslav Satan knocks home a rebound a few seconds into the power play, and the Islanders and Stars are tied 2-2. Here we go, kids.