Busy day here in Cedar Park.
The Stars had a spirited practice and the Texas Stars had a press conference, so plenty of fun.
Brenden Morrow said coach Marc Crawford ran a very brisk practice and said that Crawford told the team even before they left for Cedar Park to get ready for a tough week. There was a lot of skating, and a fun game of transition hockey. Morrow (thigh) was back on the ice. Jere Lehtinen (hip/groin) skated afterward. It's starting to look like Lehtinen might not be ready for opening night. We'll wait and see. He appears to have trouble generating power out of his hip on the stride.
Morrow said he feels rusty and is hoping to shake it out this week. He missed two preseason games that he was hoping to play in, and said he will be taking Wednesday's exhibition against the Texas Stars as a game that's pretty important to him and his ability to be ready for the season opener.
Lines for today were loose, but followed along this group:
Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn
Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Ott-Modano-Petersen
Sutherby-Wandell-Brunnstrom(Barch)
Barch also played some on defense (and actually looked pretty good). I think he might be earning a lot of respect with the new administration for his energy and willingness to do whatever it takes.
D-pairs were:
Grossman-Robidas
Skrastins-Daley
Woywitka-Niskanen
Fistric-Barch
I wouldn't read too much into this, but that's what they were messing around with. It seems that they were working more on energy and reaction than they were chemistry and thinking.
Alex Auld looked really good in net, if that means anything.
As for the minor league team, Ray Sawada suffered a thumb injury in a fight on Sunday and might be out for a while. With Warren Peters out, and now Sawada, too, that is digging into the Stars' options at forward. They still have Landon Wilson on an AHL contract, so we'll see if they consider him for an NHL contract if Sawada's injury proves to be a long-term thing.
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