Five for Fighting

Anyone find a tooth?

Steve Ott lost one when Mathieu  Schneider high-sticked him in the first period. Apparently, the ice maintenance crew is doing its best to find it.

Yes, folks, they are looking through the ice shavings to find Ott's missing tooth. Sorry, that is hilarious.

-- Tracey Myers

Highly charged first

Wow, what a ridiculous first period. The Montreal Canadiens are looking like a well-oiled machine... if that machine has gone haywire. The Canadiens took nine penalties, including Saku Koivu's slashing minor at the end of the first period. That will give the Stars more power-play time when we get back here soon. (Sorry, I don't have numbers in front of me so I have no idea how much 5 on 3 time they now have. Methinks quite a bit).

Anyway, the one down side for the Stars, if there is any, is that they're only up 1-0 after this whole mess. Officially, they're 1 for 6 on the power play, but I think they're still in the midst of No. 5. They need to pounce on the Canadiens quickly in this second period. Fresh sheet of ice, Steve Ott's remaining teeth will be in place, so no excuses.

Meanwhile, Carey Price should probably get a purple heart. The guy's not getting much help from his undisciplined teammates right now. Stars outshot the Habs 10-3 in the first. Ah, well, we'll see if the Stars capitalize early in the second.

-- Tracey Myers

Ott gets help this time

Steve Ott was getting under skin again, and threw some sweet hits on both Josh Gorges and Andrei Kostitsyn in quick succession. Then Gregory Stewart decided to instigate a fight with Ott (we'll see if there's actually a call on that) and it was on.

Almost. Someone on the Stars actually helped out Ott this time. No surprise who it was: defenseman Darryl Sydor, who was pretty vocal last Sunday on how the team was wrong not helping Ott when he was getting pummeled by the Ducks. No doubt he would back those comments up, ay?

Stewart doesn't get instigating but he does get interference and roughing. Now Alex Kovalev is heading to the box for roughing. Wow, Montreal probably can't wait for the first-period horn.

-- Tracey Myers

Loui-Loui

Oh, he's officially back, kids. Loui Eriksson scores with just a few seconds of a 5 on 3 remaining as the Stars take a 1-0 lead about five minutes into this one. It's Eriksson's team-leading 32nd goal this season and his fourth in his last three games. Pretty good ratio, ay? Steve Ott and Stephane Robidas on the assists.

The Stars are just dominating this one right now; the ice near Marty Turco is still waited to be skated on to any degree. Oh, wait, an icing. Some skates have now touched that side.

Shots are 8-1, favor the Stars, at the 8:37 mark.

-- Tracey Myers

What's the French word for mess?

Actually, I looked it up, and it's d'ésordre. Well, that's one of the possibilities, anyway. I ask this because the Stars' next opponent, the French-English (more French, actually) Montreal Canadiens are just that, especially on the road.

The Canadiens are steee-ruggling with a lot of things right now, but their road record is deplorable: 2-11-1 in their last 14 away from Montreal, including Friday night's icky little 2-0 loss to the Atlanta "you think your team's bad" Thrashers.

Oh my. Oops, sorry: Sacre bleu!

Anyway, here come the Canadiens to the AAC, where the Stars were probably swearing their own sacre bleu streak during last week's five-game losing streak here. Still, the Stars are feeling better after their West Coast swing and the Canadiens are still reeling.

So, questions: Are the Stars the next team to make the Canadiens feel malhereux (miserable)?
Oh, and Mike Ribeiro faces them for the second time since he was sent packing. Another big game for him?

-- Tracey Myers

Turco third star o' da night

Just reading NHL.com and saw that Marty Turco was given the third start of the evening for his work last night against the Anaheim (once Mighty) Ducks. Once again, 36 stops on 38 shots, including 19 stops in the second period. Crazy good for him, and great rebound after the Kings OT loss.

Just passing a little sunshine your way, folks. It's a little thing I do.

-- Tracey Myers

Tra's plucky Top 5

I know plucky rhymes with ducky, but it's more a homage to the Stars and how they just seem to dominate the Duckies in the Honda Center. Remember the last time they were out there? Mark Parrish, in his Stars debut, had a hat trick. Anyway, onto the countdown.

    1, Marty's revenge. How do you make up for a big, ill-timed hiccup on Thursday? You stop 36 shots on Friday. Marty Turco was great against the Ducks, stopping 36 of 38 (including 19 in the second period; Stars didn't have 19 the whole game). Well done.
    2, Loui's back. Boy, is he. He was still tallying points when Brad Richards first went out, but he still wasn't looking quite the same. Well he looks fine now, ay? He gets Nos. 30 and 31 tonight, and that second one was a thing of beauty. Great work and a great goal at a time when the Stars needed some breathing room again.
    3, Top line, top guns. Steve Ott and Mike Ribeiro this season look like Brenden Morrow and Ribeiro last season: Put those two together, and add whoever you want on the right side. Eriksson was there tonight, but Ott and Ribeiro continue to be stellar. Six points among the trio this evening.
    4, Three Stars? Hey, I'm the first to admit that I'm terrible at picking these. But I'd like to think I'm close when I do. Here were the three out of Anaheim tonight, as picked by someone in the Duckies building: Loui Eriksson was No. 3, Marty Turco was No. 2 and the No. 1 star: James Wisniewski. Uh-huh. Sure, he had a goal. On the Ducks' 34th shot of the game. The No. 2 star stopped 36 shots. Moving on...
    5, Back in the hunt. Yep, just like that, the Stars are in the top eight again. It's going to be like this the rest of the way, kids. As I play off last night's blog headline, can the Stars be more Dr. Jekyll the remainder of this regular season?

-- Tracey Myers

Tra's Jekyll-Hyde Top 5

First of all, let me say: Wow. Just... wow. OK, that's all I've got. On with the road countdown:

   1, Brains go bye-bye. And so does the victory. The Stars had this one in the bag. Seriously, those late penalties were ridiculous. How do you play so strong, so disciplined against the San Jose Sharks (oh yeah, only one of the best teams in the league) and the Los Angeles Kings unnerve you? And it was done by people who should've known better. Marty Turco? Stephane Robidas? Mark Parrish? I know Mark Fistric is still young, and I love that he's back, but don't fall for the bait. If this were a Catholic school, there would be ruler raps on a lot of knuckles.
    2, He said it. Coach Dave Tippett after the game: "We brought it all on ourselves." Can't put it better than that.
    3, Real Deal, Part II. James Neal is back, kids. He scores again tonight, his third in his last two games, and is just one off the NHL rookie lead with 21 goals. And he didn't commit a penalty, so he gets another star.
    4, Third-period 0-ffense. And that's a zero, not an O. The Stars take great momentum off Steve Ott's goal at the end of the second and do... nothing. They had just three shots on goal in the third period. Three. Meanwhile, they had five penalties in third. That's one lousy ratio.
    5, What could've been. Not that the race would've been less tight, but with two points the Stars would've been No. 8 in the Western Conference. Think one point doesn't make much of a difference? Will we say that a month from now?

-- Tracey Myers 

Your lines

I was close:
    Ott-Ribeiro-Parrish
    Neal-Morrison-Brunnstrom
    Sutherby-Modano-Eriksson
    Barch-Begin-Conner

    Daley-Robidas Grossman-Fistric Sydor-Niskanen
_Mike Heika

Lehtinen out tonight

Jere Lehtinen has an upper body injury and will not play tonight. Lehtinen has been walking around with ice on his shoulder/neck for some time, but it didn't seem serious. But he did not skate yesterday or today, so maybe it is serious. Stars coach Dave Tippett didn't want to expand on the subject, simply saying Lehtinen was day to day. My guess is, though, that he is not available for Friday's game in Anaheim, either. Brendan Morrison drove up from his home in Anaheim and participated in the morning skate. He is in tonight against the Kings. The morning skate was a bit scrambled, but my guess is the lines are:
    Ott-Ribeiro-Parrish
    Neal-Morrison-Brunnstrom
    Eriksson-Modano-Conner
    Sutherby-Begin-Barch
If this is what they're trying, I would like to see a checking line of Sutherby-Modano-Eriksson. The Kings skate at their practice facility, but recently acquired forward Justin Williams is hurt and will not be in the lineup.

_Mike Heika