Five for Fighting

Zubov on IR; Turco not here

Sergei Zubov has officially been placed on IR, retroactive to Jan. 17. Zubov isn't even skating right now, with that groin and foot still bothering him.

Marty Turco did NOT make the trip to Minnesota, so look for Mike Smith starting tonight. Tobias Stephan was recalled on an emergency basis as a backup tonight up here. Turco's neck was still pretty sore from the Tuesday night scrum. No real surprise that he would've been out anyway tonight, but I'm sure the Stars wanted to make sure they had a healthy backup just in case.

Turco OK

Scary moment here as Marty Turco was down for a minute or two. Jeff Halpern was pushed into him by Vancouver left wing Matt Cooke, and it looked like Turco took the brunt of the hit to his head.

But he shook it off. Cookie got 2 minutes for roughing.

Turco in tonight

It's rule No. 1 of hockey, kids: Don't ever, EVER pull the hot goaltender. And Mr. Turco is definitely that right now.

The Stars will be facing a Canucks team that is depleted on the blue line. Obviously they won't be sympathetic to the Canucks' situation, but they definitely have to understand the situation. I think Vancouver has five or six D-men sidelined right now (Willie Mitchell went out of the lineup with a cracked vertebra in his back when we were up there last week).
If nothing else, the Stars have to take advantage of a banged-up squad.

Turco honored

Marty Turco was named second star of the week by the NHL today. Going 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average will do that for you. Mr. Turco was stellar this past week, so it's not surprising that he'll be starting again tomorrow against the Canucks.

Hard to pull the hot goaltender.

Thanks, Marty

That's what the Stars were saying in the locker room, often, after this one. And the thanks is well-earned. Turco was great on this trip, and he needed to be as the Stars had their moments of struggle and working off opponents' power plays. The "standing on his head" phrase was never uttered down there, but it should've been. It's been a while since Marty's had to lunge, bend, split, slide and contort himself the way he did against Calgary tonight.
But, boy, was it fun to watch.

I didn't get a chance to ask Niklas Hagman how he found that little spot for the game-winner. Pretty nifty goal.
Anyway, great trip up here, and great to finally see games in Edmonton and Calgary. There was great atmosphere, no doubt, and the Stars need to bottle this momentum for when they come back home.

Marty's mask

Saw the comment about Marty Turco's mask last night, and indeed he has a "somewhat" new one. This one has a white background, yet still has the gargoyles/dragons that he has on his black one. These dragons, however, are a little bit lower on the mask. And one of the dragons has a little goatee... Marty said that's for Steve Ott, who has one of his own.

I think the dragon's goatee is in better shape :)

Goalie talk

I love when they talk to the goaltenders during these games. Rick DiPietro barely starts the game when the Versus guys are asking him to comment on his hip pain from a scissor move the night before. So what happens? Yep, Rick Nash scores on him.

Ah, who are we kidding: Is any mic'd-up goaltender going to be any funnier than Marty Turco was last season?

Buzz-worthy?

I had gotten an e-mail about this from someone, so I figured I'd respond on here, too. It has been thrown out there on the website, www.hockeybuzz.com, that Marty Turco is being traded for Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Turco, by the way, has a no-trade clause in his contract.

Co-GM Les Jackson's response: "We are not trying to trade Marty Turco. He's a big part of our team. I think people who put rumors out there just want me to respond to it. It's a waste of time because it's just rumor."

Anyway, just wanted to respond to the masses on it since it's out there. Thoughts?

Turco starting, Jokinen returning

Marty Turco gets the start in goal tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres. I can't even remember the last time the Stars played the Buffalo Sabres (about two or three years ago, I think?) Anyway, they're in town already... a bunch of their coaches were up in the press box on Tuesday night.

And Jussi Jokinen is back in the lineup tomorrow, barring anything major happening in morning skate. The guy's been dying to get back onto the ice -- he had never missed more than two games in a row in his eight-year career before this latest injury. He was centering a line with Niklas Hagman and Antti Miettinen at today's practice. Don't know if that's set or what, but there you have it. Loui Eriksson was up with Morrow and Ribeiro.

Mr. Smith gets the start

Sorry, I forgot to post this earlier: Mike Smith gets the nod in goal tonight against the Blue Jackets. It's his second consecutive start against Columbus, after he put the Stars on his back and guided them to a victory on Saturday afternoon against said Jackets.