They are trying, but the Houston Astros are not yet the worst pro team in Texas history

As the Texas Rangers begin to play into October the team in Houston just hopes the season is cancelled today.

The Houston Astros are awful again. Terrible doesn't do justice.

They are 45-98, easily the worst record in baseball, and they should break last season's 106-loss mark.

But are they the worst team in history of pro sports in Texas? Not quite, but it's not for a lack of effort.
Here is a look at the worst seasons by the major pro sports teams in Texas. 

MLB
2012 Houston Astros: 45-98, .315
1972 Texas Rangers: 54-100, .351

NBA
1992-'93 Dallas Mavericks: 11-71, .134
1982-'83 Houston Rockets: 14-68, .171 
1996-'97 San Antonio Spurs: 20-62, .244

NHL
1994-'95 Dallas Stars: 17-23-8, .438

NFL
2005 Houston Texans: 2-14
1973 Houston Oilers: 1-13
1972 Houston Oilers: 1-13
1960 Dallas Cowboys 0-11

 

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Prepare for bad news: Dallas Stars making lockout plans

The NHL and the NHL Player's Association are formally meeting today in the NYC to possibly reach an agreement and avoid a lockout that would begin Sept. 15; click here for more.

Proving how much they want to avoid a work stoppage, this is the first time the two sides have met since Aug. 31. Yes, that is sarcasm. The deadline is 11:59 pm ET on Saturday night to avoid a work stoppage.

NHL boss Gary Bettman is in a serious bind; this is not a lawyer who likes to lose and there is a good chance he is not going to body slam NHLPA leader Don Fehr the way he did Bob Goodenow back in 2004.

Unlike in 2004, when Bettman had the complete support of every one of the owners he represents, there are some disagreements within the ownership group this time. It is likely a good reason Fehr took over as NHLPA boss; he has some leverage this time whereas Goodenow had very little.

No one is supporting the owners or Bettman this time. The 2004 lockout was presented as a necessity to "fix the game". Nothing was really fixed but the problems just looked different; now we know that the '04 lockout and this potential stoppage is another money grab disguised as a solution.

A source with the Dallas Stars said the team remains in a holding pattern but is making plans to travel to Boise next week to begin training camp.

Contingency plans are now being made. The source said the team will send out a letter on Sunday morning to all season ticket holders about refunds for any potential lost games.

The source said the general feeling is that the season will be delayed, but not lost. The Winter Classic, which is scheduled for Ann Arbor, Michighan between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs, is not a game the league or those respective ownership groups want to surrender.

 

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You may not be sympathetic to the players but don't believe Gary Bettman or the NHL

In an effort to make sure it is not destroyed in this labor negotiation with the NHL, the NHL Player's Association hired perhaps the most accomplished active sports lawyer today - Don Fehr. Fehr ran over the baseball owners for years, and really wasn't stopped at all until Congress neutered him on Capitol Hill over the steroids issue.

On Friday, Fehr addressed the media via a conference call from Chicago after he completed two days of meetings with players about the current contract negotiations between the player's union and the NHL.

"Negotiations did continue in Toronto and I would expect they would continue as well next week," Fehr said. "Hopefully we can achieve more common ground than we have. The players made a proposal last week that we believe was forthcoming to bridge gaps and address problems and partners with the large income clubs and helping any clubs that may need it."

Translation: We think there should be greater revenue sharing between the rich teams and the poor teams; that bridge should not be done via a reduction in player salaries.

Right now there are no immediate plans to delay anything related to the start of the 2011-'12 NHL regular season, even though there is no current contract between the players and the league. A rep with the Dallas Stars said today the team is following the normal schedule, and plans to depart for training camp in Idaho on Sept. 21.

Fehr and the league have been aggressive and professional in addressing the media to give "their point of view". But the reality is no one wants to hear Bettman or Fehr "views". Their million dollar rhetoric is insulting to this very loyal, and trampled, fan base.

You may not be sympathetic to the players, but unlike in 2004-'05, no one should believe the league any more. This is another money grab, which as owners is their right. To suggest otherwise is preposterous.

Bill Guerin was a member of the NHLPA player's committee during the lockout, and really had his teeth kicked by the whole ordeal. He told me last year in relation to the NBA lockout: "I learned a big lesson: It's not a partnership. It's their league, and you are going to play when they want. ... It's not worth it. Get a deal done."

Click here for that column.

In the Great Lockout of 2004-'05, Bettman and the owners got everything they wanted from a salary cap to immediate player salary rollbacks. Now that isn't enough. They want more back, and they want to prevent this massive player movement in free agency, and the 10 to 15 year contracts teams are giving players.

The carrott to the fans was a lockout was worth it because they were going to "fix the game". That teams such as Edmonton would be on equal footing with the New York Rangers. That ticket prices would drop, the savings would be passed on to the fan.

The new rules changes were great, but there were no real savings passed on to the consumer, and nothing can fix the reality that young men don't want to live in Edmonton, Alberta in January.

"No players wants to miss a game," Fehr told me. "The players are sensitive to that. That's to be expected. The owners come in and say as follows, 'We have a salary cap, a 24 percent reduction in player salaries, record revenues, $1 billion more in revenues than (since 2004) and the result of that is more salary reduction?"

"We don't think there is a reason (for) a lockout. If there is one, it's something (the owners) chose to do."

Call me when this is over .........

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An iconic voice of the Dallas Stars is stepping down

Unlike the faces of Dallas Stars TV/radio men Daryl Reaugh and Ralph Strangis, you likely never knew Bill Oellermann's face.

But if you have ever attended a Dallas Stars home game at either old Reunion Arena or currently in the American Airlines Center, you know his booming voice over the PA that said, "Your Daaaaallllllaaaaaas Staaaaaaaars!"

Today, after 18 years behind the PA mic for the Dallas Stars, Bill Oellermann announced his retirement.

He was the PA voice of the team for more than 800 games, and was there when the Stars defeated the Avalanche in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in 1999 and 2000, the Stanley Cup Finals games in those same seasons, as well as so many others.

Personally, it was always fun to hear him say my name when on those special occassions I was asked to select the three stars of the game. He always said "Mac" rather than "Matt".

Oellermann was a vital part of the Dallas Stars' home game experience, and he will certainly be missed.

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Mike Modano in no rush to figure out what to do next with the Dallas Stars

It hasn't been quite a year since Mike Modano retired from the NHL, and so far neither Mo nor the Dallas Stars have pushed about what he should do next. Current Dallas Stars assistant to the GM, Bob Gainey, has long embraced the philosophy that retired players need about a year before making any decision about the next phase of their life.

That year, however, is almost up. Mo doesn't sound like a man who has any interest in playing again, but figuring out how he can be active with the Dallas Stars remains a priority. Or a loose priority.

"I did have a lot of talks with (team president) Jim Lites and (owner) Tom Gaglardi about where I would fit in and what position, potentially," Mo told me recently. "There are options, and we haven't narrowed it down yet. There is no time frame on it, and they know I'm not leaving Dallas. They have been good about it."

He has tried the broadcasting thing, and his initital reaction is not too different than any former player who does it. 

"There is way more preparation than I was expecting. The in-studio stuff is hard. You really have to know the entire league and study and watch games and know it," Modano said. "I do like the color aspect of (calling games)." 

I can't see Modano ever coaching. I don't think he would have the patience for it.
I don't see Mo trying the management, GM thing.
I certainly don't see him scouting.

I would imagine Mo will eventually land into a part-time, hybrid role that will allow him to be active in the community on behalf of the team, give his advice to and on players, and increase his role on the broadcast side. 

He sounds like he is no rush to do anything full-time, and it may be another year before he really grabs responsibilities with the team, but he is too valuable to do nothing.

 

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New member of the U.S. hockey hall of fame, Mike Modano, fears more bad for the NHL

Not that this comes as a terribly big surprise, but today the U.S. hockey hall of fame announced that former Dallas Stars center Mike Modano will be a part of its 2012 class. He is arguably the greatest American-born player in the history of the sport.

He will join former New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello and former NHL player and coach Eddie Olcyzk. The date and time of the induction have yet to be determined.

It will be a bigger deal when Modano goes into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

On to far more pressing issues ...

I spoke with Modano today regarding the future of the Dallas Stars, and this man sounds very much like a guy who fears that the NHL is headed for another lockout.

He didn't come out and say it, but he sounds as if he is anticipating a work stoppage when he said "(a deal) can be done before the holidays."

He's not talking Veteran's Day. He's talking Christmas. The Stars regular season schedule begins on Sat. Oct. 13. 

A work stoppage through the holidays would mean the loss of approximately 30 to 35 games.

A work stoppage has mostly been a taboo term since 2004 when the NHL shut the entire season down in a labor dispute with the players. 

With the contract between the two sides essentially expired, both the union and the players are being extremely careful with their public rhetoric. The league has operated business as usual, and both sides are engaged in formal negotiations. But this hasn't gotten too serious yet.

Unlike in 2004, when both sides all but declared war on the other, this is being handled much more delicately.

"I do believe the framework is better now than in 2004. There were so many moving parts back then," Modano said. "Now everyone has accepted the salary cap when we hadn't back then. There hasn't been as much mud slinging over this summer. It's been a good move to keep things quiet over the summer. But come training camp, I don't know. I'll leave it alone. You know where I am going."

Times are also different. In 2004, NHL boss Gary Bettman had complete support from networks and sponsors to wait out the other side. The union is now run by veteran sports labor negotiator Don Fehr, who in his time as the baseball union leader routinely put a clown suit on those owners.

Fehr didn't get it handed to him until the feds took over in the steroid stuff.

The problem for Bettman is that unlike in 2004 when he broke the union to have another work stoppage would be to alienate a fan base that has not-too-fond memories of having already been treated like trash.

The fans now know that all of these money-saving measures to improve the game and restore competitive balance was BS. It was a money grab then, and it's a money grab now.

 

 

 

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Jaromir Jagr, Eric Lindros & the Dallas Stars

When Eric Lindros signed a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars for the 2006-'07 season concussions had completely derailed his career and what was left was a big guy with great hands but little else. He was done, but the Stars were hoping maybe something was left. There wasn't.

In 49 games, Lindros scored 26 points. He left the team without even doing his exit interview. He was only 33, but it was his last season in the NHL.

The Stars' signing 40-year-old winger Jaromir Jagr is not going to Lindros sequel. Jagr could potentially be done and we don't know it, but he won't be finished for the same reasons as Lindros. Physically, and mentally, it was no longer there for Lindros.

The closer comparison could be the Stars when they signed a then-35-year-old Valeri Kamensky in 2001. He wanted it, and it was just no longer there.

At 40, Jagr has obviously slowed down and he is not the same guy he was with the Penguins when he sported that killer mullet, but he has something left. Jagr still has an awful tendency to turnover the puck, and he has never been known to be a huge fan of the two-way game, but defenders must honor his talent which creates space for others.

I like this signing at one year considerably more than the two-years the Stars gave 40-year-old Ray Whitney. 

Last season with the Flyers, Jagr's first season back in the NHL since 2007-'08, he scored 54 points with 19 goals in 73 games. Eight of his 19 goals came on the power play.

At the very least the Stars upgraded their wretched power play by adding Jagr and Whitney to the top six.

As long as the Stars and their fans keep their expectations appropriate for a 40-year-old man playing a young man's game, adding Jagr is a worthy gamble.

And he won't be another Eric Lindros.

 

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Dallas Stars moves address scoring, & suggest the owner isn't calling the shots

He was known more for his mouth than his play, but the Dallas Stars have finally let go of an "untouchable" when they dealt forward Steve Ott and d-man Adam Pardy to the Buffalo Sabres for center Derek Roy.

Steve Ott will be missed. He was colorful, funny, giving of his time and few players irritated opponents better than he can.

This continues the bizarre offseason of the Dallas Stars. They are getting rid of several of their better key parts that led to four consecutive playoff-less seasons in exchange for ... guys. The hope is a better power play (it can't be much worse), and increased 5-on-5 scoring. But this could be nothing more than an exchange of one set of problems for another set that sees very little impact in the standings.

Dumping Mike Ribeiro was addition by subtraction.
Adding Ray Whitney is a fingers-crossed move that maybe at 40 he can be a 70-point player.
Defenseman Aaron Rome should be OK.
Derek Roy is a hope.

From 2005 to 2010, Roy could play and score. Several years of more than 20 goals, including an 81-point year in 2007-'08. But in each of the past two years Roy has been limited because of injury, and when he has played he has not been the same scorer.

Perhaps a change of scenery and the end of a contract will be the proper motivation to find that scoring touch again. 

This is not the type of offseason impact Stars' fans were hoping for when Tom Gaglardi bought the team. These moves suggest the new owner is listening to his GM and not insisting he spend money he doesn't want to to make a splash.

The Stars should look vastly different than the previous seasons. Who knows? Maybe Jamie Benn will actually be on the power play.

 

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Bob Gainey's fingerprints are all over the Stars' trade of Mike Ribeiro

Bob Gainey did not return to the Dallas Stars as some senior advisor who would scout a little, help sell some tickets, and talk to GM Joe Nieuwendyk every few weeks. Bob hasn't been with the Stars very long, but he was here long enough to want Mike Ribeiro off of his roster.

The Stars dealt center Mike Ribeiro to the Washington Capitals for a second round draft pick and center Cody Eakin on Friday. The Stars have been trying for years to unload Ribeiro, and Gainey obviously forced the issue by suggesting, "Just get anything you can."

Don't be surprised if Cody Eakin is the second coming of Janne Niinimaa, and Gainey will be fine with that.

Bob has never liked Ribeiro. When Gainey was the GM of the Canadiens he dealt Ribeiro to the Stars just before the start of the 2006-'07 season for Niinimaa, who never did anything for the Stars, or Canadiens. 

People around the Stars laughed at Gainey for this deal, but as one coach told me, "Do you really think Bob Gainey would just give this guy away if he didn't know what he was doing?"

In Bob's thinking in Montreal, moving Ribeiro was addition by substraction. It had to be done.
It is the case with the Stars: Mike Ribeiro had to be moved. He had become a giant box of empty stats.

He drove coaches nuts because he wasn't regularly committed to a two-way game, wasn't a big fan of going to the hard places on the ice, relied more on his God-given skill than work and every now and then you would hear stories about off-ice stuff that wasn't ideal. It should be noted that when you miss the playoffs the way the Stars have recently, a lot of stories are going to be floated about certain players.

Yet in each of Ribeiro's first two seasons with the Stars the team made the playoffs, including the Conference Finals in 2008. That season he scored 83 points in 76 games. In his time with the Stars, Ribeiro was nearly a point-a-game player.

The statistics said this was a quality producer. And numbers wise, he was. 

All of his numbers helped produce a team that for four consecutive years has missed the playoffs.

Ribeiro may not have been the type of problem he was for Gainey in Montreal, but Bob knew Ribeiro was not going to be part of the solution in Dallas.

 

 

 

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Dallas Stars coach thinks New York Rangers are the team to win it all

DALLAS - Call Dallas Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan an expert on the L.A. Kings and Phoenix Coyotes, a tiny bit less so regarding the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. 

He saw the Kings and Coyotes about 100 times during the regular season. He saw the Devils twice and the Rangers once.

These are the NHL's Final Four. Glen is going with the New York Rangers to win this thing.

"(LA Kings coach Darryl Sutter's) system is to hunt. They are going to hunt you until they beat you. That is what they are doing right now," Gulutzan said. "They are putting on pressure until they are wearing you down. ...

"Just looking at this, the Rangers have more depth than anybody else. So if it's the Rangers/L.A. I just think, if you go past the first two lines of L.A., the bottom two lines the Rangers can put out a better bottom two lines. If it gets into a real grind, two-way hockey series, the Rangers have more. And the Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist, and the Kings have Jonathan Quick, so that's a wash. It's going to come down to depth." 

An L.A vs. New York Stanley Cup Finals, after which Gary Bettman should immediately retire. Never will his league enjoy higher ratings.

 

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