Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday Morning Cupcheck - The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly
Top of the morning, hockey fans! You'll have to forgive my more-atrocious-than-normal writing style this week, as I've been sick with the Fever, haven't eaten in a week and have put my white blood cells on a recon mission to try and find if I've got a pair of brain cells left to rub together. Last week we slapped each other on the back and clinked our champagne flutes in praise of the Dallas Stars' new head coach, Marc Crawford; this week, after two debacles, a Huet-to-the-rescue and one shockingly solid game, there's a hefty hunk of hockey heartache to heave-ho.
Waitaminute... whaddya mean there's still 77 games left in the season?
Because the first ninth of the season hasn't been all bad, it made sense to break down the first nine games into three categories: That Which Rocked to describe that which rocked; That Which Sucked to describe things falling in the opposite category of the 'rock' one; and That Which is Lame, to complete the Circle of Threes mandatory in all halfway decent hockey analysis (for example: "Who's the best player in the NHL today? Crosby, Ovechkin, or.... Enver Lisin? Choose wisely.") But rather than type out these long-winded, stentorian categories over and over again, I've shortened the analysis down to language even poorly-trained dogs can understand: Good, Bad and Fugly.
Dallas Stars Overall
The Good -- First place in the Pacific Division (kindof), second place in the Western Conference (more or less), tied with the San Jose Sharks.
The Bad -- Those three shootout losses are pretty annoying at this early stage, although eight months from now the "Lose-Your-Way-Up-The-Standings" points might appear very, very important.
The Fugly -- Three losses in four home games? Way to make the NHL cower in fear, Stars.
Forwards
The Good -- The Stars' top two lines of Neal-Richards-Eriksson and Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn have been phenomenal when healthy, pushing the play into the opponents' zone with speed and aggressiveness, and scoring goals in bunches. Few teams in the entire NHL have one top-notch line, much less two.
The Bad -- Keywords: when healthy. With Richards, Modano, Lehtinen, and Ott out with significant injury time already, the Stars were forced to dress Toby Petersen as the #2 center for the better part of three games --three miserable, frustratingly lackluster semi-performances. Don't get me wrong, Petersen is a terrific checking center, with speed and effort reminiscent of a young Todd Marchant. But he's no power-play quarterback or first-line pivot. Losing Ott was even worse, as the air always completely deflates from the team effort when he's not on the ice.
Pictured: artist's conception of Fabian's clearing attempts against the Bruins
The Fugly -- Two words: Fabian 'WTF' Brunnstrom. The kid obviously has some growing pains to go through, but right now he looks about as comfortable on the ice as this plucky lass. With every lethargic, half-attempted "clear" in his own zone, the Unicorn at the Circus moves that much closer to the worst possible fate for a professional hockey player: getting traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Defense
The Good -- The top pairing of Grossman-Robidas is still, statistically, one of the best in the NHL, with Grossman leading all NHL players with a +11 plus/minus and Robidas tied for second. Fistric's been good in limited playing time, and actually quite entertaining as a Hanson Brother-esque emergency forward.
The Bad -- Universally-heralded off-season pickup Karlis Skrastins has been inconsistent, blocking an insane number of shots but also having plenty of trouble clearing the zone and getting his tired legs off the ice.
The Fugly -- Similarly-heralded off-season pickup Jeff Woywitka has been simply terrible in his own zone, especially on the powerplay where he regularly lets enemy skaters free reign to the crease while covering nobody in particular. And the less spoken about Matt Niskanen, the better.
Goaltending
The Good -- Both goalies have been similarly solid statistically, despite their wildly contrasting styles. Both are hovering around the 2.35-2.5 GAA mark, and both sport .910 save percentages, leagues better than where they were at this point last year.
The Bad -- Despite overall strong play, both goalies have allowed tissue-soft goals that kept opposing teams in games they had no business being in. I know that happens to every non-Avalanche, non-Coyote goalie in the NHL, but c'mon, fellas! Is perfection really all that much to ask?
The Fugly -- Nine games in, and already the Stars have had a season's worth of goals going in off their own defensemen. Robidas practically had an auto-hat trick in the Bruins debacle, and wild passes in the vicinity of the crease now have a larger-than-zero chance of finding the back of the net.
That's it for this week's rah-rah Cupcheck. Tune in next week when we do an in-depth look at the Conferences to find out which one rulez while the other droolz: The Conference of Yalta's omission may surprise you.
