Head + Desk = THUD!

The Dallas Stars last night faced their bogey team in the Phoenix Coyotes – a team against whom the Stars are currently 1-4-2 since our last win in November 08.

Of the teams who currently make up the bottom three of the Western conference, Dallas are so far 1-1-1.

Of the teams who currently occupy the top three slots in the West, Dallas are 3-0-1.

Simple question really; Why?

Why can Dallas perform so well against the (let’s face it) better teams and yet be lost at sea when it comes to teams lower than them?

There was an awful lot of talk within Dallas circles at the start of the season about the new system being implemented by Marc Crawford et al. A system that promised to get the best out of our best players and make a smooth transition between defense and attack. The only sign of that at this point is the October 14th home game against the Nashville Predators which resulted in a thumping 6-0 Stars win.

I’m not naive enough to believe we should be going out there and winning each and every game by such a score or even indeed that we should be winning every single game at all. What would be great to see though is effort. From everyone. Everywhere on the ice.

With a ‘system’ that relies on fire  power as much as the one Crawford is trying to instill in these guys you need patience, cohesion and sheer blind faith in your own ability as a player. The Dallas Stars appear to be seriously lacking in all three apart from two men. Marty Turco and Brad Richards.

You have no idea how gratifying it is to say Turco appears to be back to his old self. This is a common rambling of mine this season of course and my apologies if I sound like a stuck record but seriously, this guy can simply do no wrong for me at the moment. Sure he was pulled against Phoenix after giving up 4 goals from 19 shots but that is the first time this season and when he has been on his game, he has been mesmerizing to watch.

Likewise Brad Richards. When players address the media they are often only ever critical of anything so long as it’s not themselves or the team as a whole. Richards clearly doesn’t do scripts. A few times this season he has been happy to accept that blame for poor results lies with nobody else but the team and that some of the performances just haven’t been good enough for a team from whom huge things were expected this season.

The 2009-10 Dallas Stars are a long way from being a write-off at the time of writing. We are currently 7th in the West (tied with Nashville and Phoenix) with an 11-7-7 record, a single point away from the LA Kings in the Pacific with a game in hand over them. With that in mind, I will be putting together a mini-profile together over the coming weeks of each Stars player in turn, looking at their play and what to expect from the in the coming games.

I encourage you all, dear readers to give me as much feedback as you possibly can with this. I do not have the opportunity to view every Stars game and there are sometimes key points that I may miss so any feedback you are able to give will by no means fall on deaf ears.

Your first profile will be (as it’s going to be numerical order) defenseman Nicklas Grossman.