Kari just got hurt... Raycroft in.

*didn't appear to be his back. took a weird shot and limped off the ice.
**lower body injury reported

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C- J Carter, Adam Henrique, B. Little, Riberio
LW- J Neal, Kovalchuk
RW- Hossa, Kovalchuk, Vrbata, Little
D- Chara, Ehrhoff, Goligoski, Souray, Zidlicky, Kubina
G- B Zilla, Vokoun, Montoya, Rask, Bachman, Lehner
12 Team 2-C/L-RW/Util/G 4D, G,A, +- PIMs, PPg,PPa,SOG,SHG,SHA, GWG
IR - RNH, Mueller

The injuries continued to mount for the Dallas Stars, who lost goaltender Kari Lehtonen, defenseman Trevor Daley and center Vernon Fiddler during Saturday night’s 3-0 loss at Phoenix.

Lehtonen was the first to go down, leaving just 5:31 into the game with a groin injury. Lehtonen was injured while stopping a shot by Coyotes defenseman Derek Morris on a play that was offsides. He was attended by the Stars trainer and then was helped off the ice.

“It’s a little bit of a groin pull there,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “We’ll see how it is. It’s one of those things you don’t see the extent until you see it the next day.”

Gulutzan said Lehtonen is unlikely for Monday’s game at Colorado.

Daley, who left the game in the first period as well with what Gulutzan said appeared to be a back issue, is also unlikely to play Monday.

“Dales we’re not quite sure,” Gulutzan said. “I think it was a little bit of his back, tweaked his back. We’re not sure the extent of that.”

Fiddler left the game late in the second period with a groin injury and is listed as day-to-day.

Those three players join left wing Brenden Morrow (upper body), defenseman Alex Goligoski (broken thumb) and right wing Adam Burish (broken hand) on the Stars’ list of injured players.

Morrow is expected to return Thursday against Ottawa. Goligoski and and Burish may not be back for two to three weeks.

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Who could help us in the dots right now?

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C- J Carter, Adam Henrique, B. Little, Riberio
LW- J Neal, Kovalchuk
RW- Hossa, Kovalchuk, Vrbata, Little
D- Chara, Ehrhoff, Goligoski, Souray, Zidlicky, Kubina
G- B Zilla, Vokoun, Montoya, Rask, Bachman, Lehner
12 Team 2-C/L-RW/Util/G 4D, G,A, +- PIMs, PPg,PPa,SOG,SHG,SHA, GWG
IR - RNH, Mueller

There will be another Stars post later today. If anyone has any topics they'd like me to write about please send post ideas if not I'll just find something myself.

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Dobber Hockey Columbus Blue Jackets Forum Writer

Co-Commish of DTDL and UNFHL

Member of UHL, UDHL and LOFHL

http://twitter.com/#!/GGuthe

How long will fiddler be out for any upDates?

Have him in a league with FoW and he has winger status. He has been huge for me, staging my comeback and that is one stat I've been bad at the first 5 weeks if the seasons goin o-5. Won the last 2 weeks but need this guy!

Also love to hear about ribs. Got him from you in our league and he has be just ok. Was hoping for 70 points

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12 team H2H Keeper League
g/a/+-/PIM/PPP/SHP/SOG/W/GAA/SV%/SHO
play 4c/4lw/4rw/6d/2g (2min start)
Center: Datsyuk, Getzlaf, Marleau, Ribiero, Brian Boyle
RW: Hossa, Horton, Downie, Franzen, vrbata, Cole
LW: Kovalchuk, D.Sedin, Semin, Fleischmann,
Defense : Enstrom, E.Johnson, Goligoski, Wisniewski, Hamilton
Goalies: Lundqvist, Brodeur, S.Mason, Garon

Farm noteables: Niederreiter, Avtsyn, Greiss, Frazee, Kinkaid

Stars Blog >> Stars starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen out at least three weeks buzztap.com/-m9Q8Ce

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Vernon Fiddler seems to be fine and had an assist last night against Colorado.

Raycroft

Seeing Andrew Raycroft's calm confidence and sound play in crease last night for the Stars was refreshing to say the least, especially knowing the rocky road Raycroft has been on since the Calder Trophy in 2003-2004.

Raycroft was economical and where he needed to be on nearly every shot. He because of his strong positional and mental focus there were few rebounds as well as little panic in his play.

The one Colorado goal did come off of a rebound from a shot with tons of traffic in front. Raycroft made the initial leg save in the butterfly but it was nearly impossible to dull the rebound. The rebound was scooped up by the Avalanche's Kevin Porter for his first goal of the season.

This game does not vanquish all of Raycroft's demons as he has had good stretches prior only to fall back into the struggles that have made the once promising goalie into a career average backup. One stretch that comes to mind is the period of a few weeks in 2009-2010 with the Canucks, where Raycroft played very well and than seemed to be lost again in net.

A lot of credit should go to Dallas Stars goaltending coach, Mike Valley who has been with the team for three years. He came from the Nashville Predators organization, where the renowned Mitch Korn has brought out the best from his goaltending talent. Valley has helped resurrect Kari Lehtonen's career and now attempts to put Raycroft on track. On a team that demands alot of its goaltender these days, Raycroft likely will never become a starter again but if he can spell a good starter like Lehtonen for awhile his value will go up again. It is too early to tell but thus far Valley and his pupils have not let the Stars down.

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Dobber Hockey Columbus Blue Jackets Forum Writer

Co-Commish of DTDL and UNFHL

Member of UHL, UDHL and LOFHL

http://twitter.com/#!/GGuthe

Great game last night. This third line is just simply outworking the other team on a nightly basis. Fun to watch.

Was it just me or did it seem like Raycroft was flailing quite a bit? He made some great key saves but there were a couple of instances where he was way out of position.

I'd like to get everyone's take on the PP as well. Minus the goal last night Dallas has been atrocious with an extra man. A ton of it can be chalked up to Goli's injury but even so it seems a bit outragous. Can we seriously not find anyone better to man the point other than Toby Petersen? Early in the season it seemed the mantra was get it to Sourey and let him hit it as hard as he possibly can and for the most part they where going in every now and again. It seems his blasts are not occuring as frequently or they are ending up in the shin pads of the defending forwards. With the current injury situation I'd like to see Benn on the point with Sourey. The kid has got enough poise to set up plays and a hard enough shot to generate rebounds. I know he's not the best defensive option but he skates hard and he's always chasing back on rushes. What's the opinion in here?

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2nd Year Keeper H2H Points- 10 Team
G,A,PPP,SHP,HAT,SOG,BLK,HIT,+/-,W,L,GA,SV,SO

F-Crosby, Semin, Marleau, Perry, Roy, Giroux, Williams, Gange, Flieschman, Jokinen, Parenteau, Erkisson
D-Letang, Visnovsky, Edler, Kronwall
G-Lundqvist, Crawford, Backstrom, Emery

Sorry for the brief response but I am on my iPod. Yes Raycroft did have more moments in his second start post-Lehtonen injury but he regained form in the third when they really needed him completed with a dazzling glove save finalee in the final seconds. I expect Raycoft to have more nights like this as opposed to his previous start but overall his play has been very satisfactory. A bad start here or there may be on the cards for Raycroft but as long as it isn't for a prolonged stretch, he'll be fine.

As for the PP, I don't see Benn as a pointman because he is a better player than most in traffic and players like Ribiero are better pure playmakers. Benn is best served off the halfboards on the cycle where he is great at opening up space, it is possible Benn could be elsewhere on the PP buy I'd rather see someone else on the point though maybe trying Benn there is worth a shot.

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Dobber Hockey Columbus Blue Jackets Forum Writer

Co-Commish of DTDL and UNFHL

Member of UHL, UDHL and LOFHL

http://twitter.com/#!/GGuthe

I don't mean to make this just about the goaltenders for the Stars but Jack Campbell has to be talking about both as a point of hope and concern.

Campbell has all the athletic talent in the world it seems with great reflexes and the ability to make any save. However, many of his issues that have led to his inflated OHL numbers is his inability to consistently read plays properly.

The promising 2011 Stars' 1st round pick was recently dealt by the Windsor Spitfires to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, showing that they ran out of coaching strategies to attempt to resolve some of Campbell's shortcomings.

Perhaps Campbell shouldn't have decommitted from the University of Michigan or maybe this trial by fire is exactly what he needs-- it is hard to tell and cases can be made for either argument.

What this means for poolies is to sell Campbell if someone treats him like the star goalie he was drafted as, Richard Bachman and Kari Lehtonen are road blocks, especially for a young goalie who has underwhelmed, to put it mildly, since being drafted. However, if you get a completely "low-ball" offer, you might not want to settle because Campbell still has a lot of time to turn it around and has enough value that he could be dealt to another organization if his issues cannot be remedied by the Stars. An offer that is "fair" is up to your discretion, since Campbell does have tons of upside and even though he has a two goalie-stacked roadblock that isn't the worst situation, considering Bachman is unproven and Lehtonen reaffirmed the injury issues recently. My advice is if you have to settle for a notch lower in upside but you much more certainty than do it; since a notch below Campbell's upside is still great. In all likelihood, Campbell would be offered in or for a package which makes it a much more complex and case-by-case assessment.

Do I see Campbell as the future in Dallas or elsewhere in the NHL? Like so many things in life that is uncertain. However, Campbell is even more uncertain because unlike most people who put on the goalie pads, he has all the tools to be an NHL starter but will he put it all together is really the question. There are some many variables to say one way or the other is just mildly informed guesswork at best right now as far as I can tell.

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Dobber Hockey Columbus Blue Jackets Forum Writer

Co-Commish of DTDL and UNFHL

Member of UHL, UDHL and LOFHL

http://twitter.com/#!/GGuthe