Great little read here to finish my night and start your guys morning....

http://www.defendingbigd.com/2013/1/...e-dallas-stars

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Good blog post on the Benn contract talks....

http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/2013...eir-jobs.html/

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Notes from Mark Stepneski and Mike Heika from today's morning skate....

http://starsinsideedge.com/2013/01/2...est-for-stars/

http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/2013...-healthy.html/

If you haven't been following the blog Defending Big D, you should rectify that quickly. Great source of info on the Stars and among their stable of good bloggers is our own Mr. Angus.

Here an interesting read from the Defending Big D blog. This references a tweet from James Mirtle of the Toronto Globe and Mail speculating on Burke to the Stars....

http://www.defendingbigd.com/2013/1/...to-maple-leafs

There's not a lot I can add to that article as Erin pretty well summed up my thoughts on GM Joe. Feel free to fire away with your thoughts on that one.

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FWIW, I'm working tonight so I will DVR the game and watch it tomorrow when I get home. I'll have a breakdown/recap up either shortly after that or depending on how tired I am I may wait until after I get some sleep. That will be a regular thing with Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nighters.

Also I want to start a regular deal, either on Friday or Saturday(most likely) nights, looking at what has been going on with the players in the minors.

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Got to hand it to the Hawks, the better team won, but the Stars were so close to stealing one there.

The defense finally ended up costing the Stars a win. The one overarching theme from the first four games, allowing way too many shots on goal. So far through four games the Stars are allowing 38.25 shot/gm. And not only are they giving up loads of quality first shots, the opposition is getting chance after quality chance on rebounds.

Just go ahead at this point and give the team MVP to Lehtonen. And if he plays like he did in the loss to the Wild give Nilstorp you could even make those two co-MVP's. Kari is particular has been playing absolutely out of his mind, but he's had no other choice. Merely fantastic wouldn't be enough with the quantity and quality of shots.

I've also got to give a shout out to Cody Eakin, the kid has been all the Stars could have asked for and then some. At one point comes out and just nails Mayer, then turns around on the following shift, gets the turnover and feeds Whitney for the second goal. His play with and without the puck has been great and he really developed quick chemistry with Whitney and Ryder. He should provide the same on the third line with Morrow and Nystrom. That should give the Stars a pretty good third line to throw at teams. Small sample size, but Nieuy is looking pretty good for swinging that deal right now.

Let's move on to other news in Big D.....

Obviously the biggest news would be Benn's extension.....finally!!! A very friendly caphit and term to lock up the centerpiece of the franchise. Five years, $26.25mil ($5.25/yr caphit), is a bargain for a player like Jamie. According to Mark Stepneski, it's looking like Monday at Columbus is his likely debut, due more to paperwork than conditioning or any other factors.

Jagr left late in the third with an injury. So far no word as to what the injury was only that it wasn't considered to be serious.

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Enjoying the Stars coverage here. Keep it up.

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Pick up the 2013-14 DobberHockey Keeper League Fantasy Pack today!

Thanks Jeff. Best vote of confidence I can think of coming from a pro such as yourself.

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Let's get caught up here on the goings on. Sorry in advance for the long post.

This first bit of news came up yesterday just as I was shutting things down to head out for work. Colton Sceviour was sent back to Austin and Tomas Vincour was called up yesterday afternoon. That bit of news dovetails into this next piece....

Jaromir Jagr is listed as day-to-day with lower back issues. He left late in the game with stiffness in his lower back. The last shift or two in last night's game he was clearly laboring and now we have our explanation. So with Jagr possibly out tomorrow night, and beyond, the Vincour call up looks quite fortuitous.

According to Mark Stepneski's writeup, Glen Gulutzan did not run lines at practice today so there was no clear indication as to what the lines will look like when Jamie Benn takes the ice for the first time. He did state in the article that Benn may start out centering Whitney and Ryder on the second line. That would naturally be short lived unless they were to really click and at the same time the top line was clicking as well. And by clicking I really mean playing lights out.

I'll take a stab here at what I would do, or what I think Gulutzan would do. We'll have to wait and see what actually shakes out though. Here's what seems the most logical...

Eriksson - Benn - Jagr
Whitney - Roy - Ryder
Morrow - Eakin - Nystrom
Garbutt - Fiddler - Smith

I think with this lineup you actually have two very good scoring lines, an above average or at least slightly above average third line, and a good fourth line. Eakin's playmaking, and surprising physical play would click well with Morrow and Nystrom. Fiddler has been very solid as has Garbutt, and Smith is settling in more with each game and shift. Reilly has had some good chances in the last couple of games and with a better setup man like Fiddler he could really benefit.

The obvious odd man out now is Wandell. He was out of his depth playing on the second line, and it drug Whitney and Ryder down with him. He's less of a liability in his current role on the fourth line, but he's simply not better then Fiddler. This is his last shot in Dallas as he's an RFA after this season, but so far it appears that the door has been shut and the hand is hovering near the lock. Naturally there's still a chance for him to get more opportunities, but it will likely require injuries to get it. And whether he could do anything with those chances if they came is dubious at best.

In the short term with Jagr day-to-day we could see Reilly Smith being given a taste of top six minutes until Jaromir returns. Maybe not top line, possible, but second line with Ryder moving up with Loui and Roy. Gulutzan has been very willing to tinker with lines to find what works so for that reason we shouldn't rule out Smith seeing a sprinkling of prime time opportunities. Once again all contingent on Jagr's health. If that were to come about Tomas Vincour would likely step into Smith's current role.

On the defensive front, Aaron Rome is expected back tomorrow against the Blues. In the above Stepneski article Gulutzan made no mention of who would be left on the outside looking in, and with the defense's play so far it's fair to say if your last name isn't Robidas or Goligoski your not safe. Daley is likely safe as well in spite of that ugly own goal last night. And in all honesty it was a nice deflection albeit past the wrong netminder. Heck it was almost his second of the season as he was close to getting the deflection on Ryder's first goal against Detroit. Look for the bright side right? Right?

Speaking of that own goal. Classy move by Lehtonen for the supportive, shake it off stick tap on Daley's butt. Good to see Kari not freak out and go all prima donna there. Now in the future would any of us begrudge Kari instead using a double-handed-over-hand-axe-swing on a defenseman's ass or head. Dude has been shot full 'o holes figuratively speaking. Could have been literally on that Toews goal, yeesh!

One last tidbit, the Stars acquired defenseman Carl Sneep from the Pens for an conditional seventh-rounder. Is it just me or does that name, Carl Sneep, sound like something from a Monty Python skit? Anyway, he'll be headed directly to Austin, will not pass go, but will collect more than $200. Here's a link to an article from Defending Big D on the deal.

http://www.defendingbigd.com/2013/1/...to-texas-stars

That's all I have for now. Beers to ya....

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News from today's morning skate confirms Jagr will be out, and reveals that another unnamed forward is 50-50 for tonight as well. Speculation from Mark Stepneski of Stars Inside Edge is that the mystery player is either Derek Roy or Ray Whitney. In his words they were both given maintenance days on Friday and did not practice. I'll post once I have confirmation of exactly what is happening on this front.

Also in related news Colton Sceviour has been recalled from the Texas Stars.

Philip Larsen will be the healthy scratch to open a spot for Aaron Rome. Unconfirmed, but the thinking is defensive pairings will look like this...

Goligoski - Robidas
Rome - Daley
Benn - Dillon

And it has been confirmed Nilstorp will get his second start of the season.

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http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/2013...juggling.html/

Sounds as if Derek Roy, might, stress might, be the mystery 50-50 player. Still waiting for definitive word on who it is, and what the line combos will be.

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