Observations of the Stars so far.

I will start off by stating I have not seen the Stars play a game yet so I am going by the extended highlights the Stars website has begun showing, game reports and various blogs.

The Stars have started badly. Yes I know they have a 4-1-0 record but that is purely on Kari Lehtonen who earned 3rd star of the week honours on nhl.com. Up until the game against the shockingly bad Jackets, the Stars had been outshot in every game, some by a very wide margin. Having said that, they did look absolutely dominating against the Jackets. They have a new coach and new style of play as well as a lot of new players so a slow start was expected but they need to get it going soon as Kari wont be able to carry the team all season alone.

It is only early days but so far Souray is beginning to show signs of being the steal of the off season. His play has put him alongside Robidas as our #1 pairing and is the go to guy on the PP. He still has a bomb of a shot and there have been 4 goals that have been the result of his shot. 1 he scored out right, 1 was a tip by Eriksson and the other 2 were simply so hard they generated easy rebounds. Morrow said himself 'you have to have a brass set to stand in front of that'.

Ribeiro has started off strong. He hasn't scored yet but 5 assists is good for tied 7th in the league and he has looked like he is enjoying taking a bit of a leadership role on the team. People still don't view him as anything but a whiny diver but those people are guys that tend to build opinions on reputation instead of actually paying attention, the same people that view Ott as a talentless pest and nothing more.

On that point, Ott has so far proved himself worthy of a top 6 spot and is 2nd behind Ribeiro on the team's point scoring list. Oh and he leads the NHL in hits too.

Talking of hits, Nieuwendyk kept talking about wanting his team to be one that is hard to play against. So far they have taken that to mean hit the crap out of the opposition as out of the top 8 in the entire NHL, half of those are Stars players. Ott with 26, Morrow with 20 while Fistric and Robidas has 19 a piece.

Jamie Benn has shown some flashes of his talents but for the most part has been way to quiet. We need more from him to be successful in the long run.

Ryder has taken a little to get going but finally scored against the Jackets. Hopefully that gets the monkey off his back and he can get back to preseason form.

Goligoski is another who had a great first game but has been far too quiet since. He needs to step up more and regain his form from the end of last season.

Dowell has not put up any points yet but man has he been physical. In replays I have seen him throw some monster hits, more of that please!

Who says Eriksson can't play without Richards? He has 3 goals so far to lead the team in the early goings.

All in all I am happy with the results so far but am a bit concerned how they will do against some of the better teams. Time will tell and I look forward to being able to see a full live game with the man they call studly wonderbomb!

Better teams? You'll be up against us on Friday! Both clubs are 4-1-0 so it'll be very interesting. Like the Stars we've also been outshot regularly. Only the Rangers game did the count go in our favour.

Actually, didn't you say exactly the same thing at the beginning of last season though? The Stars relied on goaltending to get some early wins on the board. Then the rest of the team got their act together?

Yeah playing the Ducks and Kings will be interesting to see how we fare as they were our downfall last season.

Last season wasn't quite the same as we had more people scoring than this season. The problem last season was not starting to play until they were down a goal or two and then kick it up. So far this year I get the feeling if we fell behind a couple of goals we would be done.

Ahh I have a lot to say so far.

We have started 4-1-0 which is a very good start whoever you are. Ok, we havent played the best hockey upto now but playing rubbish and winning is a very good sign. I said this in the off-season and still firmly believe it now that Kari is the best goalie in the league. He had great numbers last year considering he had no back up at all with the under-confident Raycroft. He is superb and keeps us in so, so many games.

I have watched every game but one so far and our powerplay is very, very concerning. I hate coming back to Richards but he is the best man in the league to control and distribute the puck on the powerplay and we need someone else to fill that roll. At the moment there is now control at all and we are rarely getting a good shot off in the 2 minutes. I think Goligoski would fill this roll quite well. Scoring powerplays goals is crucial if you want to be succesful in the NHL.

We also have some positive aspects though. It is only early so it is hard to judge players individually. Souray seems to be decent as you said and Eriksson got off to a slow start but now has several goal to his name! Ott has been the battling man he always has been and has been crucial to our success so far. Great to see Adam Burish back as well, really great guy.

I agree with you that Jamie Benn has been way to quiet. He is one of the most talented guys out there and I dont think we have got him in enough space for him to show us what he can do yet. Goligoski is a great player and is what we have missed since Zubov left and it hopefully wont be long until he has playing well.

When I looked at our defense on paper I thought we would be a good outfit defensively, but with the shots we have had on Kari suggest otherwise. Gulutzan is a defense-first coach but doesnt seem to be doing the trick just yet,

A bit of a rant but still a great start to the year and I wouldve snapped your hands off for 4 wins out of 5. A win tonight against the Blue Jackets is vital before we head out West for a very tough few games!! GO STARS

I think it is just going to take some time for the players and coach to adjust to each other fully. I think it will be interesting to see if they can really pull it off. It is nice to see some of the naysayers at least take notice that we may not be all that bad after all

Don't know if I am there with Kari being the best in the league right now but he definitely deserves to be in the top 5 at least. He is a greatly under rated goalie but some people are taking notice of him now his face is all over the individual stats on nhl.com

mc_homer wrote:

Jamie Benn has shown some flashes of his talents but for the most part has been way to quiet.

I'd call this more than a flash....

Haha you beat me to it Ronnie! Jamie was very good last night at both ends of the ice. Kari was on form yet again and guess what....another game winner from a tip off of a Souray bomb.

As I said before though, the next few games will be the first real test.

Well, we got another win

Out played again but got the result we wanted. Take my hat off to best goalie in the league, awesome performance again. Jamie must of heard our comments, he was a different man last night and put in a big shift defensively as well as offensively. PP struggled again but some great goal scored.

I love the midnight starts as well, more of them please!!

Yes please! I was debating just going to bed as still jet lagged but saw it started at 12 so couldn't resist. Stay for at least the first I said to myself then couldn't turn off haha.

you know it was avatar racing that kept you up really

cracking goal by Benn, definately an early contender for goal of the season! It reminds me of Rick Nash's goal a few years ago!

Avatar racing certainly helped!