The biggest thing that I missed about home while I was in College Station was how few Stars games I got to see. Lets talk about the Stars and keep you guys down in CS up to date with how the season is going.

Game one of the season was a 5-4 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. I missed the first peroid but the Stars started down 1-0 in the second. They dominated the period out shooting the Jackets 15-2 and ended the second frame with a 2-1 lead. Columbus roared back in the third and went up 4-2 until 16:42 when the Stars scored the first of two goals in 33 seconds. 21 seconds until the end of OT and Rick Nash puts in the game winner.

First Stars home opener loss since 1997. At least it was exciting.

Another stunning Daryl Reaugh quote about the ugly goals given up in the third period they were "sneak up on a glass of water ugly". I don't even know what that means.

These are the lines the Stars rolled out

Eriksson-Richards-Lundqvist
Morrow-Ribero-Ott
Avery-Modano-Neal
Barch-Peterson-Crombeen

Robidas-Grossman
Boucher-Fistric
Niskanen-Daley

First PP unit had Modano and Robidas at the points, Richards on the half boards, Ribero behind the net and Morrow in the slot. Also saw Daley and Boucher on the points with Eriksson on the wall Lundqvist behind the net and Avery in the slot as a second unit.

Seemed mostly to be Modano on the ice for the entire PP and Boucher gets in for the last fifteen seconds to rest Mo.

Current record: 0-0-1, 1 point

Stars lose 3-1 to the Predators tonight, Arnott scored two PP goals for Nashville.

Stars looked off all night, the only bright spot of the night was Trevor Daley keeping on pace to score 82 goals this season with his second in as many games. Lots of neutral zone turnovers and not much defensively to slow the Predators as they came into the zone. Lots of stupid penalties and most of their offensive zone work looked like this: dump into the corner and chase but get beaten, Predators clear the zone OR quick shot from distance that Ellis controls, Predators win the ensuing faceoff and break out of the zone.

A little scrum at 8:36 of the first period saw Avery and Hamhuis get ejected for fighting after a fight had broken out. Stars seemed more concerned with kicking Tootoo's ass than playing and winning the game.

Current record: 0-1-1, 1 point

hat trick for fabian brunnstrom

In his first NHL game no less!

Modano gets the empty netter to seal the deal, 6-4 win against the Predators.

Current record: 1-1-1, 3 points.

Nice coming out party for Brunnstrom. Good thing too since it looked like Turco took the night off.

Stars got curbstomped by the Blues tonight, 6-1.

Turco needs to get his sh it together or this is going to be a long season.

Current record: 1-2-1, 3 points.

or a short season, depending on how you look at it.
kinda sucks because turco has been an integral part of the stars success in the past...

Datsyuk pwns Marty Turco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqDtaSSqaCA

Didn't see tonight's game but they lost 5-4 to Colorado.

Current record: 1-3-1, 3 points

Stars win 2-1 in New York tonight, playing a good Rangers team. Looked sluggish to start out, Loui Ericksson took a bad penalty early that the Rangers turned into a PP goal.

Stars struggled through the second and evened it up on a spectacular on-his-back power play goal by Morrow.

Modano with the GWG in the third and the Stars finally get a road win!

Current record: 2-3-1, 5 points

Turco looked like the Turco we've become accustomed to seeing. He kept the Stars in it early in the game. And the rest of the team put it all together and finally got back to playing Stars hockey in the 3rd.

I'm going to try and make the game tomorrow night vs the Devils.

Are you in NJ right now? That would be so awesome to go see an away game, it's something I've always wanted to do.

Yup, I'm in NJ. I wanted to go to last night's game at MSG, but tickets were a little out of my price range and the Garden is a dump. Devils tickets are about half as much and they have a brand new arena.

the Turco I'm accustomed to seeing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqDtaSSqaCA

Stars looked terrible in a 5-0 shutout against the Devils.

Turco got pulled after the second and Stephan gave up 2 more in the third. Things are not looking good.

2-4-1, 5 points

I was at the game and it was absolutely brutal. The Stars look horrid.

Devils fans are merciless. Sean Avery was hearing from the fans from warm-ups to final horn. Chants of "Avery sucks" from the entire arena after every goal. Much, much worse yelled from individuals. Some of it was entertaining (more than the game at least), but it wasn't exactly a family friendly atmosphere.

Aside from the game though, it was a good time.

Here's what $30 gets you...


[This message has been edited by AggieDan04 (edited 10/23/2008 9:32a).]

After the tongue lashing they got from Tippett last night...they respond with a 5-3 domination of the Islanders

[This message has been edited by TMACsDaMan (edited 10/23/2008 8:31p).]

I only got to see bits and pieces of the game, but it looked like the Islanders weren't playing any sort of defense.

It was a complete domination of the Islanders but the fact that Turco still let in three goals is very disturbing. Seemed like he didn't give a sh it at all about that last goal.

Can't really blame the defense on this one either, they looked motivated all night. They cleared people out of the crease, tied up everyone after a shot got through and just let Turco take care of the rest. This is all on Marty if things go to hell.

3-4-1, 7 points.

[This message has been edited by Bobbyboy04 (edited 10/24/2008 11:48a).]

.848 save% is awful
that has got to change, hopefully just rusty but who knows

Didn't get to watch this game last night even though I was offered tickets about an hour beforehand, I had other things to do unfortuantely.

Modano scores with under a minute left in regulation to tie the game at 5, and Semin scores in OT to give the Caps the win.

3-4-2, 8 points.

Turco made some wild saves in that game. Our Defensemen are giving up waaaaaaaaaaay too many turnovers in our own zone. Turco was on his heels a lot.

[This message has been edited by Scriffer (edited 10/28/2008 6:18p).]

struggling....

Lundqvist is out 4-6 weeks now, but Ott should be back in the line up tonight. And Lehtinen and Zubov should be back soon. All 3 should be a huge help. At least I hope they will be...

Minnesota still unable to get a win in Dallas, a streak reaching back all the way to 2003. Tobias Stephan got the start tonight in goal and the Stars win 4-2.

Turco should warm up eventually, right?

4-4-2, 10 points.

Turco will be alright. He's never had a GAA of higher than 2.75 (counting his college days). Law of averages says he'll go on a great run. He usually has a week or two "bad spell" every year.. this year he's just starting with it which tends to amplify it. Had he played last night, they still win.

The team played much, much better in all 3 zones last night.... against a good team. First regulation loss, first power play goal given up.

As much as I'm excited about the new guys, the team still needs Zubov and Lehtinen and will be a much deeper and better team when they return. Zubov is eligible to return next Friday 11/7 and Lehtinen has been skating, but since they don't play for almost a week after Saturday's game they may let him get those extra few days rest as well.

I'm not panicking yet!

Ok its dawned on me that Turco isn't entirely the problem, since Stephan got the start and they still gave up five tonight.

Stars just don't play very good defense. We need to get Lehtinen and Zubov back in the lineup because even though Jere is old and slowing and Sergei doesn't really play defense you can't win games when guys like Fistric and Niskanen are getting 25 minutes of ice time combined.

4-5-2, 10 points and somehow still ahead of Phoenix and LA in the Pacific.

The fact that the youngsters are getting so much ice time will only benefit then as the year wears on.

I'm certainly glad that tippet put morrow and ribs back together. They, along with eriksson dominated but could only get that one goal.

I'm still not to worried yet because on that swing to Cali, they will hopefully remember the season started already.

We and they know that if they will just do it( play hard) like they did against New York and Minnesota , they are one of the best,if not the best team(suck it wings fans) in the NHL. If they are still tooling along after 30 games then i will be worried.

Ok just a clarification, 5-2 loss to Chicago on 10/31. Toewes and Kane are really good. Really really good, probably best thing Chicago has seen since Amonte and Roenick.

Last night's plastering by Boston was a 5-1 loss that I didn't get to watch, luckily. Can't keep on giving up 4+ gpg and expect to do anything.

4-6-2, 10 points.

Nice to get zubie back and parrish looked very good with the natural hat trick

11/7 - 5-2 win in Anaheim. After nearly a week off the Stars regrouped, retooled and reloaded. Zubov was back so that helped us out in the back end, Mark Parrish was signed and looked to be effectively inserted into the system and Turco had a pretty decent night.

Lines and D pairs looked pretty good last night, they stayed together pretty much all night except for one shift where Parrish double shifted with the Ribero line.

Richards - Ott - Eriksson
Ribero - Brunnstrom - Morrow
Modano - Avery - Parrish
Peterson - Crombeen - Barch

Grossman - Robidas
Boucher - Daley
Niskanen - Zubov

Stars sent Conner back down to the AHL after calling him up to play when Richards got hurt, Neal and Fistric also got sent down to the AHL. Lehtinen should be back in a week or two so everything will be back in place. Hopefully this is where the Stars get back on a roll. They're already 12 points back of San Jose and 7 points back of Anaheim. This game and the next five were divisional games so it's important to get rolling now.

5-6-2, 12 points.

[This message has been edited by Bobbyboy04 (edited 11/8/2008 1:16p).]

Since my last update the Stars have lost at San Jose, lost in OT at Los Angeles, lost at home vs. Los Angeles, and won at Phoenix.

So much for doing well in the division! 6-8-3, 15 points, last in the Pacific.

In other news, they decided to shake things up and bring back an old favorite, Daryl Sydor! Traded Boucher to Pittsburgh for Syd. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=256157&lid=sublink01&lpos=headlines_nhl

[This message has been edited by Bobbyboy04 (edited 11/16/2008 10:59a).]

Not sure how I feel about this move. Seems desperate to me. Sydor was barely more than a healthy scratch the last time he was here.

The contracts are a wash. Both 2.5 and expire at the end of the year. Boucher wasn't being used on the PP. His strength is getting shots through from teh point on the PP, but with Robidas, and Richards taking that spot while he was injured all last year he's lost that chance. Syd is familiar and was in the doghouse in Pitt although when he was playing he was steady. Nothing earthshattering but may be one of those things that works out for both teams.

it's gonna take more than Sydor to fix this team... struggling...

Hopefully I'm wrong, there is no logical reason for them to be this bad.