Stars vs. Blue Jackets: I saw that one coming up Sixth Avenue.

Dallas 1, Columbus 4

I guess we all could have predicted the loss last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I wouldn’t have predicted all the fights and the five-minute major plus game misconduct for James Neal, though. I was at the game, so I didn’t get to see anything up close. Therefore, I won’t argue whether or not Neal deserves a suspension for the hit (he’s been suspended two games). At the time, though, I thought the Jackets player was okay at first and didn’t see him fall back down again. The hit didn’t look that vicious to me on the replay that I craned my neck to see on the press box TV. They didn’t show the hit in the arena.

I’m interested in seeing that sequence of events when I watch the game on my TiVo. I’ll also want to see why there were so many fights. I usually assume that if Trevor Daley is in a fight, he’s legitimately angry. When Krys Barch fights, I don’t usually have to break down what led up to it.

I apologize for not having any in-depth analysis. When I’m at the game, I talk a lot more and I hear Razor explaining things 100% less than when I’m on my couch watching it on TV. (Not that I have any in-depth analysis then.)

Stars @ Red Wings: Win-lose-win-lose-win-lose wins out.

Dallas 3, Detroit 1

Not bad. Not bad at all. I guess the win-lose-win-lose-win-lose power is stronger than the PLEASE-NO!-NOT DETROIT! power. It was helped, of course, by the lose-to-bad-teams, beat-good-teams thing they’ve got going on, too.

The Stars looked very good the whole game. The Wings had trouble getting past them into the offensive zone. Alex Auld had a fine game tonight and made some pretty good saves. He got a gift from the refs on that one non-goal, but hey, life’s tough.

Modano had another great game, getting an assist on Loui Eriksson’s goal and just being all over the place all night. James Neal got an assist on Loui’s goal, too, with a beautiful pass. That brings Neal’s point streak to ten games. Matt Niskanen got his back that the scorers took away from him in the last game to give to Neal.

Mike Ribeiro had a much better game than he’s had lately. He got a nice, albeit flukey, goal but he worked hard all game. Brenden Morrow had more energetic game tonight, too. I think Brenden and Ribs got a little shot in the arm by being moved to new lines. Brad Richards added two assists to his impressive total for the year.

One of the best things I’ve seen lately is the improvement in the penalty kill. According to Razor, they had killed 17 penalties in a row at that point. They killed all five against Detroit tonight. And they got two power play goals! Everything’s all topsy-turvy.

Myra and I will be at the game tomorrow night. Let’s break the pattern, boys.

Stars @ Coyotes: Consistency is only a virtue if you’re not a screw-up.

Dallas 2, Phoenix 3

They keep saying they’re looking for consistency, but as Ryan Lambert, the Puck Daddy What We Learned guy, points out, win lose win lose win lose win lose is consistent. They need to start winning games when it’s their turn to lose one.

I’m almost expecting them to win against Detroit on Wednesday night. I never assume that, but this win-lose-win-lose thing might be more powerful than the usual pattern against Detroit of lose-lose-lose.

Phoenix is doing a lot better this year, of course, now that they have a decent coach. Yet, they’re not doing so well that the Stars can take them lightly. As we saw.

The habit of spotting every team two goals is getting pretty tiresome. At least the Coyotes only got one before we tied it up the first time. That was a great goal by Modano, by the way. Not many can do what he does with his backhand.

I’m sure Dave Tippett was pretty pleased with the win even though he tried to play it off as just another game. I’m glad he’s having some success in Phoenix, but I don’t want to see them win against the Stars again this season. We couldn’t even beat them last year, when Gretzky was throwing fits on the bench and they were losing everywhere else.

I’m not going to call it a roller-coaster yet.

It’s more like that stretch of I-635 between I-35E and the airport. Just kind of wavy.

After that nice win against Vancouver, we lost to the Minnesota Wild after giving up two goals to them in the first, the battling back, only to give up a third. Then Minnesota hung on to win.

Then we went to meet up with the league-leading San Jose Sharks and tried to do the same thing. It was only slightly different, in that we waited until the second period to give up 2 goals, and the third period to fight back to a tie. If we’re going to insist on doing it that way, I think the Sharks game version is better. It gives the opposition less time to go ahead again.

This time, though, we did the impossible and won in the shootout. Marty Turco was brilliant in the shootout, like he used to be in the old days. Crawford kept his promise and picked some new guys for the shootout this time. He kept James Neal, who hit the post for the third time this season. He needs to adjust the sight on his stick, I think.

The genius move, though, was calling on Stéphane Robidas. Robi skated in and just straight-on roofed it. No dekes for him. That won the game for us and got a huge cheer from me.

Confused by NHL suspensions?

Down Goes Brown can help.

My favorite part:

No, he does this all the time but since we never suspend him we just keep saying he has no prior record and hope nobody notices.

That’s my biggest pet peeve.

Thanks to Puck Daddy for the link (although I was headed there anyway because DGB is genius).

Stars vs. Canucks: Much better

The new video boards are beautiful. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Dallas 2, Vancouver 1

That was much better. The Stars really do seem to dominate the play for long stretches and they had 47 shots on goal so they should have won. This time they did.

I saw this game in person, in my quasi-season-ticket-holder seat next to Myra and family. It’s so fun to sit with somebody that’s also a little obsessed with the Stars. We usually agree that they’re awesome. Heh.

I have to say, those video boards seem more and more impressive every time I see them. Before the game and before the skate-around, they showed a slideshow on that huge screen of some very cool shots. Pictures I hadn’t ever seen before, from the dressing room, from promos, from games. Still, the boards don’t distract me from the game. In the old days (before this season), I would actually forget to look at the video for replays. I’d just figure, when I get home I need to watch for that play. But now I don’t forget about the video.

And as you can see in the picture, it looks really cool during the anthem. Last night’s anthem was unusually moving. Bill Ollerman called for a moment of silence for the victims of the tragedy at Ft. Hood, then a cellist played the lovely Canadian national anthem and then the Star-Spangled Banner. Quite a lot of people were singing it out loud, which is unusual. It was very nice.

The game was great. The last ten minutes were very exciting and highly nerve-wracking. The crowd cheered every clear during the penalty kills and stood for the whole final minute and a half while the Canucks’ net was empty and the Stars were fending off some desperation from them.

It was a great win. I think the wheels are starting to turn, the engine is picking up a little steam. I hope they’re about to knock out a few wins in a row.

Stars vs. Flames: The Crusher.

Dallas 2, Flames 3 (OT) 11/04/09

That would be what I call crushing. A crushing loss.

It’s depressing when they lose like that. It’s infuriating when they suck, but it’s downright depressing when they play a great game, finally break through the goalie that’s playing out of his mind, get 40 shots, then give up a tying goal with seconds left in regulation and lose it in OT on a bogus call.

I hate the stupid over-the-glass penalty anyway. It’s stupid even when a player actually commits it. Unlike Nick Grossman, who didn’t commit that penalty.

Still, it shouldn’t have gotten to overtime. They only had to keep it out of the net for 49 more seconds and everything would have been fine. In my mind I was blaming Mike Ribeiro for coughing it up behind the net on a simple play, but I went back and looked and he was, technically, on the bench when the Flames scored the tying goal.

Stars vs. Maple Leafs:They owed me that game.

Kids, this is why you need a UV filter.

Dallas 4, Toronto 3, OT

I went to the game tonight and as I got out of my car, I dropped my camera bag and it sounded like glass breaking. When I reached my seat I took it out and found that the UV filter was smashed, but the glass on the lens seemed okay. But it wouldn’t auto-focus and I couldn’t turn the manual focus ring. I had to wait until I got home to assess the damage.

If the Stars had lost that game, I’d have been pretty distraught. It’s amazing how much better a win can make me feel.

The Stars started out pretty blatantly bad in the first period. Two shots on goal the whole period. Marty Turco did a fabulous job of keeping them in the game. For a team that is basically the worst in the league right now, the Leafs looked pretty good against the Stars.

The second period looked better, and by the third, they were ahead a little in the play. The defense made some pretty good plays from what I could tell. Fistric had a good game, and so did Robidas.

Brad Richards got two goals but each one was followed closely by a Leafs goal. Richards made some great plays and those goals were very important. Ribeiro’s tip-in goal was extremely impressive. He basically curved it around all the Leaf defenders.

Have I mentioned that I miss Nik Hagman? I kind of wish, if they had to score, that he would get a goal. But I’m happy that they didn’t outscore us. I’ll take it.

I was resigned to the loss and then thrilled by the tying goal. Then I was resigned to an OT loss, so I was doubly thrilled by James Neal’s OT goal.

Great win, and after a little wrestling with my lens, I was able un-jam it so I think it’s okay. Everything worked out. Never give up on the puck, and always use a UV filter. That’s my advice.

Eleven games in.

Let’s see what we’re looking at here.

The defense isn’t half bad. Oooh! The young defense is going to be overmatched! Ooh! We need a free agent d-man everybody’s heard of! That was the cry during the off-season, and it continues now. But we can’t afford a free agent defenseman in his prime and we don’t need one that’s past his prime. I think the defense is already showing that they are learning the system and are the type that can work it.

Fistric is basically a stay-at-home defenseman that can skate like an offensive defenseman. Same with Grossman. Grossman is leading the NHL in plus-minus right now. Fistric played left wing for two games. Trevor Daley can overtake anybody that might take the puck from him. Niskanen can zig-zag through the opposition just like a forward, and is improving his defensive game. Robidas is still the leader he’s been for a couple of years and is basically in his prime. And Skrastins is actually helping out quite a bit. I like a professional shot-blocker like him. He makes some good plays and blocks a lot of shots.

I might be a little Pollyanna about the defense, but I think it’s doing pretty well. Certainly better than the skeptics predicted.

The ranks of Stars fans swell by one.

I just saw a cute story over on Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page about a Stars fan that bought a Maple Leafs fan on ebay.

Apparently, the Leafs fan has decided to jump ship and has sold his loyalty to the highest bidder (proceeds going to a cancer charity).

I think he’ll enjoy being a Dallas Stars fan. He can probably get Stars game tickets plus plane tickets for the price of tickets to a Leafs game. And there’s no waiting list. And best of all, no grammatical errors in our team’s name!

Welcome to Stars fandom, ex-Leafs fan!