star-telegram.com: Jennifer Floyd Engel

For Mo, these playoffs are just like old times

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:10 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

A relaxing and refreshing day of golf awaited Stars forward Mike Modano on Tuesday, only he was running woefully late.

A meeting had gone long. So had this interview.

And Mo had been again flirting with retirement talk -- Will he? Possibly. Maybe. Who knows? -- when his impatient golf partner walked up.

"It doesn't look like you're dressed," Stars GM Brett Hull said, noting, "I've got to take care of my man."

So any chance his man has a lot of free links time next season, Hully?

"He is not retiring," he said almost as quickly as he used to unleash slap shots. "He owes me one more year, then he can do whatever he wants. And guys like him do not walk away anyway."

Guys like him may not walk away. It doesn't mean they do not think about it, especially when they are 37 going on 38 and being asked to embrace the role of "the old guy."

"I think about it a lot now lately, certainly when you have gone this deep," Modano said. "And so you wonder if this will be it."

If so, if this indeed turns into his final season, then this West Finals against Detroit might well be his last kick at the Cup. Like .001 percent of hockey experts give the Stars a flying Fig Newton of a chance in this series.

They are underestimating this Stars team.

They have a quality not easily explainable, a quality exemplified by Mo. They will do anything to win, even if it hurts, even if it is not what they want to do, even if nobody notices.

"Mo has been a status player, in terms of offensive production, for a long time. That's kind of always been his identity," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "What people don't realize is, even when he had that identity, he still did all of these things, what I call the important things. What we are doing is just putting a lot more onus on the important things."

Just look at Game 6 against San Jose.

What most remember about that four-overtime marathon was Marty Turco imitating a wall. Or Brenden Morrow chipping in another game-winner.

To get to this moment, however, Dallas had to kill a penalty on defenseman Nicklas Grossman in the third overtime. And who do you think was one of the guys logging huge minutes on that kill?

"Just look at the minutes he plays," Tippett said, not waiting for a reply and instead rattling off what said "not easy minutes" entail.

Point on the power play. Penalty kill.

Checking line duties, which is basically a thankless role of trying to keep beasts such as Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton from being beasts. And with Detroit bringing a No. 1 line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, whoever the lucky SOB is who plays with them, Mo needs to be good, Guy Carbonneau-on-Peter Forsberg good for the Stars to have a chance.

And herein lies the beauty of what a Hall of Fame player, the greatest American-born scorer ever and an iconic Dallas Star has done this season. Mo, like always, did the right thing.

Not flawlessly.

Galloway & Hate: Stars shine in Loserville

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:52 CDT

Jennifer Floyd Engel: Stars' past can't really predict their future

Tue, 06 May 2008 07:31 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

"Until they prove otherwise, this is the Stars.

They are the team who too often folds their tent first when the game gets hard.

This is who they are. This is what they do."

-- Yours truly, March 14, 2008, following the Stars' 5-3 loss to the Red Wings.

You will not find any waffling this morning, not by me, not in this space. After watching them, as Emmitt Smith might say, "get debacled" in Detroit on that random Thursday back in March, I had this Stars team pegged for another quick and dirty playoff run.

Brutal does not do justice to how pathetically compliant they were in Joe Louis. And so it is fitting, in a playoff march that has been all about slaying monkeys for this Stars team, what awaits now is the biggest.

Returning to Detroit.

Where ugly typically happens to them.

And where maybe, just possibly, from that embarrassing mess, this Stars team finally started to become a group capable of an extended Stanley Cup playoff stay. Maybe, they had to slop through a month of ugly to finally develop that resiliency they lacked.

Because what they have become is a team that no longer folds when games get hard.

That is no longer who the Stars are. They have proven otherwise.

They did so by beating the defending champion Ducks in convincing fashion, by finishing off San Jose and mostly by how they gutted through a marathon Game 6 on Sunday.

Four overtimes is a lot of hockey, two complete games plus part of another and what was Lombardi's line about fatigue making cowards of us all?

There were plenty of chances for this Stars team to go down easy, after a random penalty on defenseman Nicklas Grossman, when Sharks captain Patrick Marleau had Game 7 on his stick, when so many point-blank chances went unanswered.

But this team does not have a lot of give up in them, even when faced with seemingly impossible tasks.

"Nobody gave us a chance against Anaheim. Nobody gave us a chance against San Jose," an emotional Stars coach Dave Tippett said afterward, after a power-play goal by his captain Brenden Morrow at 9:03 of the fourth overtime catapulted them to a West Finals date.

"But those guys believe in there," he said. "Brenden was saying 'Come on, jump on my back and we're going'. Their will and effort is just phenomenal. I know we talked about the games being so close, can you give us 5-10 percent more? Then I look at Brenden and say 'I'm asking 5-10 more from this guy?'"

He had been going full throttle since this team touched down in Anaheim for Game 1 way back when. He has been scoring and skating and hitting as if on a mission.

He had 19 hits in Game 6. Yes, 1-9 as crazy as that sounds, especially considering included in this total was a check so hard that Milan Michalek had to be escorted off the ice and Morrow himself admitted to seeing stars. He simply refused to let his team lose in that game, really in any game.

And if this sounds like a cliché too often bandied about in sports for very vanilla-like performances, shut up and listen to Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas explain the Morrow trickle-down effect.

Jennifer Floyd Engel: Turco slams door on Sharks

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:44 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

DALLAS -- "I will shut the door."

And with those five words, Stars goalie Marty Turco led his team into overtime Sunday where he immediately and consistently delivered on that promise.

He did so again in Overtime 2.

And in Overtime 3.

And yet again in Overtime 4.

And when all was said and done in Game 6, Marty had stopped a personal-best 61 shots, a mind-numbing 31 in overtime, catapulted Dallas to a 2-1 series-clinching victory against San Jose and earned them an invite to the West Finals starting Thursday in Detroit.

A pretty good day, all in all, for Marty.

He had been dogged – and this finally become past tense Sunday – by questions about whether he had a Stanley Cup in him. He always has been a good goalie, even bordering on great. What he proved in a marathon Game 6 was he’s capable of carrying a team beyond Round 2.

“Our goaltender was pretty unbelievable for us,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said, eschewing typical understatement. “He probably stole (the game) for us. He kept saying he was going to shut the door and we just had to get one in.”

Mini-Mo delivered that goal for him.

In what had become a series staple, he had parked himself in the crease. He has been doing this all playoffs really, taking any and all punishment to best position himself to score. And he did just that, on a power play, at 9:03 of the first overtime, to ensure his best friend’s gem was not wasted.

Because Marty has played into the night before only to walk away empty handed, to walk away with questions, to walk away shaking his head and wondering “How in the ... ?”

Marty and his Sharks counterpart, Evgeni Nabokov, spent a better portion of Sunday playing a very compelling game of “Oh yeah, watch this”.

Nabokov glove hand.

Marty kick save.

Nabokov stick save.

Marty sprawling save.

Back and forth, it was like the old McDonald’s commercial where Michael Jordan and Larry Bird played H-O-R-S-E. Only every single save had a whole lot of huge, rather than just selling a few Big Macs, riding on whether or not it was made.

Because what the Stars were staring down with a loss was the ugly aftermath of frittering away a 3-0 series lead and a Game 7 back in San Jose.

Of course, Sharks players faced win or begin summer vacation.

Morrow makes Dallas Stars forget blown chances

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:51 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

With one minute and 12 seconds remaining in overtime, the Dallas Stars' best and leading scorer this playoffs was handed the game-winning, series-clinching goal by San Jose Sharks defenseman Brian Campbell.

An ugly turnover.

On his stick.

All by himself.

Mike Ribeiro skated toward Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov and assembled AAC masses rose in anticipation of one of his patented moves, of a goal, of a clinching victory in Game 6 and a date with Detroit.

He managed only a slow dribbler that barely required a save.

Twenty-eight seconds later, Ribeiro nailed a crossbar.

Add this to Nabokov's brilliant save on Brad Richards 91 seconds into overtime and it was starting to feel very much like victory was not in the Stars.

Until Stars captain Brenden Morrow took matters into his own hands, scoring on a power play 9:03 into the fourth overtime, with assists from Stephane Robidas and Ribeiro.

Nabokov and Marty Turco spent a better portion of Overtime 1 exchanging game- and series-prolonging saves.

Nabokov, glove hand.

Marty, kick save.

Nabokov, stick save.

Marty, sprawling save.

Back and forth, it was like the old McDonald's commercial where Michael Jordan and Larry Bird played H-O-R-S-E. Only every single save had a whole lot of huge, rather than just selling a few Big Macs, on whether or not it was made.

Nor was this just any overtime.

The Stars were either going to be staring down the reality of frittering away a 3-0 series lead, thus and thereby trying to wrangle up an ounce of belief that flying to San Jose for Game 7 was not a colossal environmental waste. Or preparing for their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 2000.

Of course, overtime hockey is always a dicey proposition. You are always a bounce or a stumble or just really bad luck away from skating off the ice a loser.

But with each squandered chance, the Stars seemed to be losing their grip on a series they once had in a bear hug.

Just like you can sometimes smell a horrendously bad day coming on, you can likewise smell a cruel overtime.

Stars' 3-0 chokehold losing its hold

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:51 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

What the Dallas Stars need this morning is the Heimlich. Or at very least a trained expert standing by for Game 6 just in case.

Because we have another potential choker in the local jockosphere.

This is not to be confused with a personal prediction of gag, merely to note that choke became an option as of about midnight CST Friday, when Dallas frittered away a chance to eliminate San Jose.

Many reasons exist for this, including a bit of NHL buffoonery. A healthy dose of Stars idiocy also was to blame. They were 14 minutes away from a West Finals berth and had a two-goal lead. Both were blown.

This thing reeks of Mavs-Heat, circa 2006.

The game, the gag and what is TBD is whether the Stars can bounce back unlike the Mavs, who still have not.

And if this Stars team fails to advance, it will officially become the biggest choke in recent local jockosphere history, bigger than Mavs in Miami, bigger than them being the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of the NBA playoffs, bigger than the Cowboys losing to the Giants in the playoffs or the bobble.

No, this would be historically pathetic.

In NHL history, 150 teams have gone up 3-0 and only two have gone on to lose.

Two. TWO.

So why does it feel like we may be flirting with No. 3?

"We're up 3-2," Stars goalie Marty Turco deadpanned when presented with this notion after Game 5. "That's the only thing I have to do. That's the only thing I want to do. And it's the only thing we can do.... We still have destiny in our own hands."

Actually his hands. Destiny is in his hands.

There will be no gag reflex if Turco steals this game. And he may need to if this Stars team is content to watch Brenden Morrow try to score every goal or tip in every shot.

Turco has been so good for most of this playoffs and was again for stretches of Game 5.

Not so much in the third period Friday.

Certainly not in overtime.

The Sharks' second goal and the overtime winner were shots we expect him to stop because, well, he usually does. He had help, of course, in failing to do so; a lot of stupidity happening from his defensemen and forwards.

And now, with this series teetering, he needs to deliver something out of the 2007 playoffs, when he posted three shutouts against Vancouver, almost single-handedly dragging his team along.

Marty has a penchant for following up his stinkers with huge games.

We're about to see how tough these Stars really are

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:51 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Adversity had long been an Achilles’ heel of this Dallas Stars’ team.

Ugly, unfair and unlucky happened. And they capitulated.

Just how much this team has changed is about to be tested. Because what happened to them in a 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose in Game 5 had tinges of ugly, unfair and unlucky.

Sharks forward Joe Pavelski scored 65 seconds into overtime to force a Game 6 on Sunday in Dallas. And the Stars were rightfully furious about all of the little screw ups that turned this nightmare into reality.

“No comment” was how Stars captain Brenden Morrow responded when asked if he felt his team lost or the NHL had taken a victory away from them.

I normally am not one to buy into the-officials-jobbed-us talk which happens way too often in sports.

Save the whine. Find a way to win anyway.

What happened Friday, however, falls under NHL officiating ineptitude. Ugly, unfair, unlucky – all were present and accounted for in a game that included what amounts to a disallowed hat trick for Morrow?

He slapped, kicked and gloved three pucks across the goal line Friday. Only one counted. The kind-of kick is the one up for the most debate. It was the goal that became a non-goal thanks to replay.

Let’s just end that debate, shall we? The NHL embarrassed itself by disallowing the goal and with their logic for doing so. Morrow had scored with 4:29 remaining in the second period, the way he usually does. He was in front of the net, locked up with a Sharks defenseman and the puck went in off of his skate.

This is not against the rules. It is only naughty if the player purposely kicks the goal in. The league ruled he had used “distinct kicking motion”, thus disallowing the goal. They, of course, are idiots.

“Absolutely not,” a very angry Stars coach Dave Tippett said when asked if he saw anything distinct. “He had no idea where it was. How could he kick it in?” Who you going to believe? The same geniuses who changed a rule mid-playoffs? Or your eyes?

If you said the NHL, watch the dang game.

A distinct kicking motion requires intent or at least logic. The NHL's ruling ignored that when Morrow’s momentum carried him forward eventually his legs were going to have to follow.

On-ice officials ruled goal. But all quasi-close calls go to Toronto for review in the playoffs.

Typical NHL, the review lasted way too long. Especially if it was as distinct as they claimed.

Typical NHL, they screwed up the call despite the number of views. And this despite having whatever moron in charge of officiating live and in person at the game.

Typical NHL, they did not explain their logic, not that a biased HP Pavilion crowd cared. This silliness basically saved their season for a couple of minutes. And while Morrow looked big-time angry, gesturing wildly, he bounced back pretty quickly. He scored his goal with 55.3 seconds remaining in the second and his celebratory motions seemed to say “try to disallow this”.

Or else it was: “Yeah, I didn’t kick that one in, did I?”

“We got it back after,” Morrow said afterward. “We still got that second goal.”

Morrow leads the way like a good Conn man

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:51 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow has just about answered a long-debated local jockosphere question.

Definitely, yes.

Yes, a lone player can singlehandedly transform his team into a contender by sheer force of his will. I believe this only because I have seen Morrow impose himself on this Stars team and, as a result, onto these playoffs since Game 1 in Anaheim.

Because, when Stars types talk about how nobody expected them to be in this position, a victory from a Western Conference Finals berth, my first thought is: "Yep, and a few of them were in your locker room."

Don't get me wrong, every Star was hoping he could beat the defending champion Ducks, but mini-Mo touched down in Anaheim and started hitting and scoring and skating as if on a mission to convince everybody of what he already believed.

"Any doubters watched him and were not doubters for long," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "He is one of the guys who got the snowball rolling."

Until Wednesday, when that snowball stopped rather suddenly.

And while that Game 4 loss might turn into a small blip in a long playoff march, this is a Stars team that operates better when adhering to the Crash Davis motto: "Don't think. It can only hurt the ballclub."

Belief is a fickle friend; best not to lose contact. Especially now.

And this is why Morrow again has to be the guy in Game 5 this evening in San Jose. He has to restart that snowball, playing so hard and so determined that his Stars teammates follow along and San Jose bends to his will.

"There are guys you hope show up, but with him, you know," Stars goalie Marty Turco said. "What you are seeing is just him being him this time of year."

This has almost nothing to do with talent.

Because mini-Mo is the first guy to admit more physically gifted Stars exist; better pure scorers certainly do. He is not even the best player on his line. Mike Ribeiro has that distinction with his pretty passes and gorgeous goals.

Almost all of them have featured Morrow hunkered down in front of whoever happens to be tending goal, helping make all of that pretty possible.

Look at Dallas' only goal in Game 4.

Mini-Mo forced Devin Setoguchi's turnover, the puck ended up on Jere Lehtinen's stick, and Morrow had enough presence of mind to whiz past Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, creating a tiny little screen.

In fact, it seems like after every Stars goal, we are in the press box asking: "Did that go off Brenden?" He is always in front of the net, always around it, always taking the punishment that comes standard with playing a gritty game.

"Ribs, I guess," Morrow said when asked what hurts most after a game." Unless, I get hit in the foot."

It is a hard way to play. It is the only way to win.

Tip calls players such as mini-Mo compete guys, heart-and-soul players such as Mark Messier and Ryan Smyth in their prime who exemplified refusing to go down and dragging teammates along with them. And I am convinced this Stars team had to adopt this identity, Morrow's identity, as opposed to pretty skill, to be 60 minutes away from waving buh-bye to San Jose.

The less Stars swim with Sharks, the better

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:14 CDT

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

Baby brooms were present, primed and ready to sweep an assembled AAC mass into a frenzy.

Good vibes in this building, who knew?

A victory, a sweep of what until Wednesday had been a very pliant San Jose team, was all that stood between the Dallas Stars and a probable date with Detroit in the West Finals.

Step away from those brooms.

Sharks 2, Stars 1. And back to San Jose we go.

No sweep, no frenzy, no happy happened here Wednesday. In fact, the only broom being wielded was the one Mavs owner Mark Cuban used to sweep The Little General away after a disappointing end to yet another season in Mavsland.

Apparently, the stench of losing and underachievement hung in the AAC air. Or maybe it was second-hand choke.

Josh "Party at My Place" Howard was in the building Wednesday cleaning his locker (hopefully for good), so there is a possibility second-hand wacky weed smoke dulled the Stars' intensity.

Of course, 9 out of 10 doctors agree second-hand choke is infinitely more dangerous.

Especially for a Stars team that had been humming along.

"I don't think we ever thought we would win four straight in a series against these guys," Stars goalie Marty Turco said. "We smelled the blood."

Sharks, blood. Get it?

The Stars did not. They still have three games to win one, but quicker is definitely better. No need to confuse the Sharks and let them think they have a chance in this series.

"We do not want to give them any life," Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas said. "We kind of give them momentum a little bit, and we don't want to do that. The sooner we can close them the better."

NHL teams do not come back from 3-0 deficits; not historically, not recently. A quick check says 1975 was the second and last time anybody strung together four playoff Ws in a row after going down 3-0.

So there is no need to panic. Not yet.

Get back to me, though, if we're experiencing déjà vu all over again in Game 6.

If you had told this team it'd be up 3-1 going back to San Jose for Game 5, it'd be giddy.

Said Turco: "Until [Tuesday], we were always planning on going back to San Jose."

Sweeps do not just happen in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Rinkside Journal: Not overpaying for Richards a nice move

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:41 CDT

By Jennifer Floyd Engel

DALLAS -- Watching Brad Richards be an absolute menace to Anaheim and now San Jose so far in these playoffs -- How else do you describe what a beast he has been? -- has underlined how much this Stars team needed another dynamic scorer.

Trading for him probably saved them from crashing and burning in very Maverick-like fashion.

And this is a perfect time for a walk down memory lane, a reminder of how close this deal was to not being consummated and what held up, and almost killed, the Richards trade: Mark Fistric.

Wait, who?

The deal was almost completed (Richards for Mike Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern) when Tampa decided to ask for the young defenseman to be tossed in as well. Stars co-GM Les Jackson told them, well, a strong version of no, which is key since Fistric has been a really good fill-in for injured Philippe Boucher. Like really good.

Did they ever think of throwing Fistric in?

"Never," Jackson said.

And what if the deal had died and no Richards?

"The deal was not going to die," Jackson said.

The non-panic was a savvy play by Jackson and fellow rookie GM Brett Hull. It is standard to try to grab another player right before a deal is done. The thought is the other team already is in love with the guy and will agree to anything to get it done. Jamie Langenbrunner, anybody? GM and GMer understood they had a pat hand. And they used it.

Of course, it helped that Richards wanted to come here and waived his no-trade clause to do so. Or he did until a disastrous March had him flirting with regret.

"It was not fun sometimes," he admitted. "But this is going to be a great spot. This is not a rental-player situation. It is a three-year decision, and I'm glad I made it."

So are the Stars. Very glad.

From 'Grapes', with love

Hockey Night In Canada is a must-watch for every die-hard hockey fan. For no reason other than to listen to legendary broadcaster Don Cherry unleash his unique POV in his, uhm, interesting ensembles.

And he laid a verbal sloppy wet kiss on Stars goalie Marty Turco on Saturday.

"This guy is the smartest goaltender," Cherry said in Coach's Corner while wearing a floral blazer that would make Craig Sager blush. "He really is a genius. I've never seen goalies [make passes like him]. It is absolutely beautiful."

He was talking about Marty's pass that started a breakout and led to Brenden Morrow's goal in Game 1. And he has been doing this all playoffs long.

And this is why Cherry is genius. He noted what has gone unnoticed by too many: that, when judging Turco, his puck play must be included. He has been the Stars' best defenseman at times, especially when Philippe Boucher and Sergei Zubov were injured. He bailed those young defensemen out by coming out of the net and playing the puck and killing the forecheck.

"I see all of his stuff, and he is genius," Turco said. "The thing about Don is he just likes hockey, and the attention he garners in Canada is quite amazing."