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Posted on Fri, Apr. 25, 2008

Jumping on the Stars' zamboni? Here are 10 things to know

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FRISCO -- Welcome back, Mr. Kind of Hockey Fan.

Do not be ashamed or embarrassed for being gone for so long. Hockey turned off a lot of fans by shutting down for a season and Dallas Stars hockey turned off almost everybody else with stunning failure after playoff failure.

That finally has ended.

Thanks to a smackdown of the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Stars find themselves playing into May for the first time since 2003. And this Dallas-San Jose series has doozy potential.

Confused? Needing a refresher?

Never fear. What follows are my 10 need-to-know storylines for anybody joining this Stars' playoff run already in progress:

1. Stars coach Dave Tippett is no longer No. 1.

If local coaching firing rankings existed, Tip would have been an undisputed No. 1 as recently as a couple of weeks ago.

No longer.

He's sitting behind only Cowboys coach Wade Phillips in terms of safety. And Wade's shaky safe considering that Giants game.

"That's all for you guys. I don't look at it that way," Tip said with a smile Thursday. "I don't go home to my wife and say I've moved."

Well, he has, dropping two spots in the very unscientific "Most Likely to be Canned" poll behind Wash and Avery.

Tip says this changes nothing. I disagree.

The pressure from all of those first-round failures had been weighing on everybody. You could practically see the tension at times. Everybody is looser now, and this might make the Stars an even bigger threat to be a serious contender.

2. Joe vs. Mo and his little annoying helper(s).

Joe Thornton is the Sharks' best player, the guy clichés such as "we can not stop him, only hope to contain him" are made for. And that job falls to Mike Modano and his checking mates.

Can Mo do this job and have his line chip in six goals as it did against Anaheim? The regular-season numbers, where Mo had an edge on Joe, say yes.

And among his helpers is Steve Ott, who annoys Thornton like no other. Lots of NHLers hate Ott. Thornton really does. So much so he jumped him in Game 82 leading to a day-long melee.

"Joe got mad because I hit his winger," Ott explained. "You are still allowed to hit a guy, and that's what I do. Some guys apparently don't like to be hit."

If Ott distracts Big Joe by being his usual self, Mo beats Joe.

3. They hate us. They really, really hate us.

OK, the Sharks mostly hate Ott. As captain Brenden Morrow noted, the ugly from Game 82 "most of it was Otter, like 99.9 percent of it." Incoming Stars fans need to remember San Jose used to be Hockey Enemy No. 1 in Texas.

Two words: Bryan Marchment. The former Sharks defenseman was the nefarious character who purposely took out Joe Nieuwendyk's knee in 1998 and merely the tip of what became a pretty good hockey grudge match.

And adding Jeremy Roenick, another least favorite in Starsland, to this Sharks team only revs up matters. He, after all, was the jaw on the end of Derian Hatcher's elbow back in 1999. He sipped his food for like a month, probably thinking "&^%^& Stars" every time.

4. The Power of Z.

Adding defenseman Sergei Zubov back into this Stars team is like inserting Brandon Webb into the Rangers' rotation or making Roy Williams (the good one) a Cowboy.

And judging by Zubov's revved-up practice Thursday, he's in for Game 1.

"I'm not ready for a coaching job yet," he said.

5. The babies graduated to toddlers.

Obviously, Matt Niskanen, Mark Fistric and Nicklas Grossman were not expected to be a big hunk of the Stars' defense in the playoffs. They are babies. They are toddlers now, graduating thanks to basically outplaying Anaheim's vaunted D corps.

"I definitely feel better about my game," Fistric said.

He is a huge reason the Stars advanced. He stepped in and up when another injury sidelined Philippe Boucher (probably for good).

6. Richards and Loui have a, I daresay, Mo and Lehtinen feel.

Way back when, when second rounds were practically guaranteed, a crazy talented North American center and a quiet kid from the one of the frozen fingers of Europe were why.

The Stars look to have that again.

Only Brad Richards is playing Mo and Loui Eriksson is playing Jere Lehtinen. And Stars types say Loui is way beyond where Jere was at this age. What will be interesting to watch is whether the skinny Swede is ready to ramp up his game because Round 2 is going to be harder.

7. Bye, bye Mr. Monkey. Hello, West Finals?

I always said the Stars would be a dangerous team, if they could only get out of that blasted first round. Mainly because I thought the failures had prevented goalie Marty Turco from being himself.

Cool. Calm. Unbothered.

He has been waiting for this chance, to prove he's a guy capable of carrying a team to a Cup. As good as he's been in his past two series, his best days might be ahead.

8. The Shark to worry about is Patrick Marleau.

He probably has a little Jan Brady thing going on, only in San Jose it's always "Joe, Joe, Joe."

Ask Stars players, though, and stopping Marleau is thought to be just as key. He's kind of like San Jose's Richards, thus making this a very important matchup.

9. Write this down: Niklas Hagman will be this round's Robidas.

I try to make a prediction before every series and not something obvious like the goalies have to be good. My prediction for Round 1 was two goals for Ott, and he was kind enough to oblige.

I had been leaning toward Niskanen, but the Stars seem hellbent on sitting him. So look for Hagman to come through big. He's good, and good players do not ring up O-fers forever.

10. Prediction time.

Stars in six.