Jim Reeves 
A wing and a prayer or whistling in the dark?
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
It was my granddad who taught me how to whistle when I was knee-high to a tumbleweed more than half a century ago, but it was my grandmother, the former school principal, who advised me when that talent would best come in handy.
You whistle, she told her wide-eyed grandson, when you're walking past the graveyard at midnight. Whistle the loudest, she said, when you're most afraid.
My ears tell me that there was a whole lot of whistling going on Saturday night in the Dallas Stars' postgame locker room in Detroit.
Not that I blame them. If I were them, I'd be whistling, too.
The graveyard at midnight is suddenly very, very close at hand.
Let me give you a sample of the tunes the Stars were whistling after falling behind the Detroit Red Wings 2-games-to-none in their best-of-seven series.
Goalie Marty Turco: "The intensity built for us. It took a little longer than we'd like, but this locker room has no doubt that we can win some hockey games at home."
Center Brad Richards: "That was a close game, and it could have gone either way."
Center Mike Modano: "I think it was better. The effort was certainly there, and we played harder for the majority of the game."
Turco again: "We do feel like we're right there. The reality is, we're on the right path. We've been building since the drop of the puck in Game 1 to this point, and we just need to keep skyrocketing up for Game 3, and I have no doubt that we will.
"I certainly felt a lot better the last two periods. It was a good sign for me to play my best hockey of the series so far. That'll just lead into the next game for me. The rest of the team is right there."
Of course, they're all saying what they have to say after losing their second straight to a talented and focused Detroit team, but where Turco and the Stars find themselves is in a deepening hole that could reach six-feet before they even know what hit them.
Here's the reality Turco alluded to: The Stars showed the residual effects of that four-overtime thriller against San Jose a week ago in the Wings' 4-1 rout in Game 1, but they played their best period of hockey in this series in the first 20 minutes of Game 2 Saturday night... and still found themselves down 2-1.
They had a breakaway and a 4-on-1 odd-man rush in that first period, and in both cases failed to even get shots on net.
The realization that they just may not be good enough to make this series competitive, much less win four of the next five games to beat the Wings, is beginning to dawn on them.
And that may say more about the Wings than it does the Stars, who have already overachieved to get this far in the playoffs.
"We haven't done it [come back from 0-2] before [in these playoffs], but we're going to see what we're made of," captain Brenden Morrow said. "[Down] two games is tough against anyone, especially the Wings, the top team in the league. But [Game 2] was a good step."
A good step that still resulted in a loss. The Stars continue to be whipped in every facet of the game: goaltending, shots, physical play, skating, you name it.
The Wings have been a step ahead at every turn, even without their top playoff scorer Saturday night. Huge Johan Franzen, who had scored a dozen playoff goals, is out with concussion-like symptoms and won't play tonight either.
For awhile it appeared that break would be evened out when, not if, the NHL handed down a suspension to center Mike Ribeiro for his two-handed whack job on Wings' goalie Chris Osgood as Game 2 ended. Prudently, the league instead reviewed the tapes and realized that Osgood had instigated the incident by clipping Ribeiro in the face with the butt end of his stick, so there was no suspension. Ribeiro and Osgood were instead fined undisclosed amounts.
Injured winger Jere Letinen may still be out, but with or without him, the Stars have to find a way to stop Detroit's dominance and win Games 3 and 4 at home tonight and Wednesday.
"It's that one extra offensive play, that ability to beat a guy and find that open guy," said Modano, who knows better than anyone what it's going to take to get to the Stanley Cup Finals. "It's tough offensively because they close in; they anticipate well.
"They're really good with the sticks and skill and holding onto the puck. We just have to hold onto it a hair longer, and the guys away from the puck have to work harder to get open."
The Stars are even getting embarrassed in the faceoff circle, where the Wings are winning almost 7 of every 10 draws, thus giving them more puck possession time.
"They're good," Modano said, shaking his head. "They're strong. They get down there; their wingers seem to really help out and crash the circle, too."
It would also be nice if the Stars were dealing out the crushing hits instead of taking them, if they were putting pressure on Osgood instead of giving him a free pass, if they were skating with the Wings instead of chasing the play so often.
It got better Saturday night, but the Stars must have even more in the tank in these next two games if they want to keep this series alive much longer.
Whistling in the dark isn't going to get it done.
"When the wayfarer whistles in the dark, he may be disavowing his timidity, but he does not see any the more clearer for having done so," Sigmund Freud wrote in The Problem of Anxiety.
My grandmother would have probably taken her principal's paddle to his behind (OK, it was another era), but I fear he may be right.
That said, what do we have to lose?
All together now, pucker up and blow.
