yave1964 Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 2016-17 A QUICK LOOK BACK: The Stars had a fantastic turnaround in 2015-16, the first year of the Nill/Ruff era and big things were expected last season. The hope was the goaltending would be just good enough, the offense would be great and the defense with Hamhuis and Oduya would steady a bit. Nothing worked. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin were still wonderful but down a bit, Jason Spezza missed a chunk of time and was good/bad in boosts. Patrick Sharp looks to be completely done. Jiri Hudler brought in for secondary scoring was hurt then awful. Alex Hemsky who was great the year before was injured then pulled a Claude Rains. Cody Eakins took a massive step back. On defense Klingberg was good but like Benn and Seguin not quite as good as the year before. The netminding duo, known as the arson squad for their habit of throwing gasoline on the fire was equal parts inept and just plain comedic bad. They finished 34-37-11 and at seasons end Ruff was fired. Shortly after the traded for Ben Bishop to right their biggest problem in net and signed him to a six year extention. The hope that young secondary scorers such as Faksa, Rouusel, Shore, Ritchie and Lindell will get the offense up a notch and they plan on adding defense, defense defense. FREE AGENTS Patrick Sharp is almost certainly gone. He has lost it. Alex Hemsky wants to return and if he takes a pay cut they may take a shot. Jiri Hudler was awful and injured, he may have a hard time finding an NHL job. All were considered key, all are now easily replaced by a decent batch of kids hitting the NHL. OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS 1) CAN THEY FIND SOME DEFENSE? Klingberg is a puck mover disguised as a d-man, Hamhuis may have been a bad signing as he clearly lost a step. Stephen Johns looks to be just a body, As insane as this sounds, that is all they have. The plan is to attempt to lure two shut down defenseman to big D at the least. It has to happen or the team will get stuck in the mud. 2) IS BEN BISHOP THE ANSWER IN NET? Well he has to be better than both Niemi and Lehtonen even if both were playing at the same time. As for if he can get the Stars to the next level......well he was far from good in Tampa last year, a lot of folks are concerned that he has slowed and that he is not the tender that he was a few years ago. After the money spent to sign him for the long term the Stars certainly better hope he is able to bounce back. 3) CAN SPEZZA BOUNCE BACK? SHOULD THEY RESIGN ANY OF SHARP, HEMSKY OR HUDLER? The veteran supporting cast let the team down last year. as much as the veteran goaltending and the veteran defense of Hamhuis and Oduya. The nice thing with the combination of injuries to the forwards is quite a few kids made a nice first impression. Spezza is the only one of the four whom I would consider bringing back. His skill level slipped last season but he probably has enough left in a supporting role to hang around a couple of years. The big questions for this team were answered agressively early by canning Ruff and adding Bishop, now it is a matter of forming a defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Yikes!!!!!! He ain't going to fit Hitch's defense first scheme!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J0e Th0rnton Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 With the departure of Eaves, Radulov likely jumps in with the big boys. And they got some glass secondary scoring in Hanzal. AND Bishop is a huge upgrade over Niemi/Lehtonen AND they snagged Methot to improve defense AND Hitchcock returning for one last twirl. Benn/Seguin/Radulov Janmark/Spezza/Hanzal Roussel/Faska/Ritchie Methot/Klingberg Lindell/Johns Hamhuis/Honka Bishop God that looks a lot more dangerous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 8 hours ago, J0e Th0rnton said: With the departure of Eaves, Radulov likely jumps in with the big boys. And they got some glass secondary scoring in Hanzal. AND Bishop is a huge upgrade over Niemi/Lehtonen AND they snagged Methot to improve defense AND Hitchcock returning for one last twirl. Benn/Seguin/Radulov Janmark/Spezza/Hanzal Roussel/Faska/Ritchie Methot/Klingberg Lindell/Johns Hamhuis/Honka Bishop God that looks a lot more dangerous It does look better but they still have to go through the Preds who have added Bonino, Hartnell to what they already had at forward... ...to go with a stacked blueline that had Josi, Subban, Ekholm, Ellis, Weber, Irwin and now Emelin who is an excellent #5 Dman. To also have to tangle with the Hawks, Wild, Blues and Jets.....that is a hell of a division i say and have their hands full... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 On 7/14/2017 at 6:36 AM, J0e Th0rnton said: With the departure of Eaves, Radulov likely jumps in with the big boys. And they got some glass secondary scoring in Hanzal. AND Bishop is a huge upgrade over Niemi/Lehtonen AND they snagged Methot to improve defense AND Hitchcock returning for one last twirl. Benn/Seguin/Radulov Janmark/Spezza/Hanzal Roussel/Faska/Ritchie Methot/Klingberg Lindell/Johns Hamhuis/Honka Bishop God that looks a lot more dangerous Apparently, Nichushkin will return for the 2018-19 season. https://www.thescore.com/news/1333453 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 17 minutes ago, hf101 said: Apparently, Nichushkin will return for the 2018-19 season. https://www.thescore.com/news/1333453 @J0e Th0rnton @OccamsRazor You guys are all missing the biggest signee of the bunch for the Stars in your assessment, UMBERGER IS BACK!! https://blackoutdallas.com/2017/07/15/dallas-stars-r-j-umberger-training-camp/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 1 minute ago, yave1964 said: @J0e Th0rnton @OccamsRazor You guys are all missing the biggest signee of the bunch for the Stars in your assessment, UMBERGER IS BACK!! https://blackoutdallas.com/2017/07/15/dallas-stars-r-j-umberger-training-camp/ I saw that Umberger wanted back last night and forgot to post it, lol Looks like he has missed Hitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 14 minutes ago, yave1964 said: @J0e Th0rnton @OccamsRazor You guys are all missing the biggest signee of the bunch for the Stars in your assessment, UMBERGER IS BACK!! https://blackoutdallas.com/2017/07/15/dallas-stars-r-j-umberger-training-camp/ Oh **** then hand them the Cup NOW!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 6 hours ago, yave1964 said: UMBERGER IS BACK!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J0e Th0rnton Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 On July 15, 2017 at 0:56 PM, hf101 said: Apparently, Nichushkin will return for the 2018-19 season. https://www.thescore.com/news/1333453 Nuke is back? How will he fare under Hitchcock if Ruff thought his d was subpar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxpin Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 A couple of thoughts. This team would be really very dangerous except that: Ben Bishop is goalie. I'm sorry. The Lightning system a couple years back really worked for him, but it also hid some flaws. Namely, if it doesn't hit him, he ain't stopping it. Hitch may help (see #2) but I don't think well enough to hide the fact that Bishop is actually a barely average goalie who Hammond a little longer than Hammond. Ken Hitchcock is coach. This isn't about the golf pro. Really. The game has passed him by quite a long time ago. Adding Radulov to Benn and Seguin would be gold, except that Hitchcock is coach. And while "system" could help Bishop, Hitchcock's system certainly didn't help Allen or Elliott or Miller or... I'm not just trying to hate on Hitchcock. I actually liked the guy in Philly. And in Dallas the first time, for that matter. But he's no longer who you bring in if you're serious about going somewhere. Same with Ruff, actually. Nill needs to stop with the Hits of the 90s and go do some actual work and find a guy that works in the current game. That said, I think Hitch is probably enough to get them into the playoffs. That's where the goaltending and his own flaws will kill them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 On 10/4/2017 at 8:49 AM, ruxpin said: A couple of thoughts. This team would be really very dangerous except that: Ben Bishop is goalie. I'm sorry. The Lightning system a couple years back really worked for him, but it also hid some flaws. Namely, if it doesn't hit him, he ain't stopping it. Hitch may help (see #2) but I don't think well enough to hide the fact that Bishop is actually a barely average goalie who Hammond a little longer than Hammond. Ken Hitchcock is coach. This isn't about the golf pro. Really. The game has passed him by quite a long time ago. Adding Radulov to Benn and Seguin would be gold, except that Hitchcock is coach. And while "system" could help Bishop, Hitchcock's system certainly didn't help Allen or Elliott or Miller or... I'm not just trying to hate on Hitchcock. I actually liked the guy in Philly. And in Dallas the first time, for that matter. But he's no longer who you bring in if you're serious about going somewhere. Same with Ruff, actually. Nill needs to stop with the Hits of the 90s and go do some actual work and find a guy that works in the current game. That said, I think Hitch is probably enough to get them into the playoffs. That's where the goaltending and his own flaws will kill them. Hard to disagree with any of that, Bishop IMHO is a product of his team like Osgood used to be in Detroit. Oz has borderline HOF stats if you look at them peripherally but looking closer you can see that when the team was up so was he, when they were down he did nothing to elevate them, he went with the tide. That is Bishop. He is a caretaker goalie whose job it is to keep the team in it long enough for the skilled players to find a way to win. And that IMHO is where Hitch is the wrong coach. A young team short of skill who needs to play a conservative system his shtick may still work but on a free wheeling veteran team loaded with scoring forwards, asking them to rein it in and play a defensive first system strips them of their identity. I dont believe he can make the adjustment to his team as they are built, they are a club that needs to go out and club you, to win 6-4 games and challenge you every night. I also think they are a playoff team, Bishop even as a caretaker goalie is miles better than the arson squad they have been throwing out for the past several years, Radulov more than replaces Hudler and Hemsky and there is no way they can be as banged up and snake bit as last year, but I doubt they make it past the first round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 On 6/19/2017 at 12:22 PM, yave1964 said: On defense Klingberg was good @hf101 Looks like a pylon here... ...by a defenseman!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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