The (un)Official unnecessary Stars @ Canucks GDT

[Flacolaco]

Round 1, Game 1 starts @ 9pm CSTon Wednesday night.

May it live longer than 5 games and longer than 50 posts...!!!

Come on Stars...I've sunk an awful lot of money in this thing

[ames7]

I'm gonna high-tail it back from class, hopefully I should only miss one period. No predictions, it's all been said to death. Just win, baby.

[Flacolaco]

Ames, can you provide a link for that chat room you were telling me about?

[Flacolaco]

It is more than clear after reading this one how much is riding on tonight. Tonight is huge. If they don't win this series, I don't know what will happen. There is a lot of pressure on this thing and the coaches and Marty.

Stars' time to shine is now

05:23 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 11, 2007
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

Owner Tom Hicks feels your pain, Stars fans. So do team president Jim Lites and general manager Doug Armstrong.

They all say they want to wipe clean the recent slate of playoff disappointment – including last season's shocking first-round loss to Colorado – and bring postseason excitement back to Stars hockey. But they also stopped short of saying this is a do-or-die season.

"Certainly, we're all impatient, disappointed, however you want to say it," Hicks said. "There have been some very good teams here that just haven't gotten it done in the playoffs, and we want that to change. But, that said, I think we have a plan in place here, and we're not going to veer drastically from it."

When asked if the jobs of Armstrong and his coaching staff could be on the line in the playoffs, Lites responded: "No, no. Not in my opinion."

"From a marketing standpoint, from a ticket-selling standpoint, from the standpoint that we need to give our fans some well-deserved excitement, yes, we need a playoff run bad," Lites said. "But from a standpoint of, do we want to blow this up and start over again or go in a different direction? That just doesn't make sense to me."

Lites said the Stars have been built on the notion that stability is good. He joined the team as it moved to Dallas in 1993 and has served as president for all but a six-month span in 2002.

Armstrong has been with the franchise for 16 years, serving as Bob Gainey's assistant for nine years before succeeding him as general manager in 2002. He signed a contract extension before this season that will take him through 2010-11. Coach Dave Tippett is in his fourth season, and he and the assistant coaches have one year left on their contracts.

"Our plan has always been to negotiate the waters around the new collective bargaining agreement and continue to be competitive, and I think we have done that," Armstrong said. "We feel there is a good core here to pursue a Stanley Cup every season and that we can still build our future underneath that core."

Armstrong cites the need to mix the final years of veterans Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov and Jere Lehtinen with prime seasons of players such as Brenden Morrow and Marty Turco while also bringing in youngsters such as Trevor Daley, Jussi Jokinen and Mike Smith.

"You need to have all of the facets of your team working," he said. "You need to have strength at every level."

And what will happen if there is another first-round exit, another hit to the faithful fan?

"It'll hurt," Lites said. "We've seen the impact already, and that would be a bad thing."

Lites said the team's successful past and strong regular seasons have created high expectations, and now it must live up to them in order to maintain a strong fan base. While Tippett's teams have gone 190-97-41 and won two division championships, they are 8-14 in the playoffs and have advanced beyond the first round only once in four tries. The coach says he wants to solve the problem more than anyone. He said that he doesn't think about winning to keep his job; he thinks about winning to do his job.

"It's a matter of personal pride, of team pride, that we can get the job done," Tippett said. "We're all working on this more than anyone can imagine."

Tippett said the league's salary cap-fueled parity has created an environment in which more teams expect to win. Payrolls have jumped for building teams such as Nashville and Minnesota, while expectations remain high for traditional powers like the Stars and Detroit.

"You look at every team in the West, and there's going to be pressure," Tippett said. "Tell me a team that if they lose in the first round, there isn't going to be talk of change. There isn't one. So that's just where you are right now. That's the world you live in."

But can pressure be a good thing? Stars players say they definitely are focused more on the playoffs this season.

[ames7]

http://www.andrewsstarspage.com/
The chat room link usually comes up right before the game (it'll appear above the first headline at the top of the front page). There's also a message board. This is, btw, the best Stars site on the net. There's a subscription fee for some of the content (totally worth it), but I don't think you need to be a paying member to get into the chat room if you have a forum username. I imagine the U boards will be active tonight too.

[Flacolaco]

The U boards are getting a little tedious for me..... They have no desire to talk about actual hockey. Look at the thread titles, they're all about either bitching and complaining about something, or other teams, other players, pictures, or OMG Brenden Morrow called me!!

I like talking about other things obviously, but I would like more hockey talk from them.

[ames7]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sadly, it is still about 10 times higher quality hockey talk than the O boards. Andrews boards are okay & I enjoy the chat room, but there just isn't the same quality online quality community for the Stars as there is for the Mavs on this board.

One other board you might try, if you want pretty good league-wide hockey talk especially, is Hockey's Future (http://hfboards.com). It's a prospects site, but it has great boards. The Stars community there is small as usual, I use it primarily to look at what's happening in the league in general. I warn you, the Canucks homers are in full force there, I can hardly stand it.

OMG, Brenden Morrow did call me.

[Flacolaco]

lol yeah he called me too

Oh and that's just sad about the O boards. I actually tried them last year sometime before the playoffs, but just breifly. It's true though, they're unbearable.

It's hard to find anything that compares with the participation on dallas-mavs.com, the quality of posting, and the diversity of subjects that are heavily discussed.

[mnmpeanut]

Originally Posted by ames7

I'm gonna high-tail it back from class, hopefully I should only miss one period.

wow, i'd be skipping class if it meant missing playoff hockey. if the game was at 2 this afternoon, you can bet one of my kids would come down with some mysterious fever that required me to pick them up at school. of course, work ethic's never been my strong suit.

i'm high-tailing it home after work to catch a nap so i can handle a couple of overtimes.

[sike]

P
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[92bDad]

My plane is scheduled to land back at DFW at 8:15PM tonight...can anyone give me a police escort back to Rowlett so I can catch the face off?

Then again...I can catch the game live on DVR Delay...

I'm looking forward to tonight and this series...let's hope I feel the same way when the series is over...

[ames7]

It's a 4-hour class & our semester-long major project & presentation is next week, or else I mostly certainly would be skipping. But I may or may not try to sneak out during break. Luckily, I don't have another class scheduled during this series unless we get to game 7, in which case, you betcha I'm skipping.

[Flacolaco]

The tension and stress I experience during the NHL and NBA playoffs is probably taking years off of my life.

[u2sarajevo]

Prove yourself Marty. It's about time.

[Flacolaco]

I don't feel like doing anything at work today. I don't know why I'm getting myself all worked up over this. You'd think last year would've taught me a lesson after we blow a 2 goal lead in game 1 and next thing you know we're walking to our cars trying to find one to jump in front of.

[Flacolaco]

u2 was kind enough to provide us with a rare Hockey vBookie here:

http://dallas-mavs.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29600

So everyone please do participate!

[ames7]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

I don't feel like doing anything at work today. I don't know why I'm getting myself all worked up over this.

I was obsessed with it last night, I've read every preview & expert pick I can get my hands on. And I'm mad at myself b/c it's what I do every year & I really need to just calm down. I'm actually a little under the weather & I've been sitting here, trying to decide if I'm sick enough to actually justify not going, or if I'm just freaking out. I'm pretty sure I'm just freaking out.

[Flacolaco]

Originally Posted by ames7

I was obsessed with it last night, I've read every preview & expert pick I can get my hands on. And I'm mad at myself b/c it's what I do every year & I really need to just calm down. I'm actually a little under the weather & I've been sitting here, trying to decide if I'm sick enough to actually justify not going, or if I'm just freaking out. I'm pretty sure I'm just freaking out.

Ah that joyous happy time when the season is threatening to go in the toilet and then we have nothing until september!

I'm actually more excited about what the Stars COULD do as opposed to what everyone thinks the Mavs SHOULD do. I'm much more nervous about the Mavericks. What if they slip up again GS? Terrifying.

I'm excited for the Stars and a little nervous for Tipp and Army's jobs.

[#1MavsFan]

I think Turco will finally become a force in the playoffs and Mo will have a series to remember. It's going to be a huge disappointment if the stars don't end up winning at least one series.

[Flacolaco]

Honestly...I don't think the series against the Avalanche last year was anywhere close to Marty's fault. The defensive breakdowns were awful.

This year, it will be Tippets fault if they don't win. The game plan has to be less conservative more of the time. If they fall behind, and Tipp doesn't let the hounds loose....well I don't know about his job next year.

[sike]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

The tension and stress I experience during the NHL and NBA playoffs is probably taking years off of my life.

that might explain your e.d.

[Flacolaco]

Nicely done sir, nicely done.

[Flacolaco]

4 hours until maximum dissappointment!!

[Smiles]

3 hrs 3 mins 30 secs

[MavsMandy]

so if i'm not in dallas and i don't get versus...is there any way for me to watch the game? cuz that would be nice...

[Flacolaco]

Unfortunately I don't think so....if you're really hardcore you can listen to the game on www.wbap.com

And if you feel like trying something really tedious for what turns out to be a tiny little crappy picture on your computer screen, you can try sopcast

http://www.sopcast.com/

[Flacolaco]

t-minus 1 hour.....

[ames7]

YES! My class let out early. And then I sprinted for the subway & everyone thought I was a little crazy. Hope y'all have had a relaxing days so far b/c I am pretty much expecting a minimum of 2 & a half hours of nervewrecking terror.

[Flacolaco]

Roger that ames.

I think I might go for a jog real quick to burn off some steam. The Mavs game is putting me to sleep,and the Sens/Pens game is kind of lop-sided

[Flacolaco]

Wow...Cheechoo just went down with a knee, or maybe a foot injury. He was in some pain. Tough blow for the sharkies

[ames7]

Wow. This is going really well for Ottawa, who are, PS my second favorite team. Ooooh, Hitch is gonna be on Hockey Central. Could be interesting.

[untitled]

Dammit.

[Flacolaco]

Power down

See ya

[untitled]

OH YEAH! Got that sh*t right back!

[Flacolaco]

Time to start drinking...

kill of a whole 2 min 5 on 3 was good.

Power play then looked like crap right after that.

Now everything that approaches the net seems dangerous

[ames7]

Must. Stop. Taking. Penalties.

[Flacolaco]

Certainly are trying to give it all away....doing a very good job of that

[Flacolaco]

F%$^ing Modano trying to give it away.....Why the hell did he do that?

Go sit Mike. You deserved that one

[Flacolaco]

Now the Stars blow a 5 on 3....power play looks like crap

[ames7]

Brilliant period by the PK. Now, NO MORE PENALTIES. Stop f-ing around.