For those of you that go to hockey games on a regular basis, how many of you grab the nightly program to see what the opposition line-up looks like? You might know enough about NHL hockey that you don’t need to, but with this year’s version of the Dallas Stars, I wouldn’t blame you if you had to cheat a little to figure out what players you were actually watching.
There’s been a major changing of the guard in the last couple of years in Big D and the final purge may have been completed this off-season with Mike Modano, Marty Turco and Jere Lehtinen not returning. There are a couple of guys that you would still recognize as veterans of the Stars, but there are also a lot of emerging players that will be inserted into important roles in this line-up.
Up front, everything will revolve around Brad Richards again as he looks to build off his best season in the NHL. After struggling for a couple of years before last season, Richards rebounded to score 91 points in 80 games. The thought is that he’ll need to score as much, if not more, in order for the Stars to be a playoff contender.
Richards will be looking for some help from a trio of young players who are all coming off career seasons as they continue to develop their NHL careers. Loui Eriksson was second in team scoring with 71 points, James Neal was third with 55 points and Jamie Benn was sixth on the team with 41 points in his rookie campaign. Can they all score at the same pace or even higher? If they can, it will help in their quest to be squash the low expectations from the prognosticators.
Defensively, this group is young and was exposed often last season. This forced them to be near the bottom in goals against. Stephane Robidas and Karlis Skrastins offer veteran experience, but the Stars will have to hope that the younger guys like Trevor Daley, Matt Niskanen and Nicklas Grossman can step up to handle the pressure of key situations. However, it might be asking a lot for a group that doesn’t have the natural talent that other defense corps have around the league.
The goaltending is very shaky as well with Kari Lehtonen and Andrew Raycroft pegged as the 1-2 combo to be between the pipes. Lehtonen's problems with his back are well-documented, so can he stay healthy? Raycroft is the backup, but he should be ready to start since Lehtonen could get injured at any point.
Two players to watch out for in camp are Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow. A couple of years ago, Ribeiro was positioning himself well to be one of the key members of this hockey club, but he had a down year with 53 points in 66 games last season. What kind of production do they get out of Ribeiro this season? Same question can be asked of Morrow, but not because of a lack of effort. The grinding and physical style that Morrow plays with seems to have finally caught up with him. He just didn’t look like the same guy we’re used to seeing. How much does he have left in the tank and can he contribute consistently anymore?