Do you guys remember my fairly optimistic post from about a week and a half ago? The one where I was all "blah blah confidence blah blah Stars win Pacific blah blah"? Yeah, I'm pretty mad at myself for writing that right about now.
Since I wrote that entry, the Stars have won one out of the five games they've played. Since the trade deadline, they are 3-8. Since Brad Richards started playing, they have won two games. Both the Ducks and the Sharks have surpassed the Stars in points. I actually calculated it - the Stars would have to win every game remaining, and the Ducks and Sharks would both have to lose at least 4 games each in order for the Stars to recapture the division.
My question? How did this happen? Was it taking away three members of a team that was gelling quite nicely? Was it adding a 7.8 million dollar man? What the hell happened? If they keep going at this rate, they can kiss the playoffs goodbye. Now if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go get drunk to deal with this pain.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Optimism
Monday, March 03, 2008
Pacific Division Lead
Here's the thing. The Pacific Division is, traditionally, a nailbiter. By that, I mean that no one knows who holds the division lead until the last game of the season.
Now, if you look at just the points, the Stars have a fairly solid lead, with 87 points, while the Ducks trail at 81, and the Sharks just one point behind them. However, the Stars have had a rough, rough schedule this season thus far. They've had tons of long, hard road trips that included some tough back-to-backs. All in all, they've played a hard 69 games (which, by the way, is more than any other team in the league at this moment). The Ducks have played 67 games, and the Sharks 65. This may make it seem like it will be easy for those teams to catch up. While it is true that it's entirely possible that they could win all of their games (although the Sharks would be all of one point ahead, if they won all of their games in hand and the Stars lost all of their games until they got caught up), I feel some serious confidence on behalf of my Stars.
Why?
Well, I'm glad you asked. You may know that the Stars inherited one Bradley Richards, from the Tampa Bay Lightning, on trade deadline day (we also got some dude named Clay Aiken...I mean, Johan Holmqvist). When the trade was first announced, I screamed, cried, and threw a fit, calling for Brett Hull's head on a stick and planning to picket in front of the Stars' practice facility. I gave myself a few hours before I actually acted on any of those impulses, and I'm glad I did, because even thinking about it, it appeared more and more like a good idea. And then he played in his first game. Five assists. Five. Assists. He won't play like that every night, obviously (he certainly didn't on Saturday night), but if he can produce even half that in the playoffs? He's worth that $7.8 million price tag.
That's not saying I won't miss Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern, and Mike Smith (my favorite goalie who looked like a love child of Derian Hatcher and a Chia Pet), because I will. Y'all, I'm being forced to watch Tampa Bay Lightning games for them. That Lecavalier guy is pretty rad, I hear.
