Dallas coach Marc Crawford is mellowing and maturing. He realizes his overplayed his angry coach hand in Los Angeles, and it caused him to first lose his team and then his job. So now in Dallas, he seems to be on more of an even keel. Which has to be a little bit frustrating sometimes, [...]

Mike Heika did his weekly question-and-answer session with his readers and while it’s all usually really good, I wanted to spotlight one of this week’s answers from Heika: Q: What do you feel are the reasons for the Stars’ road success this year? And why hasn’t that success been duplicated at home? HEIKA: Those are [...]

Forbes released their annual NHL franchise valuations and things actually look pretty good for the league. Or at least for some of the franchises. The average operating profit was $6.1 million, aggregate income increased, as did average franchise value. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an across the board thing for the all of the franchises. While successful [...]

Tim Panaccio took a quick look back at Brett Hull’s career. That amazing wrist shot from the circle? It was actually his dad, Bobby Hull’s, idea. Which is shocking, since Bobby Hull is synonymous with the slapshot. But the elder Hull said the quicker NHL game required a quicker shot. It’s funny how we’ve come [...]

Are we too impatient with first-round draft picks? Maybe. Even though he finished last season relatively strong, Steve Stamkos was written off as a bust, or at least as someone with the potential to be a huge bust. Now, 10 games into Tampa’s season, Stamkos has nine goals and five assists and looks like a [...]

A couple of weeks ago, the Wild signing Petr Sykora seemed like a brilliant move. I know I sure loved it. It’s still a little early to say it’s not working out, but Sykora was a healthy scratch against Nashville last night. That came after getting less than 10 minutes against Chicago Monday night. Sykora [...]

How do you know the NHL season has started? People in Dallas start calling for Marty Turco’s head. Mike Heika has an interesting take: The Stars have decent goalie depth within their system and a plan to move everyone along, so they might as well stick to the plan. Plus, Heika points out, Turco is [...]

So apparently Dallas Star Brad Richards had shoulder problems much of last year. Richards had mono the season before, meaning he’s never been 100% healthy for Dallas. That’s expected to change this season and Mike Heika says it could represent a return to the Richards of 2005-06. Or at least a little closer to that [...]

The Stars have an interesting approach to goalie Marty Turco. Since they seem to feel they can’t replace him, they’re just throwing more and more coaching at him. Relatively hot on the heels of the news Turco is going to spend more time working with goalie coach/synthesist Andy Moog, comes news the Stars have added [...]

Not that he’s horribly objective, but Jeff Halpern expects the Lightning to be much more successful this year. Tarik El-Bashir caught up with him in DC and it’s interesting to hear Halpern talk about how hard it was for him to leave the Caps. Halpern also talks about the pressures of being in a contract [...]