Friday, October 17, 2008

Problems in Net?


I don't know about you other Stars fans out there, but what I've seen from our team so far is really puzzling.

It's as though there are two different teams playing. On opening night, the Stars faced a determined Blue Jackets team,and posted four goals on the scoreboard, forcing an overtime, and a tough loss. On Wednesday night, the Stars beat the Predators and put the puck in the net six times. That's the team Stars fans saw on paper and were hoping would show up to the rink each night.

The other two nights, the Stars only managed to get a single goal. That doesn't mean that it's all the offense's fault. The offense has looked pretty strong so far - and the Stars have come up against some good goaltending. But, it does stick out.

The biggest thing that stands out, though, and one of the only consistencies in this young season, is the weak play of Marty Turco. The Dallas Morning News gave Turk's stats this morning in the wrap-up article from last night's game: Through four games, he has a 4.59 goals against average and an anemic .822 save percentage. Last night, in arguably his worst performance in the young season, he allowed five goals on 18 shots, and Dave Tippett had to bench him. Is there something wrong?

I'd like to believe it's still just the rust working it's way out of his system. Maybe Marty didn't get to the gym as much as he should have during the off-season, or his on-ice workouts weren't as focused as they should have been. But, whatever the reason, this isn't the Marty of old. And we need him back.

The other area of concern might be the defense...a lot of odd-man rushes have been allowed, and that puts a focus on the goaltending. If the goaltending isn't there, you end up with what we have had so far...but if the defense addresses the problems it has been having, perhaps that can take some of that focus off of the net.

Thoughts? Comments?

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