Filed under: Blackhawks, Stars, NHL Videos
Kari Lehtonen has been a wonderful addition to the Dallas Stars roster and is a big part of why the team is currently at the top of the NHL‘s Pacific Division. On Friday, during Dallas’ 4-3 shootout win against the struggling Chicago Blackhawks, Lehtonen helped to keep his team in the game with a ridiculous glove save that robbed Brent Seabrook of what looked to be his second goal of the night. And it turned out to be a game-saver.
Filed under: Stars, Western, NHL Coaching
He’s cool, calm and collected — and his team is winning on a regular basis.
Meet the changed Marc Crawford. The old-school coach with the new attitude is helping the Dallas Stars contend for first place in the Western Conference.
After being fired in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Crawford says he “probably figured a little bit it out” after the lockout wiped out the 2004-05 NHL season. Crawford’s attacking team play is the same on the ice, but he no longer attacks players the way he used to.
“You went hard on people trying to get them to change,” says Crawford who won a Stanley Cup with Colorado and also has a coach of the year award. “It doesn’t work anymore, because you’ve gotta deal with your own problems and you have to figure them out, because nobody’s going anywhere. So that’s a big change.
“Nowadays, there aren’t as many trades. There aren’t as many call-ups. There’s way more one-way contracts that you’ve gotta figure out. So anything (problem-wise) that you’ve got, you’ve gotta figure out. I wasn’t very good at that.”
Filed under: Kings, Stars, NHL Videos, NHL Coaching
The addition of the shootout to the NHL has taken some of the excitement away from the penalty shot, simply because we see a number of these attempts on a nightly basis. It’s just not as rare to see a skater and a goaltender go one-on-one with each other — we see it every single night across the league. Still, when a penalty shot is awarded in the final minute of regulation in what is a one-goal game, well, that’s pretty damn exciting. That’s the situation Dallas and Los Angeles had on Monday night as the Kings, trailing by one goal with just 52 seconds to play, were awarded a penalty shot after Stars defenseman Jeff Woywitka was called for covering the puck in the crease.
Kings coach Terry Murray called on defenseman Jack Johnson to take the shot. After putting on a nice move against Kari Lehtonen, Johnson failed to elevate the puck over the sprawling goaltender as he made a sliding save to help preserve the Stars 2-1 victory.
It was a nice move and a great save by Lehtonen, but was Johnson the correct choice for the shot?
Filed under: Blackhawks, Stars, NHL Videos
Penalty shots were not kind to shooters on Wednesday night. First, we had Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos blowing the proverbial tire on his attempt in Pittsburgh, and then we had Chicago’s Viktor Stalberg redefining what it means to have bad luck on the ice.
With the Blackhawks and Stars tied, 2-2, in the second period, the speedy Stalberg, who entered the game riding an 18-game goal-less drought, was awarded a penalty shot. After appearing to beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen for a go-ahead goal, Stalberg had the misfortune of doing something he couldn’t possibly do again if he tried it 100 times: Rang the puck off of all three posts.
Post. Crossbar. Post.
Filed under: Stars
Just a day before the team was set to open training camp, the Dallas Stars made sure all of their players were under contract by agreeing to two-year deals with forward James Neal and defenseman Matt Niskanen. Neal is clearly the big one, as he is one of the clubs best young forwards and a building block going forward. His contract will pay him approximately $2.875 million per year according to the team’s official Twitter page.
With an unsettled situation in net (oft-injured Kari Lehtonen is the starter, while his backup could be either Brent Krahn or Andrew Raycroft) and a middle-of-the-pack defense, the Stars are going to need big seasons from their young — and deep — group of forwards, including Neal, Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson, to carry them through the season.
The 23-year-old Neal has played two full seasons with the Stars, never scoring fewer than 24 goals. He’s coming off a 2009-10 campaign that saw him tally 27 while skating mostly on a line with Eriksson and Brad Richards. His goal total was good enough for second on the team, trailing only the 29 scored by Eriksson.
Filed under: Stars
There are quite a few things that remain unsettled for the Dallas Stars heading into the 2009-10 season, both on the ice (goaltending and defense) and off of it (ownership). On the ice, one of the biggest questions that must be answered is how (and for how long) Kari Lehtonen will be able hold up as the team’s No. 1 goaltender.
For the first time since 1996-97, somebody other than Ed Belfour or Marty Turco will start the majority of the games in net for the Stars, and Lehtonen, the oft-injured, former No. 2 overall pick is the man that’s penciled in to be the guy. And while Turco’s play had declined a bit in recent years, that’s a lot of uncertainty in a position that’s been relatively stable for the better part of the past 13 seasons.
But what’s the biggest concern with Lehtonen? His performance, or his inability to stay on the ice?
Less than a week after sending Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela to New Jersey, the Atlanta Thrashers completed another deal on Tuesday night by trading former first-round pick Kari Lehtonen to the Dallas Stars. In return for the 26-year-old netminder, Atlanta receives 2006 first-round pick, defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy, and a fourth-round pick.
Lehtonen has played just one game in the NHL since last March, and has missed the first four months of this season after offseason back surgery.
It’s a nice gamble for Dallas to take, even if it does come at a very steep price. When Lehtonen has been healthy and in the lineup he’s played well, posting a career save percentage of .912. He hasn’t had a mark lower than .910 since 2005-06, which is no small feat playing on a team that, quite honestly, hasn’t been very good during his tenure. His arrival in Dallas has already sparked rumors that veteran Marty Turco is on his way out the door.
