All right, y’all.  I will tell you, straight up, that when I found out about this I was at the car dealership waiting on my car to get fixed.  I immediately called Bethany, and she screeched – she hadn’t heard of Tippett being fired.  I, of course, heard about it yesterday, and it made me horrifically sad.  I was hoping that it was just a rumor, just one of those things that TSN gets wrong.  Sadly, it was not.

I think I may have liked Tippett more on a personal level than on a coaching level.  He certainly made some poor choices when it came to how he coached the team.  This past season, the team struggled right out of the gate, fueled by things like injuries and “The Avery Situation”.  The way Tippett handled the goaltenders was, to me, his biggest and most annoying flaw.  Despite Turco not playing up to his standards, Tippett refused to put Tobias Stephan in net.  Stephan was only used when the game was already so far blown that it didn’t matter anyway.  Certainly, we’ve all heard about Tippett as a “players’ coach”, how he’s not hard enough on his players.  I mean, I’m not claiming to know or anything, but every time that bottom lip disappears and his voice gets all low and scary?  I wouldn’t need him to yell, I’d just say “Yes, sir” and work my ass off.

But, I’m getting off-topic, which happens when you stay on the phone until 6:30am instead of sleeping.  Dave Tippett was unceremoniously fired yesterday (as it’s been reported, Tippett asked Nieuwendyk to keep the lid on the news until today, but we all know that news in the sporting world is easily spread), and this morning we all awoke to the news of Marc Crawford being the new head coach of the Dallas Stars.  Do I think this is a step in the right direction?  I don’t know – only time will tell that.

Crawford is known for the Bertuzzi incident coaching a high offense, simple but solid defense, sort of team.  That is fine with me.  I have no issues with that part, or the fact that he’s sort of a hard-ass coach.  My huge, main concern is that when he was let go from the Kings in 2008, it was said that he had a serious lack of patience with young players who were still learning.  This is a HUGE problem for me.  The Stars are a team in transition.  Older players, like Modano, Zubov, and Lehtinen, are being forced into lesser roles, while younger players take their turn in the spotlight, and the even younger begin to learn.  I do think that the Stars have the potential to be a solid team this next season, barring any serious injuries.  But when most of your defense is under the age of 25?  Or how about some star rookies, who may fall into sophomore slumps this season?  How will Crawford handle that?  By demanding more of them, when they don’t fully know what it is they need to be doing?  Maybe it’s the mother hen in me, but these young players need nurturing, not yelling and screaming every time they make a mistake.  They need someone to say “Look, you messed up.  Learn from it, and don’t do it again.”  They don’t need a coach all up in their face, screaming at them incoherently.

All in all, this feels like a very knee-jerk decision by Nieuwendyk – but then, what do I know?  It’s possible that he had this vision of what he wanted the team to be right from the start.  All I know is that I’m really tired of these sorts of decisions.  Most of them I’ve been okay with the firing, not okay with the hiring.  It all started with Doug Armstrong.  I was okay with him being fired, I was not okay with HullJack (well, I wasn’t okay with the Hull part of the equation).  I wasn’t okay with Sean Avery (no matter how much I tried), and I’m not okay with the hiring of Crawford.  I can see the argument to let Tippett go, and I’m okay with it – I’m sure he’ll find another coaching job (Minnesota!  Minnesota!), but this whole Crawford thing is really rubbing me the wrong way.

Yeah, I neglected this all season…Possibly because the Stars gave me nothing good to write about, so I said “eff that noise”. But tonight, the ladies of HLOG have talked me into a Stanley Cup Finals LiveBlog. So come join us as we talk smack about the Red Wings and the Penguins!

Stanley Cup Finals game 4 LiveBlog

I know I’ve been terrible at updating lately, so I figured I’d write up a book review.  I’ve been reading a lot lately, and of course hockey books are always standard fare for me.  One day I went to Half-Priced Books to see what sort of gems I could unearth.  I found a Dallas Stars season ticket holder commemorative book, a book about high school hockey in Minnesota (which I’m currently reading), and this book.

My high school did not have a hockey team.  I live in Texas, it’s all about football here.  We don’t have the luxury of having frozen ponds to skate on, strapping on a pair of skates and donning a toque, falling down ten times, getting up eleven.  Now that the Stars are here in town, hockey is becoming a bigger thing in this Texas city, but it’s nowhere near the level it is in places like Minnesota or New England.

That is what made Jay Atkinson’s book so fascinating to me.  Atkinson played for the Methuen Rangers in Methuen, Massachusetts, the first year that the school got a varsity hockey team.  Twenty-some years later, he decided to go back and follow that year’s team, getting to know them, taking on the role of “volunteer assistant”.  Ice Time follows the team’s journey that year – the temperamental star of the team, the goalie with girl troubles, the first-year player whose father is battling cancer.  Obviously, hockey is a huge part of this book, but it’s not the only thing.

Atkinson still has friends in Methuen, guys he played with on the very first Rangers team.  They’re all still rink rats, playing a quick game whenever they can.  He spends a lot of time in the book writing about his own childhood as well – things from hockey at his old high school, to a strip mall that was built over a large field near his home.

The thought of a team dynamic and how players interact with each other is intriguing to me.  Does the back-up goaltender have a tougher time than the starter, having to sit on the bench and watch the team win or lose while he does nothing but keep a seat warm?  How about the guys who try so hard, but know they’ll never be able to be as good as the star of the team?  How does a high-school senior take on the responsibility of being captain?  Atkinson lets us in on some of that stuff with his interaction with the players.

Along the way, we meet Atkinson’s 5-year-old son, Liam, who is just learning to play hockey.  I remember one part in particular where Atkinson takes Liam to a baseball game, and reminisces on going to games with his own father.  He then worries that he won’t create the same experience for Liam, and tries so hard to recreate that magic that he felt when he was only five.  Liam even gets to be a part of the Rangers team, attending pregame spaghetti lunches with his father.  The boys on the team treat him like a little brother, even giving him a Methuen Rangers jersey of his own that little Liam cherishes.

All in all, Ice Time is a heartwarming tale, and an interesting look into the world of high school hockey – particularly for this girl who had never experienced the thrill.

P.S. In the next few days I’ll have some Stars-related stuff up – I PROMISE.

I’m far too lazy to write up a post about Sean Avery, or how the Stars are playing better, or our amazing rookie goal-scorers. So instead, have an ElfYourself video featuring yours truly with some familiar faces.

I’m very upset, because it appears that it won’t embed for whatever reason. At any rate, you can always CLICK HERE to see it. It’s pretty excellent, although that may be the four hours of sleep I’m running on.

Surprise surprise, Sean Avery won’t be returning to the Dallas Stars. We all already knew that. Now we just have to wonder what’s going to happen with the Stars. The Stars are incapable of steadily winning games with or without Sean Avery. Without Sean Avery to blame, what are the Stars going to pin the blame on?

Okay, so now that the whole Sean Avery mess is seemingly over (for now, at least – Tom Hicks and crew are meeting this afternoon to discuss what can and should be done about Avery), let’s focus a bit more on actual hockey, shall we?

Tonight, the Stars will face the Phoenix Coyotes. This is an important game for the Stars – every game is at this point, if they want to make the playoffs. The Stars are last in the Pacific division – the Coyotes are third. The Stars are only 2 points behind Phoenix in the standings, and any point they can get against divisional rivals will help. Hell, any points they can get AT ALL will help at this point.

Some stats, since I’m too lazy to do actual writing:

• Stars are 10-12-4, Coyotes 12-13-2.
• Brad Richards leads the Stars with 21 points (6G, 15A) – Coyotes captain Shane Doan leads his team (13G, 13A).
• Marty Turco’s GAA is 3.38 (better than that 4.something he had earlier this season, huh?), with a save percentage of .876.  Not the numbers we’re used to seeing from Turco, but let’s cross our fingers that he’ll be more focused without Avery in the room (everyone’s blaming Avery – I’m not, really, but I think it’s kind of funny.).  Meanwhile, Ilya Bryzgalov (I named one of my Russian dwarf hamsters after him) is 2.99, .902.
• Most important (IMO, of course) – the Coyotes suffered a 7-1 loss to Chicago on Sunday night, and will probably come out hard in hopes of that not happening again.  The Stars have won 3 of their last 5 games, including 2 wins without Avery.  Things seem to be looking up for the Stars, and we’ll see if they can continue the good play against Phoenix tonight.

Things aren’t looking too up for Sean Avery right now. I’m still torn on the subject. I definitely think it should have been a team issue rather than a league issue. How hard would it have been for Bettman to sit back and wait for Tom Hicks to suspend the guy? Twenty bucks says he would have – sure, he issued the statement after Bettman suspended Avery, but I really do believe that Hicks wouldn’t have hesitated to let Avery know that his behavior was unacceptable. If Hicks hadn’t suspended him, go for it, NHL, suspend the guy. I get that there’s a bunch he hasn’t been punished for, but choose something bigger than this for a suspension. Or, you know, you should have just suspended him the first time it happened, instead of letting him push buttons.

Dave Tippett is really disappointed in Avery. Tippett, just MINUTES before Avery hollered the cameras over for his moment in the spotlight, defended Avery and his play. According to the linked article, Tippett went to Avery and asked him if he planned on speaking to the media. Avery said no, and then after Tippett defended him to the Canadian press, Avery went out and made a spectacle. That upsets me more than anything. Avery needed to sit down and shut the fuck up instead of making a scene.

Avery did issue an apology today, saying that it was “a bad attempt at building some excitement for the game”. Actually, from what I saw, it wasn’t actually too poor. I had some friends call me from places other than Calgary and Dallas saying “What the hell did Sean Avery do NOW?” and then telling me they were excited for what was surely to be a high-emotion game after Avery dissed Dion’s girl. Say what you will, but Avery knows how to get people talking. At any rate, in the statement issued, Avery says that he now knows how hurtful his actions were. I mean, I know the statement was probably written by his publicist, but after all that’s happened in the past 24 hours, I’m sure he knows that he took it too far now.

Last bit before the game starts – Mark from Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page has some audio up from an interview with Fan 590 that Brett Hull did today. Also in the article is a link to Hull’s interview with TSN. There was mention of mental therapy. No lie.

Well, I guess Brett Hull kind of got what he want. Avery’s definitely gotten people talking about the Dallas Stars.

This post is going to be all over the place, what with how scattered my thoughts are on the subject, but here goes nothing.

I’m sure everyone’s heard about it by now, but in case you haven’t, Sean Avery got suspended indefinitely for saying “obscene sexual remarks” (according to TSN) about Dion Phaneuf’s current girlfriend and Sean Avery’s ex-girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert.  The remark mentioned “sloppy seconds”, which I don’t see as obscene or sexual, just a common way to refer to an ex.

Is it classless? Sure. Is it stupid? Yes. Is it fucking hilarious? Yes. Sean Avery is just doing what Sean Avery does. This is what Brett Hull signed him for. Yeah, it’s hard to see the normally classy Dallas Stars organization reduced to this. I’m sure some of the veterans are fed up with the behavior, but I think when the team is losing so badly, everyone will overreact to things like this.

I think most people are upset because they hated Sean Avery from the beginning. I was upset, too, when I heard the news that he was signed. However, things have changed. I’ve come to accept it and him into the hockey organization that I love so much. All in all, it wasn’t a cool thing to say, but I’m sure far worse things are said on the ice – it’s just that there are no cameras and microphones to capture that.

Lots of people are acting like it’s the worst thing they’ve ever heard in their entire lives. Bethany called me when she was watching the game on Versus and they said that if the league hadn’t suspended Avery, it could have become a Steve Moore incident. Personally, I think that’s absolutely ludicrous. Put in your big boy pants and fucking DEAL WITH IT.

There are plenty of people siding with Sean Avery here – I’m one of them. Bethany and her mom agree, so does my roommate. I’m considering calling my dad to see how he feels about it. I mean, in the NFL, someone brings an illegal gun into a club, accidentally shoots himself, and gets 4 games. Sean Avery says some stupid words, and gets suspended indefinitely? I don’t think that’s super fair. Maybe the NHL should be focusing more on that huge head shots issue than suspending Sean Avery for something so minor.

Click on this.  It’s from Heika.

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FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Hello, all. It’s your absentee Untypical Girl, Caitlin.

How’s it going? Long time no see in the hockey blogosphere. (Yeah, yeah, I know.)

Truth be told, I haven’t had time to watch a ton of hockey. I missed tonight’s game due to a variety of extenuating circumstances, but a big chunk of it was lack of motivation. I’m working like crazy right now and trying to juggle a lot of balls in the air and you know what? I didn’t feel particularly inclined to devote time and energy to something that I felt in the end could only depress me.

So I took a gander at the box score. Now, that’s depressing.

I may not be the most knowledgeable about hockey; I may not be the most experienced hockey blogger out there, but I’ve got some useful tips for the Stars in this moment that I think…I just think…might be helpful.

• Gag Brett Hull.

That’s right. I know he’s always been a hyperactive motormouth, but shut him up. I don’t want to see quotes from him defending Avery any longer or defending the co-GMs’ decisions. Put a cork in it, Brett. You’re exacerbating the frustrations of the fans. Shit like this:

All the rumors you hear of Sean Avery are so (bleeping) (bull) — he’s been great. He’s our leading plus-minus guy. He’s been playing hard, (shoot), he’s playing (bleeping) hurt.

A tip of the hat to the girls at Stop Hitting Robidas for the heads-up on that quote. Frankly, I don’t care. I don’t want to read this repeatedly. If you’re not a part of the solution at this point, I don’t really give a damn. This is ridiculous. We are one point ahead of being at the tail end of the Western Conference.

If Hull has any salient thoughts on what we can do to fix the problem, I’d love to hear them. And something more articulate than “I don’t know what the problem is”. Until then, it would be nice not to have to see the same repetitive quotes over and over again.

• Chill out on the players talking to the media.

As of right now, I’m lumping everyone in the same boat as far as responsibility goes. They’re all responsible for working as a team and they’re all responsible for working together, not as separate pieces. I keep hearing a variation of the same quote: “We’re not working hard enough”. Not from one player, from several.

If you’re not working hard enough, if your opinion is that the entire team isn’t working hard enough, I don’t want to hear someone spending time to recycle the same quote to the same beat writers continuously. What a waste of your time. What a waste of my time to read it. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t stick with your team in bad times and in good (more on that later) but I’m getting really tired of hearing the same crap spouted continuously to see virtually the same mistakes and the same work-product out on the ice.

Just shut it down.

Quit gabbing to the media and focus on more important things. If I have to go three or four days without hearing a pearl of wisdom drop from a coach or team member’s mouth, I’m quite positive I’ll make it out alright.

• For God’s sakes, look like you care.

Half the time, most of the Stars look like they have just given up. I hate that. As I’ve espoused before, if they go out and work their asses off and have the score just run up on them, I’m not one hundred percent okay with that, but I’m far more okay with that than I am just watching guys give up. Man up. Suck it up. Get going. I’m sick of watching this team deflate just because Turco let a bad goal in, because that is certainly not the way it went last year. And while I know we’ve had some parts changed out since then, the core of this team – the leaders and the veterans, like Modano, Zubov, Lehtinen, Morrow, Turco – has stayed, injured or not. This stuff starts from the top and goes down. While I understand Modano’s been understandably not thrilled as of late, it’s time to can it and just get down to business.

• Fix the locker room.

If this is why someone felt Sydor was needed back in the fold, I don’t want to know. Something’s rotten in the Stars locker room. I could potentially hazard a guess why, but I’ll leave the speculation up to others. Sort it out. I don’t care what it takes, if it’s benching one guy, two guys, bag skates, screaming, yelling, whatever. This is some kindergarten kind of nonsense I see going on and it is eyeroll worthy. Everyone – Avery, you included – needs to just check egos at the door and get the hell over it. If this takes hand holding and group therapy or people duking it out in the parking lot, I don’t care. Resolve it.

• Quit telling people you don’t know what the problem is.

Get back to defense. Work harder. Make Turco see a psychologist. I don’t care what Hull’s screaming at you, all forwards need to be defensively minded. 5:00 a.m. bag skates should happen, or something. This team lacks confidence, lacks leadership and lacks discipline. If you have to go the second grade route and put up a chart with every player’s name and a gold star/demerit system, DO IT. In fact, I’d love to see that happen. Put them on the reward/punishment system. This, of all things, is not ROCKET SCIENCE.

This is embarrassing and humiliating. I’m not embarrassed for myself; I’m embarrassed for these guys. This is really how you want to represent yourself and the city?

The farther we get, the less and less sympathy I have for the same old rounds of excuses.

Fix it or don’t, guys. But don’t expect for me to have sympathy when the team misses the playoffs and does a proverbial faceplant. Some of these guys deserve better than this, especially in their twilight years, but to be honest: I’m not hurting if we miss the playoffs this year. We’d be lucky at this point to finish the season alive. I just wonder how that must feel for them.

It’s hard, though, to work up any pity for a team that keeps banging their collective heads into a wall.