Marty Turco and Dallas Stars Hockey

BRETT HULL AND LES JACKSON SIGNED TO
THREE-YEAR CONTRACTS AS CO-GENERAL MANAGERS

DALLAS – Dallas Stars Chairman of the Board and Owner Thomas O. Hicks announced today that he has signed Brett Hull and Les Jackson each to three-year contracts as Co-General Managers for the hockey club through the 2010-11 season. Hull and Jackson were named as Interim Co-General Managers on November 13, 2007.

  “Brett and Les have earned these extensions, doing an excellent job in leading this hockey club this past season,” said Hicks. “The move to make them interim co-general managers was a different approach that proved to be strategic. The two compliment each other very well. Les has over 20 years of experience with this organization as a scout and an executive and he is the consummate hockey man. He is highly regarded and respected throughout the league. Brett had 19 years of success as a player in the NHL and is a solid link between the front office and locker room. He thinks outside the box and provides a different perspective for our management staff.

“This unique combination of talents gives us many advantages for our hockey club. Signing Les and Brett to these contracts provides stability for the future. We look forward to building on this year’s relative successes.”

The Stars accumulated a 38-23-4 regular season record with Hull and Jackson as co-GM’s. The club advanced to the Western Conference Finals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2000. Two of the more notable moves by Hull and Jackson include signing center Mike Ribeiro to a five-year contract on January 7, and acquiring center Brad Richards from Tampa Bay along with goaltender Johan Holmqvist on February 26.

From DallasStars.com 

from nhl.com

Maybe it’s because all we can do with the Pittsburgh Penguins these days is split hairs, but Evgeni Malkin officially is under the microscope after another average performance Thursday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Malkin hasn’t scored a goal since registering two on four shots in Game 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers. He has seven shots on goal since, has been credited with eight giveaways – including four in Game 4 – and has won only 35 percent of his faceoffs.

Penguins coach Michel Therrien, though, is hardly concerned. He said on a conference call Friday that the MVP candidate simply has to be better in Game 5 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, RDS) at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.

“Yeah, he hasn’t been productive like he was in the past, but he’s going to have to find a way next game to make sure he’s productive like he used to be,” Therrien said. “I think they did a good job about checking him. It’s not sometimes a matter of the players not being productive. Sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the other team. They’re doing a good job right now to contain him. It’s going to be up to Evgeni Malkin to make sure he’s going to be productive offensively.”

Therrien discounted the notion that perhaps Malkin is tired because he never has played this much hockey in a season. Malkin has played in all 95 games this season after playing in 83 of 87 games a year ago.

The most games Malkin played in any one season prior to coming to the NHL was 69 with his Russian club team and international tournaments in 2004-05. That included six games in the World Junior Championships and nine games in the World Championships.

Malkin looked tired at the end of last season – he had four assists and was a minus-1 in five playoff games against Ottawa – but that had something to do with his tumultuous summer of fleeing Russia to come to the NHL.

“I think he’s got more experience this year to play through the schedule that we’re facing in the NHL, plus the playoffs,” Therrien said. “I could understand fatigue would be a factor if we would have played seven games in every round. I think we had some quality time for rest … so I don’t think fatigue is a factor.”

As Malkin goes, apparently, so do his linemates.

Outside of Ryan Malone’s insurance goal 9:58 into the third period of Game 3, he and Petr Sykora have been quiet. Sykora, in fact, has one goal in the last five games after scoring four in the first five of the postseason.

“At times, this is going to be like this,” Therrien said. “You can’t expect your top two lines to give you one or two goals a game because you’re not going to score four, five, six goals a game in the playoffs all the time.

“They did a good job to contain (Malkin’s) line in the last few games, and it’s going to be a challenge for them to make sure they’re going to be able to get some results because this is what they’re supposed to do, bring some offense to the team.

“In the meantime, I’m not losing any faith in that line. They’ve been really good so far in the big picture.”

Therrien mentioned the big picture more than once during Friday’s call. He believes it’s essential to focus on that at this point rather than the Penguins’ loss in Game 4 that only forced a Game 5.

The Penguins are 11-2 in the playoffs. They hold a 3-1 lead in this series.

They’ve been pretty darn good.

“You’ve got to look at the big pictures every single round, and after four games, we’re optimistic,” Therrien said. “It’s demanding to win games in the playoffs on the road. We all know that. We were capable to have a split in Philly. It was a good accomplishment for our team to win Game 3 there.”

Therrien then suggested, the way Maxime Talbot did Thursday night, that the Penguins are bringing momentum into Game 5 because of how they played the last 40 minutes of Game 4.

The Penguins held the Flyers to 17 shots on goal in the final 40 minutes after surrendering 17 in the first 20. They had 25 shots themselves in the final two periods and gave the Flyers only one power play as opposed to three in the first period.

Jordan Staal scored twice in the third period to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 5:49 to play. The Flyers eventually salted the game away thanks to Joffrey Lupul’s empty-netter with 33 seconds left.

“I liked the way we responded,” Therrien said. “I think we had the momentum on our side. We could have made a comeback. We were really close. So we’re going to make sure we’re going to bring that momentum to the game at home Sunday.”

On the flip side, the Flyers also believe a win in Game 4 gave them momentum for the first time in the series. And with defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn possibly returning to the lineup Sunday, the Flyers not only may get an infusion of talent, but of energy, too, by having their top two defensemen back on the blue line.

“Kimmo is one of the best puck-moving defensemen in the League,” Flyers goalie Martin Biron said. “He’s even better when you don’t notice him because he does the little things right all the time. He makes guys think twice. It’s no secret he’s an All-Star.

“We want him in the locker room healthy and ready to go if he can.”

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, just wants Malkin to be Malkin, and all will be right again.

from DallasStars.com
Marty Turco almost single-handedly led the Dallas Stars to victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals Saturday afternoon.

Usually when a goaltender is deemed to have been directly responsible for a win, it’s because of his ability to stop the puck and keep the opposition off the scoresheet, and Turco did that in Game 5, turning aside an unbelievable 38 Detroit shots. 

But he was equally as impressive offensively, generating the plays that led to both Stars goals in the 2-1 triumph. Even though Turco earned an assist on just the second one, a beautiful wrist shot from Joel Lundqvist in the second period for the game-winner, he confounded the Wings all night with his ability to move the puck and jump-start the Stars’ transition out of their defensive zone.

For his efforts, Turco won his first-ever NHL game in Joe Louis Arena, improving his career mark here to 1-9-2 and being named the game’s first star for the second straight contest. Turco came through with his best with the Stars facing elimination for the second consecutive time.

“It feels good,” he said of the milestone triumph. “Feels more good about the situation we were in, the environment we’re in, the ability we had to overcome it. It’s a huge challenge that only fractionally got better tonight the way we’re looking at it. But if we were able to do this, we thought we needed at least one here, now we’re going to need at least two. For me, it has been a long time. We’re excited to go back home and continue to push this thing along.”

“Marty had a will to win today,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “He’s had his frustrations in this building but he got over the hump with a good effort today.

“I thought there was so much battle in him. Our team, one of our themes all year is find a way to win and have the will to win. I think Marty exemplified that tonight. He wasn’t going to be denied in this game. He made enough saves in this game for us to get us the win.”

For the Stars to have a chance at pulling off the monumental comeback that only two other clubs in NHL history (and three in all of professional sports) have done, they will continue to need Turco to play this well again.

“First one here, huge,” center Mike Ribeiro said of Turco’s winning performance. “(Almost) 40 shots, kept us in the game all through the game. He was ready for it. The thing is, going back home again, we need him to do that in back to back games for us. He’s a big part of our team.”

“Any time there’s ever been any sort of pressure on Marty Turco, he’s always risen,” winger Steve Ott added. “For some reason, if it’s during the regular season, a playoff series, when people doubt him or people put the slightest pressure on him, it doesn’t faze him at all. He never gets too high or too low. He keeps going on an even keel. Tonight was another perfect example of Marty being Marty.”

Turco’s puck play was an asset we saw a lot of in Dallas’ first-round triumph in six games over the Anaheim Ducks, and his penchant for retrieving almost all of the opposition’s dump-ins forced the defending Stanley Cup champions to alter their approach into the Stars’ zone, but Turco didn’t have much of an opportunity to do that in this series until this game.

Whenever the Wings dumped the puck in, Turco was out of his crease, on the puck and moving it up ice to facilitate a quick breakout.

“He just looked really aggressive, he didn’t really second-guess himself,” center Mike Modano said of Turco. “He was just going to go out there and play the puck and make the first correct open play that he saw. When he’s jumping out of the net and making plays like that, you know he’s involved, you know he’s into it mentally. 

“His focus was really good tonight and when he’s moving it around, we knew he was going to make some plays and he made some good outlets getting away from pressure, and that’s always been a big plus for us, since he’s been a goaltender for our team. He really has an ability to really neutralize a teams forecheck with his ability to get out of the net.”

Of course, once Turco got the puck up ice, the Stars’ skaters needed to execute offensively, and both Trevor Daley and Joel Lundqvist were able to beat Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood at the other end. On each goal, the speed with which Turco began the transition caught the Wings off-guard, contributing to odd-man rushes that the Stars capitalized on.

“Certainly when they’re making changes, there’s always seams,” Turco said. “But more than anything for me, it’s just the opportunity when it presents itself to grab pucks, to have lanes, to see them, make those plays. I don’t feel like I’m ever going to alter my game from playing the puck. But some nights, lanes are there, sometimes the guys are on the same page. Sometimes you’re just better seeing it. Tonight we were on. Just had the puck in the right spots to make those plays.”

Daley staked the Stars to a 1-0 midway through the first period, after Turco’s pass up the boards was relayed by Niklas Hagman to Brad Richards, whose beautiful drop pass between his legs set up Daley for a quick wrist shot. It was just the second time in the series they scored first.

“We definitely wanted to score the first goal,” said Daley, whose goal was his first of the post-season and just his second in 28 career post-season contests. “Getting the lead was huge. We’re playing hard and this one is done now so we want to focus on Game 6 now. We’re excited.”

The second goal, Lundqvist’s second of the post-season, snapped a 1-1 tie at 6:04 of the second after Turco’s pass up the middle sent Lundqvist and Toby Petersen in on a 2-on-1 before Lundqvist ripped a scorching wrister past Osgood on the far side.

And of course, between the pipes, Turco was outstanding again, delivering another crucial performance to keep the Stars’ season going and get the big monkey off his back.

“I saw it before the game even started, just the focus he had, his preparation,” captain Brenden Morrow said of Turco. “Then once the game started, he was real comfortable back there playing pucks, reading plays, making those passes. I think he hit Hagman for a two-on-one. But, you know, he’s given us a chance to win every night. Unfortunately, it’s a team sport and we haven’t been there for him sometimes. He’s going to get the brunt of the blame. We’re all in it together. Tonight we all pulled through.”

Turco made several huge saves on Detroit sniper Pavel Datsyuk and another on Tomas Holmstrom in the third period as the Wings pressed for the equalizer, but were unable to break through. Now, it’s back to Dallas and Game 6 at the American Airlines Center Monday night.

“We talked about it before the game,” Modano said. “We just felt, give us enough opportunities here, one of these days we’re going to play well, he’s going to stand out and win us a game here. That’s a great thing about sports, you get a lot of second chances, a lot of chances to prove yourself over again and erase a lot of doubt that everybody has in you.”

“Marty is great. He’s been great the whole series, the whole playoffs,” Daley said. “He’s our best player. Tonight, he was awesome.”

And he’ll have to be again to keep this ride going.

from NHL.com

PHILADELPHIA - The only reason the Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t perfect in these Stanley Cup Playoffs is because they failed to close out the New York Rangers in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden two weeks ago.

Ironically, that 3-0 loss now serves as motivation for the Penguins to finish off the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 at the Wachovia Center Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, VERSUS, CBC, RDS, NHL Radio), which would clinch them their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 16 years.

No let-up is the message they’re delivering. No reason to give the Flyers life the way they did the Rangers, albeit for only another couple of days before wiping them out with an overtime victory in Game 5 back home at Mellon Arena.

“We’ve learned here in the last couple series, especially the last one, that the last game is always the toughest one to win,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “I don’t think we can afford to look ahead. We need to keep doing the things we’re doing and hopefully we’re rewarded for that.”

The Penguins vision is just as blinded when it comes to their remarkable 11-1 postseason record.

“I don’t know if we look at it as an accomplishment,” Crosby said. “We’re being consistent right now. We have a great attitude, but I guess that’s the reward you get for making sure that you take each game seriously and that you’re consistent.”

The Penguins’ approach was just about perfect in Game 3 when they skated to a 4-1 victory by playing perhaps their most sound defensive game in the Crosby Era, which dates back three years.
 
They held the Flyers to 18 shots, very few second-chance opportunities, and took advantage by scoring on four of their 25 shots. The performance will likely force Flyers coach John Stevens to juggle his lines and put Mike Richards together with Danny Briere for the first time in the playoffs.

The Flyers practiced that way Wednesday in Voorhees, N.J.

“Richie and Danny have had an awful lot of success together this year, mind you mostly on the power play, but they’re two of the best offensive players on our team and in the League,” Stevens said. “So, we thought we’d give it a look and there’s a good chance you’ll see it (Thursday).”

No matter what the Flyers lines look like, you don’t have to tell the Penguins if they bottle Tuesday’s performance and use it again Thursday they’ll waltz into the Stanley Cup Final. But they also played a strong Game 3 against the Rangers, winning 5-3, but couldn’t put the hammer down in Game 4 due in large part to a brilliant performance by New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made 29 saves that night.

Lesson learned, the Penguins say.

“I never want to get ahead of myself,” Penguins winger Petr Sykora said. “Even if we win (Thursday) I’m not going to celebrate anything because when I look back I lost twice in the Stanley Cup Final (2001 with New Jersey, 2003 with Anaheim) and nobody cared that we went to the Final. I learned my lesson. There were a couple of series that we were up 3-2 or 3-1 and I thought it was over, but it never is. It’s always going to bite you back.”

The Penguins probably can’t play any better on the defensive end than they are right now. They’re allowing only 1.83 goals per game, which is lowest among all playoff teams. Their penalty kill has achieved a nearly 90-percent success rate.

Against Philadelphia the Penguins have been especially consistent with their aggressive forecheck, which is basically a smothering 1-2-2 trap orchestrated by a daunting group of speedy and committed forwards as well as some physical blue-liners.

The Flyers haven’t had an answer, especially in Game 3 when they were suffocated before they even reached the red line.

“From the outside looking in we have all these stars up front and we’re looked at as this entertaining team that scores a lot of goals,” Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “We know in the playoffs if you commit defensively with the talent we have, we’re going to get our goals eventually. It’s been a collective defensive effort and our goalie has been huge all playoffs for us.”

Orpik, though, empathizes with the Flyers, who are trying to bust the Penguins trap without their best puck-moving defenseman, Kimmo Timonen. Braydon Coburn also sat out Game 3 with an eye injury that could keep him out for Game 4 as well.

“They’re not going to make any excuses, but a guy like Timonen would help,” Orpik said. “But, yeah, everyone is doing a good job playing our system. I know as defensemen even when their forwards do get the puck in they don’t have a lot of speed.”

The evidence is everywhere.

The Flyers have only scored five goals in the three games so far. They have yet to score a third-period goal. The Penguins have four.

Of the Flyers most talented players, only Richards and Jeff Carter have made noticeable differences. Richards has three goals on 10 shots. Carter has a goal and 17 shots. If it weren’t for an unbelievable defensive play by Sergei Gonchar on Tuesday, Richards may have scored a shorthanded breakaway goal that would have tied the game in the second period.

Meanwhile, Briere and Vaclav Prospal each have only one assist apiece. Briere is a minus-3. Prospal is a minus-2. Neither registered a shot in Game 3.

R.J. Umberger, who had eight goals in five games against Montreal, scored his first against the Penguins on Tuesday. He has only two shots on goal in the series.

And, goalie Marty Biron has allowed 10 goals against 82 shots after surrendering 14 on 177 shots against Montreal.

“This is a young team playing a mature game,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “They’re all committed defensively. When you’re committed defensively you give yourself a chance to win. Our focus is there, and I like our chance right now.”

from chicagotribune.com

Maybe it was payback, maybe it was just good fortune. The Dallas Stars aren’t going to quibble.

All that matters is Tomas Holmstrom’s rear end — and possibly his reputation — cost the Detroit Red Wings a goal and the Stars took full advantage, avoiding the humiliation of getting swept out of the Western Conference finals.

Minutes after Detroit’s lead was taken away, Dallas took its first lead of the entire series thanks in part to an officiating non-call. Then, Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow added third-period goals, sending the Stars past the Red Wings 3-1 on Wednesday night.

“It was a pretty intense, desperate game from everyone on our side,” said Dallas goalie Marty Turco, who made 34 saves and staved off 6-on-4 and 6-on-3 threats in the final minute. “We needed that to be successful. We’ll have to continue like that just to have a chance.”

Game 5 is Saturday in Detroit, a two-day break the Stars are glad to have to rest their bodies and, they hope, for the Red Wings to dwell on their missed opportunity.

“Doubt starts to creep in a little bit,” Morrow said. “We’ve got a couple of days here to let that sink in.”

Detroit lost for the first time since April 16, ending a nine-game winning streak that was the franchise’s longest in a single postseason.

The Stars came in knowing how hard it is to close a team out because they went from leading the last round 3-0 to needing four overtimes in Game 6 to finally knock out the San Jose Sharks.

The Red Wings have experience in being up 3-0, having swept Colorado with an 8-2 victory in Game 4.

Turco beat Detroit for only third time in 21 career tries.