5/30/2023 0 Comments 2006 uk basketball roster![]() Think back to Nils Lundkvist’s turnover in Calgary or Joel Hanley’s turnover in Arizona on Friday or Jamie Benn’s turnover in Colorado on Saturday. Sloppy puck play and turnovers in the most inopportune areas are primary culprits. That leads to the second thing, as DeBoer so eloquently put it a few weeks ago: The Stars have to stop “f-ing around with the puck.” The most glaring defensive issues recently haven’t been the other team wearing out the Stars it’s been the amount of odd-man rushes. You already have control and now you’re trying to maintain it. You’re trying to get in the offensive zone and sustain pressure. When you’re trying to improve defense with good offense, it’s the opposite. When you’re only trying to create offense from good defense, you’re relying on rush opportunities and chaos when the puck happens to bounce favorably. If it sounds familiar, remember the message under the previous coaching regime was the inverse, that good offense comes from solid defense. So then, what is the issue? The first thing that comes from the players is that they feel that the best defense is good offense. DeBoer did mention at one point that some of the structure would be compromised naturally as he pushed for more offense, which was desperately needed, but the roots remain in place. They don’t view the defensive woes as a product of ditching the structure that has been put in place in recent years. Their takes on the defensive issues are also uniform across the board, which indicates the message that’s being hammered internally. In talking to coach Pete DeBoer and Stars players about this recently, they view the leaky defense as a correctable issue. What’s your take on the team defense situation lately? - Katy K. Do I think they have a legitimate chance? Yes. ![]() Would I bet money on the Stars winning the Stanley Cup? No. We have no idea what that team out of the East is going to look like mentally or physically after going through the gauntlet that is that conference. But the playoffs are a long, grueling journey. ![]() That’ll be a tough assignment, and getting over that final hump would be pretty surprising, if Dallas is able to do it. You have a path through the conference and then you get to the final series and meet Boston, or whatever team was able to slay that dragon. If the Stars won a playoff series over any of those teams, it would not surprise me in the slightest. There are good teams in the West - Vegas, Colorado, Minnesota, Los Angeles and, the one that scares me the most, Edmonton - but no team terrifies me for the Stars. Max Domi and Seguin should look much better when he’s on their line rather than a rotation of Radek Faksa and Ty Dellandrea. Getting Mason Marchment back for the playoffs will be huge as well, not because I think Marchment is such a difference-maker but more because of the balance his presence will add to the lineup. ![]() We haven’t even gotten to veteran performers such as Joe Pavelski, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. "I want to stay away from Oettinger." /XfDOZmtuQlįrom there, you have one of the elite defensemen in the game in Heiskanen, one of the elite scorers in Robertson and one of the elite two-way players in Hintz. You get that top seed and win the Central, you don't have to play against Oettinger and the Stars in the first round." Playoff success begins with giving yourself a chance, and that’s what Oettinger does for the Stars. You can have all the hitters in baseball but if your starting pitching is shoddy, good luck. In football, you can have all of the talent on a roster but if you don’t have a quarterback, your chances diminish. Having a rock-solid goaltender doesn’t guarantee success - just ask 2007 Marty Turco, 2019 Ben Bishop or 2022 Oettinger - but it sure gives you a much better chance, and in the playoffs, that’s the first thing you want. ![]()
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