Mattias Norstrom is your old-time D-man. His stick has barely a curve and nobody looks for him to make the nifty play, a la Sergei Zubov. Anytime he hits the score sheet, it’s a bonus. His job is to prevent goals, not score them.
But there was Norstrom celebrating his overtime game-winner on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks, giving the Stars a 2-1 victory and sending Dallas to a three games to none edge in the semifinal series.
“I tried to get it on net and it went off a stick,’’ Norstrom said. “Fortunately it went in. I don't score a lot, so it was the biggest goal of my career.’’
Norstrom notched a mere two goals in the regular season and has 18 in 14 seasons, but he’s become an offensive factor in these playoffs. His assist set up Brenden Morrow for the overtime winner against San Jose in Game 1, and he has two goals and three assists in the playoffs.
Before this season, the native of Stockholm, Sweden had never registered a goal in 38 previous playoff games.
Norstrom’s shot from beyond the left circle glanced off the stick of San Jose’s Jeremy Roenick and over the shoulder of Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov at 4:37 of overtime.
“We were putting the pressure on, the puck popped out to me and I tried to get it on net as quickly as I could. It hit his stick and it ended up in the net,’’ Norstrom said. “I’ll take it off sticks, off feet, as long as it goes in. I've never had a bigger goal. It feels great."
In an age when most players have severely curved sticks, Morrow looks at Norstrom’s straight-bladed lumber and shakes his head. But the Stars captain sure appreciates the results.
Asked where he would have ranked Norstrom in any game-winning-goal pool, Morrow laughed and said, “He would have been real deep in my depth chart.
“He's picked up his offensive game, shooting the puck and seeing plays the rest of us aren't seeing. I don't know if anyone's seen the curve on his stick, he does a heck of a job playing with something like that.’’
Dallas hasn’t led a series three games to none since 1999 when the Stars swept the Edmonton Oilers in the first round en route to their only Stanley Cup.
The Dallas Stars have won nine-straight vs. the Los Angeles Kings, including a 5-1 win at American Airlines Center on Oct. 10. The Stars are 3-0-2 in their last five games, and haven’t played since Saturday when they downed Anaheim, 3-1. LA is coming off an impressive 6-0 win over Nashville at Staples Center on Tuesday night.
Mike Cammalleri leads the NHL in goals with 10 (in 10 games). Mike Ribeiro is a key man for Dallas, having scored 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) over his last nine games vs. the Kings. Former Kings captain Mattias Norstrom makes his second appearance as a visitor at Staples Center after being acquired by the Stars at the trade deadline last spring.
This current trip out west to LA and Phoenix is the annual “Wives Trip” for the Stars, as each player’s wife or girlfriend has joined them on the trip. Family has always been an important aspect for the Dallas Stars, a tradition that started long ago and continues today.
"It’s always been out focus to build a family-friendly organization here in Dallas,” said Head Coach Dave Tippett. “We ask a lot from our players and their families and the wives are an integral part of what we do. There are a lot of sacrifices that the families have to make and we want to show them that we appreciate everything they do. The things this organization does with taking care of the families shows how first-class we are and that starts with the people like Pam Wenzel and Lesa Moake in the Hockey Operations department. Those things go a long way and does not get unnoticed by the guys in this room as well as players around the league."
The old-school coach in Dave Tippett would have had the Stars on the ice, skating one of their hardest practices of the season on Monday. However, the new-school trainer in him thought another path might work better. "Believe me, there is a part of me that would like to be on the ice," Tippett said. "But if you look at the long term, this is going to be a real hectic month for us. We have to prepare to play at the top level all of the time, and this is the only break we're going to get."
Mattias Norstrom (left) with Philippe Boucher.
So despite a 4-0 loss to San Jose on Sunday, despite stumbling through losses to nonplayoff teams Florida (overtime) and Columbus (shootout) before that, the Stars are taking Monday and today off from skating. They will recharge their batteries, try to do a little team building and also raise some money for charity (their annual Casino Night was Monday in Grapevine). But when they hit the ice on Wednesday, they must prepare for a stretch in which they will play 13 games in 24 days, eight of those on the road.
Tippett will have a lot to digest when his team returns to the ice. He played recently acquired defenseman Mattias Norstrom with Philippe Boucher and liked the results. But the move pushed Stephane Robidas and Trevor Daley together, and the two struggled with their timing. They were split by Curtis Brown on San Jose's first goal and didn't get coverage in front of the net on the third goal.
Matthew Barnaby isn't scared by much. But a few months back, he got scared. In the span of eight fights, he experienced blurred vision in his left eye – for a few minutes the first time, then longer, and finally for 45 minutes in his last brawl.
At 6-0, 189 pounds – relatively small by hockey fighter standards – Barnaby has had to tread into battle with men six inches taller and 60 pounds heavier. And he has always done so willingly, usually with a diabolic cackle and an entertainer's style. Barnaby hasn't played since a fight Jan. 9 against Phoenix's Josh Gratton and was told he needed to stop fighting. Stop fighting? He might as well stop living.
"The doctors gave me a pretty good checkup," said Barnaby, who will turn 34 in May. "And they told me that if I fought again, there was a very good chance this would happen again." Barnaby has had concussions before, including one that put him out for more than a month. But he has never been told to stop fighting. And he has never been told to stop playing. "If I can't fight," he said recently, "I can't play."
Barnaby signed a one-year contract with the Stars last summer and is an enforcer/agitator. He sticks up for his teammates, and he tries to get under the skin of the opposition. In both situations, he is called upon to drop the gloves. He ranks 13th in NHL history with 240 fighting majors. Having played 834 regular-season games, he is among the top 10 in fights per game at .287. He has played in only 39 games this season, but his 11 fights rank 10th in the league.
"I'm very proud of what I've done in my career, the fact I have 300 points and have done more than just fight," Barnaby said. "But it's part of who I am and what I do out there." Barnaby has gone through several neurological tests and said he now understands why professional sports are treating concussions with such care. In one of the tests he took after his latest concussion, he couldn't recall information provided to him just moments earlier – such as what number appeared within a certain shape.
"You sit there and look at it and think, 'I know that. I know that,' but your brain just won't recall it," he said. "It can be kind of alarming." So Barnaby had to start thinking about the end of his career. He talked to his wife, Christine. He spent time with son Matthew and daughter Taylor. He got away from the rink for a little while.
"And I just missed it," he said. "I missed it a whole lot." He got clearance from his doctor to start working out, and he started clearing all of his tests. He is skating in practice with the Stars but isn't allowed to participate in contact drills. He knows there are only 17 games remaining in the regular season, but he keeps working.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have their first-ever winning streak in Dallas, winning for the second time in as many games this season in Big D, a 3-2 win decided by the shootout on Friday at American Airlines Center. The game was the fourth consecutive overtime contest for Dallas. The only other time that has happened in franchise history was last season (January 25-30, 2006). The Stars have now earned points in each of the last seven games (4-0-3), and points in 16 of its last 19 games, going 12-3-4.
"It took a while for us to get going," said Stars Head Coach Dave Tippett. "I think we were still on the plane in the first. In a game like that the expectations are much higher. We got a point, but you're looking for more and it was a disappointing point. We've been good in the shootout and the expectations are very high for the club, but it hasn't been there for us lately."
Jason Chimera scored the only goal for either team in the shootout, using a nice "kick-start" move to fake shooting and get goalie Marty Turco committed, then he maneuvered to his left and roofed the puck into the back of the net. Sergei Zubov, Mike Modano and Jussi Jokinen were all stopped on their attempts, giving Columbus the victory and the two points.
"It was a disappointing effort early and that isn't typical for us," said Turco. "We usually battle for everything and stretches of uninspired hockey hurt us. We were a lot more emotionally engaged and physical later and that needs to be the norm. That is our identity and we need to bring that every night."
"We had a little carry-over from Florida with four-straight periods of lackluster play," said Daryl Sydor. "We needed to take control and get it done from the get-go. We got two quick goals and we were getting through the neutral zone cleanly, but the start killed us. We have to learn from this to worry about ourselves and bring energy every night."
"We did a really good job managing the game," said Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock. "They came from back-to-back games and we jumped on them early, created lots of chances, and when they started to get their wind in the second half, we still managed pretty well."
Uninspired Performance By Stars Succombs To Sharks
In a game that could be described as one of the Dallas Stars' most important of the season, they came up with one of their most uninspiring performances. Joe Pavelski scored two goals and Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves as the San Jose Sharks rolled to a 4-0 victory over the Stars Sunday afternoon at the American Airlines Center. In their fourth game in less than six days, the Stars fell in regulation for the first time in eight games. They are now 7-2-3 in their last 12 contests overall and 8-2-2 in their last 12 at home. After two straight defeats in extra time (Friday night in a shootout to Columbus and Thursday night in overtime against Florida), the Stars have now lost three in a row.
They missed an opportunity to move five points ahead of San Jose in the Pacific Division standings, but instead are now just one point ahead. Calgary is two points behind as the Stars' hold on fifth in the Western Conference became more tenuous. "You are trying to muster up some energy and I thought we played well in the first, but we chased the game the rest of the way," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We had a good February, but the last three games, we haven't been very good at all. We defend well, our goaltending has been pretty solid, but we need to create and finish our opportunities."
The Stars certainly had their share of scoring chances, but could not solve Nabokov. Dallas also did not get any breaks, ringing three shots off iron, hitting the post twice and crossbar once, en route to getting blanked for the fifth time this season. "Even though we had more shots and had a lot of close calls, (Nabokov) made some good saves, we hit some posts, we still feel like we can play a lot better than that," said Stars goaltender Marty Turco, who made 14 saves. "That's probably even more disappointing than losing like that, in an embarrassing game to a team we're neck and neck with."
While it is hard to overlook the fatigue factor with the hectic schedule the Stars have endured the past week, they refused to use that as an excuse for the sub-par showing. "Every team in the league is tired at some point," defenseman Darryl Sydor, who logged 20:39 of ice time and blocked three shots. "You got to bring yourself up to par. We came out with a solid first period - they got a goal, but after that, blown coverage on a couple in the second and third, and that's what happened. There's no excuses, we just didn't answer the bell."
The Stars now get a short rest of three days off before their next contest Thursday night in St. Louis (7pm, my27) against the resurgent Blues, who have gone 6-2-2 in their last 10 and have climbed into a 10th place tie with Edmonton, 12 points shy of the final playoff spot in the West.
There were plenty of excuses for the Stars' shoddy play in Sunday afternoon's 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks at American Airlines Center. They were playing for the fourth time in less than six days. They were incorporating new defenseman Mattias Norstrom into their group and had made a couple of line changes, as well. They were focusing on a strong start to get things moving – and saw that backfire in a 1-0 first period deficit.
But defenseman Darryl Sydor wasn't hearing any of it. "There's no excuse," Sydor said. "We have two days now to reflect on this and be embarrassed – and if you're not embarrassed, that's not a good thing. As long as we look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we need to do better to help our teammates out and see what we need to do better to have a lot more energy, we'll be okay."
"You could throw out a bunch of excuses, but those don't really matter," said goalie Marty Turco, who allowed four goals on 18 shots. "We always think about things we could have done better, and this game was embarrassing. We were embarrassed in a game we really wanted."
Bill Guerin looked like Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold on Entourage on after Sunday's game at American Airlines Center. Guerin couldn't go 10 feet without "hugging it out" with former teammates, coaches and support personnel. "What can I say, I had a good time here," said with a laugh.
Guerin could also have a lot of fun in San Jose. Acquired by the Sharks at the trade deadline from St. Louis, Guerin is stepping onto a team that has tremendous size and skill at the center position. Guerin could end up playing on a line with old Boston teammate Joe Thornton, budding superstar Patrick Marleau or hot rookie Joe Pavelski. "It all takes time to figure out, but I think it will work out fine no matter where I play," Guerin said. "I'm really excited about this."
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But there was Norstrom celebrating his overtime game-winner on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks, giving the Stars a 2-1 victory and sending Dallas to a three games to none edge in the semifinal series.
In an age when most players have severely curved sticks, Morrow looks at Norstrom’s straight-bladed lumber and shakes his head. But the Stars captain sure appreciates the results.
Mattias Norstrom (left) with Philippe Boucher.
