FanHouse BrendanMorrow

Earlier this season I, like many, I assume, was quite critical of the play of Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco. Mainly because for the first two months of the season he was the hockey equivalent to Swiss cheese on skates.

I like to think I'm a reasonable person, willing to eat my share of crow when the opportunity presents itself, and Turco has offered up quite a dish. While the Stars fell to Chicago on Saturday, 3-1, Turco put forth another strong performance in net, turning aside 33-of-36 shots, including an incredible stop on Jonathan Toews in the second period. Video after the jump.

Marty Turco's awful season continued on Thursday night against Chicago, as the Dallas Stars goalie gave up five goals on 29 shots, as the Stars fell 6-3. After another dismal performance in the crease, Turco finds himself 42nd in the NHL (out of 43) with a 3.67 Goals Against Average, and 43rd with a .867 save percentage. It's difficult to get much worse than that.

Patrick Kane scored a pair of goals for the Blackhawks, giving him ten on the season, while they also received goals from Martin Havlat, Kris Versteeg, Ben Eager and Brian Campbell. Nikolai Khabibulin earned No. 1 start honors in the game, turning aside 31 shots.

With the win, Chicago improves to 9-4-5 on the season, and 8-2-4 since the firing of coach Denis Savard following the fourth game of the season.

The Stars, meanwhile, find themselves near the bottom of the NHL just one year after playing in the Western Conference Finals.

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After what seems like forever, the NHL gets back on the ice tonight with the start of the Western Conference Finals tonight in Detroit as the Red Wings host the Dallas Stars. The Eastern Conference Final gets in gear tomorrow night for the battle of Pensylvania as the Penguins host the Flyers in Pittsburgh.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised that Detroit and Pittsburgh made it this far, though seeing Dallas and Philadelphia still alive this late in the game has to count as something of a shocker. As you'll see from our panel, while the discussion was nearly unanimous regarding predictions for both series, there were plenty of folks who were hedging their bets.

If you're feeling a little bleary-eyed this morning, you're excused.

How else could anyone East West of the Rockies who watched the Stars prevail over the Sharks, 2-1 in four overtime periods, feel after enduring five hours and 14 minutes of nerve-wracking action -- a game, that by the time it was over, made you almost completely forget the thrilling OT game that allowed the Penguins to finally dispatch the Rangers late on Sunday afternoon?

I know most hockey fans tend to think of a Game Seven as the ultimate nirvana, but six game series can often be just as epic, and the battle between the Sharks and Stars is going to be remembered in both cities for quite a while.

Yes, it was a six-game series, but five of those games were decided by one goal, and four of those were in overtime. That includes last night's game where the two teams combined for a ridiculous 117 shots, the last coming when Stars captain Brendan Morrow tipped a Stephane Robidas shot past Evgeni Nabokov sometime past 2:14 a.m. U.S. EDT.

Up until that point, the two netminders had been nothing short of brilliant, with both turning in one game-saving stop after another. The most mind-numbing probably came in the first OT period, when Brad Richards sent a wrist rocket at a wide open net, only to see Nabokov snatch it with his glove hand. Later, an overhead replay would show that he had nabbed the puck right above the goal line.

But while Marty Turco and Nabokov were the top two stars of the game, it was on this night that Brendan Morrow demonstrated exactly why the Stars organization stripped Mike Modano of the captaincy and handed it over to him. Morrow was a force all night in every zone, never more than in the closing seconds of regulation when he absolutely leveled Milan Michalek along the right wing boards inside the San Jose zone. Michalek, who had been one of the best Sharks on the ice all night long, needed several minutes just to get off the ice. He wouldn't return.

Who's In? RW Toby Peterson (EDM), LW Brad Winchester (EDM) and LW Todd Fedoruk (PHI).

Who's Out? C Eric Lindros (NHLPA), RW Matthew Barnaby (Retired), C Patrik Stefan (Switzerland), D Daryl Sydor (Pitt), D Jon Klemm (LA) and LW Ladislav Nagy (LA).

What's Changed? Not a whole lot, but that might not be a bad thing. After all, we're talking about a team that only finished three points behind Anaheim for the division title, with a tiebreaker dropping them to third behind San Jose. Once they got to the playoffs, goalie and perennial goat Marty Turco turned in the best postseason performance of his career, only to be bested by Vancouver's Roberto Luongo in a nerve-wracking seven-game defeat.

While a number of parts have departed like Nagy, Lindros, Barnaby and Sydor, management wisely decided not to overspend to replace them. Instead, a number of players are going to be expected to grow into new roles and contribute more.

In particular, Loui Eriksson will get a shot at spot on one of the two top lines, while Niklas Grossman will get to fill the vacuum created by Sydor's departure. Having deadline acquisition Mattias Norstrom on the blue line for a full season won't hurt either.

The new faces who have been imported -- Peterson, Winchester and Fedoruk -- help address one of the glaring gaps between Dallas and the defending champs: tougheness. Although truth be told, plenty of us will be happy if Fedoruk can just get through the season without suffering another catastrophic facial injury.

Dallas is still a balanced squad that plays well in all three zones and boasts a potent power play with Sergei Zubov and Philippe Boucher. Their regular season success over the past few seasons is a real tribute to head coach Dave Tippet, one of the most underrated bench bosses in the game.

*oof*

Well, that was a real kick to the crotch!!! Brendan Morrow just got a lucky deflection to give the Dallas Stars a 1-0 OT win, prolonging the series back to Dallas, and preventing the Canucks from moving onto the next round.

As a Canucks fan, this brings back bad memories of the 3-1 series lead that the Canucks blew against the Minnesota Wild a few years back. Until the Canucks can bury the Stars, there is always going to be a feeling of uneasiness in this city. We've seen too much hockey tragedy (1994, anyone?) to not expect the worst to happen at times.

The game had a nice flow to it, with only seven minor penalties called and the Stars obviously looking like a desperate team. Like most games in the series, both teams seemed quite comfortable to play 'last goal wins', with both goaltenders in their respective zones.

Eric Lindros made a surprise return and played on a line with pesky Steve Ott and Joel Lundqvist. Lindros finished with 9:46 of ice time and two shots on goal. While Eric looked slow and sluggish, he did make a bit of an impact until he was practically benched later in the game. It could be bad news for the Canucks if Lindros feels comfortable enough to play a bigger role in Game Six.

The Canucks Power Play also continued to be more flaccid than a Florida retiree, going 0-for-3 on the night and now sits at 1-for-24 on the series. The Canucks really lack somebody who will go to the net and create havoc, with the Sedins too content to cycle the puck on the outside and make the predictable Henrik-to-Daniel play. If the Canucks do fall in this series, you can blame the horrible PP unit for their demise.