During last night’s loss to the Griffins, the guy who has the distinctive “Let’s go Stars!” shout tapped me on the shoulder and asked where Vishnevskiy was since I already told him about Wathier and Sawada being called up to Dallas. I had barely noticed shortly after the opening faceoff because I tend to start paying to the defensive pairings after a couple minutes. It certainly explained why Ludwig and Stafford were around over playing for the Steelheads up in Idaho.
Then the news came out. The Dallas management traded our scoring defenseman and only participant to the AHL All Star game to Atlanta for yet another goalie! If it weren’t Kari Lehtonen I would’ve been super irked. Instead I’m merely annoyed. Currently the Stars organization has a glut in the net: Turco, Auld, Krahn (injured for a while), Climie, Bachmann and Ford. I don’t follow Dallas enough to know what they lack as they fail to make the playoffs during Mike Modano’s final season. I have seen enough games of my local team to say with absolutely certainty they didn’t need to give up Vishy, a defenseman who scores more points than half the team’s forwards (24).
The worst part of the deal is that he will be assigned to the Chicago Wolves who will be in town this weekend. At least he doesn’t have to move out of his Riata apartment until Sunday.
I do wish him the best though. One negative thing about the Cold War’s end was Russia’s decline in hockey prowess. The so-called 20 years of Free Market reforms coupled with Putin’s raw, naked corruption gutted the nation’s ability to develop new talent to replace Russia’s aging superstars. Great players like Ovechkin and Malkin are now uncommon prospects compared to the days of the famous KLM line or Tretiak. Dallas let a diamond from the rough slip through for yet another Finnish goalie.
In Lehtonen’s defense, he is good. I saw him play for the Wolves over five years ago against the Rampage but on an off night. Chicago clobbered San Antonio’s team five to zip and Lehtonen defending against stops mostly from the top of the circle, nothing very close in range. Will he be a solid replacement for Turco, the Stars’ main goaltender after Crazy Eddie Belfour left? Who knows. I’m more concerned about the Hicks family’s financial statements.
Wrapping up…the Austin Stars 2-1 defeat was a bummer yet it wouldn’t be interesting if they won every evening I saw them. Ludwig provided the best goal though. He shot it from the circle, right through the goalie’s five hole. All the players on the ice were expecting a whistle. Those of us watching from our seats knew better as we watched the puck go through and slowly skid across the red line into the net. It must’ve traveled six inches to count. Somara got one clear picture of it happening.