COLUMBUS, Ohio — The moment Dillon Heatherington got called up speak volumes about the Dallas Stars rookie defender. It was late night in Stockton, California, the Texas Stars had just won an AHL game. Heatherington was called into the coaches office for a meeting with Stars assistant general manager Scott White. “He’s only 22, but […]
Given a chance to play through mistakes, Stephen Johns is finding his ideal role with Stars
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Stephen Johns is allowed to make mistakes. He can play his game and take risks. He can learn from certain situations, and he has the confidence that when he makes a mistake he’ll have a chance to be better for it. “When you allow mistakes to happen, less mistakes happen,” Johns said. […]
Thanks to healthy scratch Jason Spezza was back to “normal,” but what does that even mean?
DETROIT — For Ken Hitchcock making Jason Spezza a healthy scratch worked. He was able to reset the veteran forward, forcing him to watch a game from the press box for the first time in more than a decade, and on Tuesday Spezza had a pair of power play goals — his first multi-goal game […]
Jason Spezza Bounces Back From Healthy Scratch, Scores Twice as Stars Beat Red Wings 4-2
On the second game of a back-to-back, the Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2. Jason Spezza served up as strong as a bounce-back game as the Stars coaching staff could’ve hoped with two goals on the power play. John Klingberg and Alexander Radulov both finished with two assists, and Ben Bishop had a […]
Defining Play: Simple stick lift sets stage for Tyler Seguin’s highlight-reel goal
At some point we’ll grow tired of the Tyler Seguin vs. Boston Bruins drama. But as long as he’s still playing on a contract he originally signed with Boston, and he continues to make big plays against his former team, the Seguin-Bruins storyline is impossible to ignore. That was pretty obvious in a 3-2 overtime […]
Ken Hitchcock hopes to reset Jason Spezza with rare healthy scratch
Let’s clarify something first: Jason Spezza wasn’t scratched because of a pending trade. For one, Spezza has a full no-trade clause during the season and by all accounts he, at this point, has no plans to waive it. He’s also under contract for next season with a young family, he and his wife have four […]