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STARS MAILBAG: Journalism, player expectations, egos, and Port Wine

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In my mind we are now officially two weeks away from hockey season.

Sure, the Dallas Stars won’t open their season until Oct. 6 against the Vegas Golden Knights. But two weeks from today the Stars prospects will open the Traverse City Prospects Tournament against the Columbus Blue Jackets prospects at 3:30 ET (the game will be live streamed on the Detroit Red Wings website).

After that five-day event (which will be covered extensively here at Wrong Side of the Red Line), the Stars will host training camp in Cedar Park and the preseason schedule will kick off on Sept. 19.

This also means we’ve entered the time of year where Wrong Side of the Red Line will have daily coverage throughout the season, hopefully into mid June. Over the next two weeks I’ll be finishing a series of individual player previews, which will lead us into Traverse City and Training Camp.

Now, let’s get started with the mailbag:

It’s a bit of a juggling act.

I want Wrong Side of the Red Line‘s readership to grow, while I also want to reward the subscribers that have already supported the site. Theoretically I could make every story subscriber only, but then I’d be alienating potential new subscribers that wouldn’t consider supporting the site without proof it’s worthwhile.

It’s one of the main reasons the mailbag remains an unlocked weekly feature. The mailbag is my weekly back-and-forth with Stars fans — anyone that wants to ask a question — and hopefully those that haven’t subscribed will consider coming back and subscribing after getting a taste of the site.

Once the season starts the majority of stories will be subscriber only, with the occasional unlocked feature. I know some people won’t pay to read things on the internet and that’s OK, but I believe the content produced will be well worth the $3 per month investment.

(Shameless plug, you should really subscribe here.)

And to those that have subscribed, thank you. It allows this site to grow and funds better coverage. For example the upcoming coverage from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament is funded in large part by subscriptions at Wrong Side of the Red Line.

https://twitter.com/BobSchaller/status/900415530707845125

In the short term the Stars made the right moves. They needed to solidify their goaltending, while they also needed to add a top-six scorer.

In the long run the contracts for Ben Bishop and Alexander Radulov could be a source of frustration, but it’s a sacrifice the Stars had to make if they were going to land either player.

It’s a gamble that admittedly comes with risks (will Bishop remain healthy? Will Radulov fit under Ken Hitchcock?) but the reward for three or four seasons could easily outweigh the frustrations of a bad cap hit in the final years of the contract.

https://twitter.com/BobSchaller/status/900415266697465857

This is more of a concern for me than the contracts for Bishop and Radulov.

In a video game plug-and-play world the Stars would be fine. Jason Spezza or Martin Hanzal would just move to the wing and they’d easily adjust.

But we are now talking about two veteran players with egos — all players have them, some are just larger than others — and that’s where it gets tricky. If Spezza can’t buy in to the setup it’s going to negatively impact the whole team and, in the worst-case scenario, lead to a bit of a rift in the locker room.

If the Stars don’t buy into Hitchcock’s system and mannerisms the season could blow up in a bad way.

Hitchcock isn’t an easy coach to play for, and while he’s said all the right things during the offseason we still don’t know how well he’ll actually fit with this group. To avoid this blowup the Stars will need their leaders to control the locker room, and the assistant coaches will need to do their jobs smoothing relationships when necessary.

The best drink was a 1989 Burmester Vintage Port in Porto, Portugal.

Porto is known for it’s Port Wine, which is fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley. It’s a sweeter wine, but not sickly sweet and it’s a bit drier than you’d expect. It has a high alcohol content, often higher than 20 percent, and it’s often served as a desert wine.

We toured five or six cellars along the Douro River and drank lots of Ports. There were several Tawny Ports that were on the top of the list before having the 1989 Vintage on the last day in Portugal.

The best individual dish was a steak dinner in Portugal, steak is one of my favorite foods, but there were some strong contenders from our time in France.

France had better food, but I understood the language better in England.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

Abraham Lincoln, simply because I’d like to watch the conversation between Lincoln and Ken Hitchcock, who is a Civil War buff and takes part in Civil War re-enactments.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

From a Stars standpoint it’s Brett Ritchie. He has potential to be a top-six scoring winger in the NHL, but really needs to take the next step and find consistency in his game at this level.

From a financial standpoint it’s Antoine Roussel. He’s entering a contract season and with another career year he could get quite a raise next summer from the top bidder in free agency.

I’d set the over/under on John Klingberg’s points at 55.5. I would set Honka’s over/under at 33.5 points.

Honka is a bit harder to predict because I can see scenarios playing out where he has 40 plus points, while I also see legitimate cases where he finishes with less than 20 points. It could be a very exciting season for Honka if he’s deployed correctly and makes the most of his chances.

https://twitter.com/S_morales77/status/900456957533986817

Of that group of defensemen Miro Heiskanen clearly has the highest defensive IQ. He’s only a teenager and he already does the little things that you expect from NHL veteran defensemen — if you get a chance, watch one of his games all the way through and you’ll be impressed with his attention to detail.

Honka is the best skater of the group, while he also may have the best shot.

You can define vision a couple different ways, but I would argue Honka is the most creative with the puck and will ultimately be the best playmaker in the group of defenders. Heiskanen also has good vision and he’s Nick Lidstrom-like with his puck movement in all three zones (please note this is a style comparison, not a career expectation for Heiskanen).

Alexander Radulov should have 55 to 60 points, it won’t be enough to lead the team since I expect Tyler Seguin to have close to 70 or 75. Hanzal leading the team in face-off percentage is a pretty good bet.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

I’ll go with 250 goals for and 220 goals against.

I don’t have a problem with Tyler Seguin’s use on the power play. The bigger concern has always been the zone entries (which were way too predictable) and maintaining possession as a team while on the power play.

And I could see the Stars going with a four-forward first power play unit, meaning Spezza and Radulov could both be on the top power play.

Stu Barnes is going to be in charge of the power play and he’ll work with the forward group on the bench.

Also a quick note on the AHL coaching staff, they didn’t falter last season — not by the their job description. While the Texas Stars didn’t make the playoffs, the coaching staff did an efficient job of developing talent and getting players ready for the NHL.

You don’t get everything done in one week, that’s not a realistic expectation. However, you do have roughly three weeks between the start of camp and opening night, and that’s a sufficient amount of time.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

Top-six center that scores 40 to 50 points a season, dominates in the defensive end, kills penalties, and wins big face-offs.

Radek Faksa isn’t going to be a huge point producer, but he’s going to be player you need on a winning team.

https://twitter.com/S_morales77/status/900457379501887493

There will be a move to get rid of a defender, we just don’t know which one.

Ideally that would be a trade of whichever players lose the final position battle in camp between Greg Pateryn, Jamie Oleksiak, and Patrik Nemeth. However the more realistic option might be sending one of those players through waivers (personally I think Oleksiak has the only real risk of being claimed) and keeping them in the minors.

Colorado or New Jersey would be a good fit for either of those players.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

Either the Chicago Blackhawks or the Calgary Flames. The Blackhawks have to come back to earth at some point, it’s just hard to pick them to miss the playoffs.

I think we’ve just become conditioned to believe that it’ll take a work stoppage for the NHL and NHLPA to get something done. While I’d like to believe the two sides would work out their differences in a timely manner, their past history says otherwise.

There are several things to be discussed when the current CBA expires, but some of the bigger factors on the table will be escrow (which is always a point of contention) and contract length.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

If you haven’t seen Ben Bishop’s new glow-in-the-dark mask, take a look:

I like it. The one thing I was hoping for was some sort of Big Ben icon, especially after the Stars drew up this Tweet back in May.

Try naming your kids after defunct NHL franchises. “Golden Seal Salome” has a nice ring to it.

Players on AHL contracts can be assigned to the ECHL, just like a player on an NHL contract can be assigned to the AHL or ECHL.

There are AHL-ECHL two-way contracts that handle how much a player is paid at each level, but there is no need for a second contract to assign an AHL-contracted player to the ECHL.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

That group is a good place to start. Goalies are hard to project, but Jake Oettinger has a real chance to succeed and be in that conversation as the top American goalie in six or seven years.

https://twitter.com/Chelsea_Cerveny/status/900512813357117442

He’s playing in the KHL this season.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

You know the answer… (we won’t have a real read on his season until training camp).

I think we have a winner with the Houston Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits. After the first goal of each game Houston fans would throw Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits at the opposing goalie.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

Depends on the ice cream I’m having.

According to google the longest living tree is a bristlecone pine, so I would be that type of tree.

Comment from discussion Mailbag, call for questions.

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