Dallas Stars @ Columbus Blue Jackets
The Dallas Stars will go into the Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night with two new players in the lineup. Lyle Odelein and Stu Barnes were traded for from Chicago and Buffalo on the eve of the trade deadline. Sami Helenius and a future draft pick were given to Blackhawks for Odelein, and college prospect Mike Ryan, as well as a second round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft was given to the Sabres for Barnes.

Barnes is somewhat familiar to Stars fans. He's played for the Sabres since the trade deadline of the 1998-99 season, the year Dallas played Buffalo in the Stanley Cup Finals. He's a good quality playoff man who can bring leadership to the team in the absence of Bill Guerin.

Speaking of Guerin, he held his first press conference since his thigh injury, yesterday. He spoke about his injury and the fears he had about having to have his leg amputated due to the injury. Fortunately, his injury is not that bad. The general tone during the press conference was that he won't be back before the playoffs, but if everything goes well and there are no complications, he could be back for the first round of the playoffs. Obviously, this is very optimistic, and Guerin himself said he doesn't really think he'll be back for the first round. Billy will continue with his current conditioning as the April 1 reevaluation date approaches. We'll check in with him then.

The other Dallas trade made yesterday brings Lyle Odelein to Dallas in place of Sami Helenius. This trade seems really weird to me and it doesn't really bring the Stars something they need this time, a clutch player. However, maybe the Dallas front office knows something about this kid that the rest of us don't. I think one of the factors that led to this deal, was that Odelein won a Stanley Cup back in 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens. Even if it was just the one year, that experience is something. Personally, I'm going to take a wait and see stand on this trade and on the Barnes deal, I think that the Stars got the better deal with him and they'll be thanking themselves for it come the playoffs.

Well, all this time I've been talking about the new acquisitions and nearly forgot all about the team that the Stars are going to face tonight in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Blue Jackets are a bottom of the barrel team, no doubt about it. They're ranked 15th in the Western Conference and 28th in the NHL. Even as bad as the Stars have been playing lately, the Blue Jackets are doing even worse. With a 2-6-1-1 record in their last 10 games, the only team playing worse in the Western Conference right now is the Chicago Blackhawks.

Ron Tugnutt is no stranger to the Jackets this year. Of the three games already played between the two teams, Tugnutt has been in the game for 2 of them. He played in the 4-2 loss back in November, and again when Dallas won 3-2 in overtime later that month. Overall, not the best record. He faced a total of 47 shots in those two games, giving him a Sv% of .872.

Marc Denis has not played well all season for the Jackets. In his last start for Columbus, he played 17 minutes and gave up 3 goals to the Carolina Hurricanes. After he was pulled, Columbus came back to tie the game at 5 before backup goaltender Jean-Francois Labbe gave up a goal with under 3 minutes remaining in the game.

The Dallas Penalty Killing units held their ground in Sunday's sloppy game which saw the San Jose Sharks get 7 PP's. The Stars didn't allow a goal on any of them. They'll be facing a surprising PP team in the Blue Jackets. They're ranked 11th in the league, just behind the Stars, with a 17.4% success rate. The Dallas PP has fallen back down the ladder a little bit. They're back down to 10th with a 17.9% success rate. The Blue Jackets PK is ranked 11th.

Playoff Watch

Last week, I predicted that the Stars would have a chance at wrapping up their playoff spot tonight, against the Blue Jackets. Well it certainly didn't turn out that way. After getting manhandled by the Nashville Predators, the Stars went on to beat the San Jose Sharks. What that prediction was banking on was a Nashville loss to Minnesota, and then a loss to us. Parts of that came true as Nashville tied Minnesota, but after the Dallas win, they lost to Montreal. If they lose tomorrow night to Pittsburgh, and the Stars win tonight, Dallas earns their playoff spot. Here are the Magic#'s:
To earn a playoff spot = 4
To win the Pacific Division = 9
To win the Western Conference = 23
To win the President's Trophy and clinch home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs = 27

Prediction: Dallas 3, Columbus 1




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