THEY'RE FOR REAL

At what point do we stop talking about the improvement and just state that this (again) is a damn good hockey team?

I think we’re there.

Sure they’ve won 26 games and they’ve lost 26 games but that’s the blimp view, and it’s a little clouded.

They are 7-1-0 in their last eight games, 9-2-2 in their last 13, and 16-6-3 in their last 25.

Nothing cloudy about that.

Marty Turco has gone 8-2-0 over his last 10 games, with a 1.80 goals-against-average (18 GA, 601 min.) and a .928 save percentage.

He’s back, that’s clear.

The current “top line” isn’t Richard’s, nor is it Modano’s – and both of them have been excellent. It’s Ribeiro, Lehtinen and Ott.

Jere Lehtinen’s career-long point streak has reached eight games (4-7-11).

Steve Ott's career-long point streak has hit eight games (5-6-11). He also has points in 10 of the last 12 games (7-7-14), and the team is 14-5-3 since he returned from injury on Dec. 18. His passionate overall play has eased the pain of not having captain Brenden Morrow available.

Center Mike Ribeiro has points in seven of the last eight games (5-8-13) and eight of the last 10 (6-9-15). He again is leading the team in scoring

The trio is superb, that has become clarion.

A once blank-shooting powerplay is again lethal. The Stars are 7-for-21 (33.3%) with the man-advantage thus far in February, and 12-for-37 over the last six games (32.4%).

Crystalline potentialization.

The D-corp is now both subtle and stout in its duties.

Role players are embracing their assignments.

Rookie James Neal seems to have hurdled the so called “rookie performance wall”. He leads all first year NHLers with 18 goals.

They win tight, low-scoring games. They win in spectacular, blow-out fashion. They win on the road. They once again are dominating at home. They win – a lot.

And that’s what good teams do.

The Dallas Stars are now a really good team – the team they were supposed to be all along – before the fog of injuries, indolent play, and incompatibility shrouded things beyond recognition.

How much better they can be? Not sure, but when prognosticating don’t aim too low. Two months ago few people thought they’d be this good – including me.