SEVERED WIRES AND FAULTY CONNECTIONS

The Stars, or what’s left of them, crossed over the 300 man games lost to injury threshold during last night’s 5-2 loss to the Canucks.

Is that a lot you ask?

Sure it is, especially when you consider who is hurt - not just how many games have been missed.

Last season the man games lost was only 186 but the year before it had ballooned to 296, and yet somehow during that almost 300 man games injured 2006-07 season they were still able to muster 50 wins despite having Morrow for only 40 games, Modano for 59, Ott for 19, and a near the end Eric Lindros for 49 tilts.

So how did that team survive and thrive?

Defense, and a productive powerplay.

Having Sergei Zubov play 27 minutes a night for 78 out of 82 games helps – a lot. And so does a healthy, contract year Phillipe Boucher, and Sydor, and Daley, and Matty Norstrom, and Robidas (without scoring a goal). In behind them Marty Turco was an All-Star in goal, finishing 4th in the league in goals against.

On offense the Stars only had two 20-goal scorers that year (Lehtinen and Modano) but their wicked powerplay scored a lot of timely goals for them, and it was triggered by two of the a fore mentioned d-men, Zubov and Boucher, who accounted for 21 of the 79 powerplay goals they hammered home.

This season it’s been a much different story.

The defense corp has looked green and overmatched in a lot of games, and Turco has not shown All-Star form on enough nights to mask the vacillations.

And the powerplay – well – just remember, power can light your life and turn your engine over… but it can also electrocute you. Unfortunately for much of this season, especially lately, the Stars have ended up in the chair. They’ll need to score 30 goals in the final 9 games to match the 79 they scored on the powerplay two years ago. Not gonna happen.

There is no doubt injuries can be overcome, just look at a few of the teams that have more games missed due to injury than this year’s Stars for evidence of that. Washington, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Calgary are four of the six teams with more – but they are also ranked 2nd, 4th, 9th and 15th respectively on the powerplay this season.

Barring a resurrection of their special teams and a defiant final three weeks from goalie Marty Turco the Stars are going to have an awfully tough time finishing amongst the top 8 teams in the West.

And if they fail in their pursuit of a playoff spot the fix is a simple one – reboot.