HERE COMES THE HEAVY DOWNPOUR

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain"

Dance you Dallas Stars dance, cause its about to pour tilts. Games in February are going to come at ya like that sideways Texas rain on your windshield in April.

16 of them, in 29 days.

Not much time to pull over on the shoulder for a little respite so slip on some sensible yet fashionable shoes, wear some clothes that you don't mind gettin wet and start dancing like no one is watching.

The play of Kari and The Biz will be key. In this metaphoric scenario I am blog-cocting I see them as providing the beats. (Two goaltenders and a microphone?)

The rest have to hit the floor (ice) with rhythm and passion, and stamina. And find a way to shake it, even when the DJ plays those back to back floor-fillers.

Hell, maybe we can get Stars turn of millennium good luck charm, BJ Thomas to sing his hit "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" (But better have Pit Bull or Nicki Minaj remix it though)

Last season (Yes, have to go there) they got swept away in the deluge.

A loss to the Canucks at home then that 6-3 debilitating debacle of a defeat in Boston is how they greeted the post-AllStar schedule. Including those two, they were able to garner just one measly Shootout win in their first 10 games back. At that point Nieuwendyk pulled the trigger on the Goligoski trade with Pittsburgh. An umbrella of sorts.

That trade, coupled with the return of Jamie Benn from a shoulder injury helped propel the Stars to a 5-0-1 run, but it proved irrelevant as they managed just 6 wins the rest of the way and failed to gain a playoff birth.

Lehtonen was reign-whipped like the mount of a Comanche scout that had been spotted. He played every second of all but one of the final 32 games, then, presumably, was put away wet.

Yes, last year they were more donkey standing in a field in a hailstorm than ponies prancing in a meadow in a sun shower.

Let's see what this healthy and shoed-up version has in em'.

I say they have a little giddy-yup.