DALLAS — The verdict came early Sunday evening — Dallas Stars forward Mike Ribiero will not be suspended for his love tap, baseball-style, against Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood as time ran out in the Dallas Stars' 2-1 loss Saturday night. Ribiero received a match penalty for the incident, which meant it was automatically reviewed by the NHL.
Presumably, they saw what Stars' coach Dave Tippett did too — a little provocation from Osgood to set off Ribiero, and rather than suspend one or both, they slapped their wrists and said play on.
So on Monday night, when the Western Conference final resumes, the Stars will have their leading scorer in the line-up and the Red Wings' their starting goaltender, which is the way both wanted it. There wasn't enough menace on either side to warrant more; Ribiero was guilty of stupidity; too bad they can't (and don't) issue suspensions for that.
The larger problem for the Stars is not that they waited until the final 20 seconds of the second game to get involved in the series, but that they are now down 2-0 to a Red Wings' team on top of its game, which means time is running out on their season.
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The Stars better be better Monday, otherwise, it's all over.
Mike Modano, the Stars' centre, pretty much said that Sunday, after the team assembled at its practice centre. The question was: Will the emotions ramp up even higher for Monday's third game, now that the teams have developed a distinct dislike for one another?
Modano, perhaps aware that the Stars need — among other things — to play with more discipline, suggested: "That's probably the most you're going to see of it hopefully — frustration boiling over and not being able to control your emotions.
"They're not a very physical team by any means, but they do play the game. They play with the puck so well. And for us to try to get into some street fight ain't going to work. You have to play the game of hockey and right now, they're doing it better than us."
A good thought there.
After a fairly sedate start to the series, much happened in the past 48 hours — the Red Wings' Johan Franzen, diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, the Stars' Jere Lehtinen out with a leg injury — but little actually changed.
The Stars were bad in the face-off circle again (a 39-16 edge for the Wings). Against a puck-possession team such as Detroit, that's nothing short of disastrous. They took too many penalties again. As defenceman Stephane Robidas so aptly put it, one of their reasons for their success in the early rounds, especially against the Anaheim Ducks, was they let their opponents take all the stupid penalties.
In this series, four of the Red Wings' six goals came with the man advantage, including the game winner both nights. So reining in their tempers (to avoid the penalties of over-aggression) and moving their feet (to avoid the hooking, holding and interference calls) become two priorities.
It wouldn't hurt to get more pucks on Osgood as well. In two games, Dallas managed 21 shots one night and 18 the next. Some of that was self-inflicted; the Stars would get themselves in a good shooting position and then miss the net.
"One of our mottos is playing as a pack," said Stars' captain Brenden Morrow. "I think they demonstrate that pretty well. They're five guys strong through the neutral zone, in front of the net and blocking lanes.
"So yeah, they're frustrating to play against. As much credit as they get for being a good offensive team, they're probably the top defensive team as well."
"But we had opportunities. Early in the game, we had three or four point blanks — a four-on-one. Those come back to haunt you. What happened at the end - three penalties in 20 seconds there — was just frustration."
Frustration is a luxury the Stars cannot afford at this stage. Dallas, which isn't exactly an offensive juggernaut, has scored nine goals in their past six games overall dating back to the San Jose Sharks series, and just twice in two losses to Detroit.
Attrition usually occurs when teams get this deep in the playoffs and this weekend, attrition cost each team a player. Franzen stayed behind in Detroit for tests after he developed headaches towards the end of the week. Officially, he is displaying concussion-like symptoms which, according to the Red Wings, dating back to the Colorado series, in which he scored nine goals in four games, an NHL record. Franzen is definitely out for Game 3.
As for the Stars, Ribiero is in, thanks to the largesse of Colin Campbell, the NHL's chief disciplinarian; Stu Barnes is still out with a concussion, and Lehtinen is a maybe.
"When you have key injuries to key people, our philosophy all year long is, that's not an excuse for not winning," said Tippett. "We have injuries, but we want to find ways to win hockey games. We feel if we go out and win a game tomorrow, we're back in the series."
Of course, if they don't, we all know what happens next. And isn't everybody getting just a little bit tired of hearing about the '42 Leafs and the '75 Islanders? Thought so.
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