Stars Game Day: 'Stache revisited

We'll probably get a taste of Brunnstrom tonight

The Sean Avery era begins in the athletically troubled state of Ohio Dallas at 8:30 ET/5:30 Pacific. The main storyline is the Stars' future versus a ghost of the Stars' past.

Ken Hitchcock's Blue Jackets had quite the revolving door this off-season. They lost enigmatic Russian Nik Zherdev, perpetual project Gilbert Brule (a Golbez favorite if I remember properly) and fairly-nondescript-before-free-agency Ron Hainsey. In their place, Columbus brought in Flyers playoff sensation R.J. Umberger, the flighty Kristian Huselius, overpaid ginger Mike Commodore and premiere douche Raffi Torres. The BJs look like they'll show the scoring ability of a Klan member at a "Soul Train" after-party.

For the Stars, we'll get our first glimpse of a guy who had quite the 15-minutes of Wine and Dine fame, Fabian Brunnstrom. Hopefully Brunnstrom will ease the pain caused by the departure of the Stars' interchangeable Finns.

Can the Stars justify their newly found media darling status without Sergei Zubov? Part 1 of 82 starts tonight.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

The Stars made like The Undertaker and sat up unexpectedly against the Red Wings (I can almost imagine Ken Hitchcock as Paul Bearer - all you need is an urn and some makeup). So, for the second time in this playoffs, I have decided to break out some lucky charms:

Brett Hull's lucky rabbit foot-in-the crease

The exorcised beard trimmings of Mike Modano

...And the combined might of Dave Tippett and Hitch's 'staches!!

Beat that, Ted Nugent!

Daydreaming about the 2008 playoffs...

After watching PJ Swenson’s great Stanley Cup interview and with the (weak) hubbub surrounding the NHL All-Star game, I couldn’t help but think to a few months from now when the games start to matter again.

With all that in mind, I thought it would be fun to conjure up the most appealing Western Conference playoff matchups that are within the realm of reason (sorry Kings and Oilers fans).

Detroit vs. Colorado

After all these years, the Red Wings still are the gold standard of the NHL and Joe Sakic is still considered the face of the former Nordiques franchise (even if this season is marred by injuries).

But chances are, at least in the case of Quoteless Joe, that the times will be changing soon enough. So wouldn’t it be nice to watch one last battle of the NHL’s greatest modern blood feud? Hell, maybe we can even get Claude Lemieux to turtle on the ice during the ceremonial first drop of the puck.

For the record, if the playoffs started today, this would be the first round pairing.

Minnesota/Columbus vs. Dallas

I lump those two teams together for a simple reason: both teams bring Ghosts of the Stars Hockey Past. The atmosphere in Minnesota when the Stars came to town during the playoffs, with former North Star (can you believe he actually skated with an N on his jersey at one point?) Mike Modano would be surreal. And that would be good, because aside from a Ribeiro deke here and a Gaborik breakaway there, the games would probably be bland enough to put Mario Lemieux in a trap induced coma.

The Columbus Blue Jackets would bring The Ghost of Stanley Cup Past in the form of former head coach Ken Hitchcock. Could the formerly mustachioed former coach lead his ragtag group of upstarts past his older, more talented former team? That would be an interesting storyline, no doubt.

Detroit vs. Vancouver

The best team in the league against the league’s best goalie…it really doesn’t get much better than that. Also: could the Sedin twins use their super secret Swedish doppelganger tricks to bedevil mechadefenseman Niklas Lidstrom? (No)

Calgary vs. San Jose

Joe Thornton vs. Jarome Iginla; Kipper vs. Nabby; Mike Keenan vs. Ron Wilson; a big, talented offense against a big, tough defense. This series would feature enough contrasting elements that people would grow ill from Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object references.

Detroit vs. Anaheim

It would be a travesty if the best series from last year’s playoffs didn’t take place again. If I were a gambling man, I would put money on that being the WCF for a second year in a row. Who would win? That’s hard to say.

But the Ducks would have the man curse that is Bertuzzi on their “side” this time around.

As great as all of these matchups would be, the only battle that has to happen is the one you saw coming a mile away

San Jose vs. Anaheim

This needs to be the year that the Battle of California takes place. Come on guys, seriously. Stop teasing us.