How Swede It Is

• we need young talented goal scorers like we need extra holes in our heads. what we NEED is a little DEfense. Seriously, our blue line is weak and with Zubie out for who-knows-how-long we'll keep allowing shots on Marty and he'll keep letting them in. The area that Zubie helps us the most is bringing the puck out of our zone up the ice, QB'ing the Power Play and mentoring our young Dmen. it's nice to see Richards click with someone, but 7mil a year for a playmaker that doesn't have a pure goal scorer? Hopefully Fabio grows quickly and puts up serious numbers. Meanwhile over on Modano's line, James Neal is the real bright spot of these rookies. Not afraid to hit, Neal is out on the forecheck and playing very well with Mo. the two disappointments thus far are Ribeiro and Boucher. Ribs hasn't showed anything resembling his huge previous 2 years and Boucher has not looked the same since his all-star campaign of 07. Now, let's see if Tippet can keep these lines together or if we keeps switching. BTW, watching from the nosebleeds near the coaches box I watched Hull talk to Barnes who radioed in to the bench. Are those line combos he's calling down to the bench? strategy? Also, without a scapegoat to 'Armstrong' this season, what happens if we have a worse record in 14 games than last year? Is Tip untouchable? Or is he vulnerable to a firing. Whitt? I'd enjoy reading a response to some of these questions.

• Brunnstrom: a young player with talent. Avery: an agitator and instigator...like Woody Woodpecker. There's 1,000 guys like Avery north of the border, why the Stars had to pay him when they already have Ott confuses me. I bet most Stars are secretly wishing for the day that Avery gets traded or signs elsewhere so they can go back to openly hating him. Really can't wait to see what Richards will do in his first full season here. Nice passing last night.

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