Poll Question: Will the Dallas Stars make the Stanley Cup Playoffs

After last night's 3rd period comeback to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 last night and a Phoenix Coyotes 4-3 Shootout victory last night. That put the Dallas Stars (8th Place), Calgary Flames (9th Place) & the Los Angeles Kings (10th Place) all tied with 66 points.

Tonight is a very critical night in the playoff chase as the Stars have a chance to claim 8th Place all by themselves with both the Flames & Kings having the night off tonight and to gain ground on the Phoenix Coyotes who helped them out after coming back from 2-0 down and fighting off a desperate Flames in OT after Calgary scored to tie the game with 1:48 left in the 3rd period by Olli Jokinen to save the Flames last night.

The Stars will look to win their 1st game on the 2nd night of a back-to-back all season and against another team in the Minnesota Wild who sit in 12th Place (27-24-9) and are just 3 points back of CGY, DAL & LA & can make this race even tighter by over taking the Colorado Avalanche who are playing the Columbus Blue Jackets who are currently the worst team in the league and are well on their way to having the #1 Overall Draft Pick this summer. So that makes tonight's Stars Game VS. Minnesota even more important tonight to get away from the playoff chase and to get further into the playoff race this season.

So the Poll question is simple, can the Stars end their 3 year Stanley Cup Playoff Drought and get back to the Playoffs this year? I want to hear from you with your comments & Votes on your thoughts on the Stars as they enter the final 21 games of the regular season which will wrap up on April 7 against the St. Louis Blues.

Dallas Stars VS. Minnesota Wild Preview

Here's a look at the next 5 games for the Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames & Los Angeles Kings as the battle for the playoffs heats up at the end of February.

Dallas Stars

2/24: VS. Minnesota Wild  7:30 PM

2/26: VS. Vancouver Canucks  2:00 PM

2/29: VS. Pittsburgh Penguins  6:30 PM

3/2: @ Edmonton Oilers  8:30 PM

3/4: @ Calgary Flames  5:00 PM

Los Angeles Kings

2/25: VS. Chicago Blackhawks  7:00 PM

2/27: @ Nashville Predators  7:00 PM

2/28: VS. Minnesota Wild  6:30 PM

3/3: VS. Anaheim Ducks  9:30 PM

3/6: @ Nashville Predators  7:00 PM

Calgary Flames

2/25: VS. Philadelphia Flyers 9:00 PM

2/27: VS. St. Louis Blues  8:00 PM

3/1: VS. @ Phoenix Coyotes 8:00 PM

3/2: @ Anaheim Ducks  9:00 PM

3/4: VS. Dallas Stars  5:00 PM



Fallon & Daugherty make Final NHL Central Scouting Rankings

The final rankings for the NHL Central Scouting to get ready for the 2010 NHL Draft in Los Angeles came out this week.

And two of the Southwest players from the USHL have made it to the final rankings as Jacob Fallon is going to be the Southwest's best hope as he was ranked #68 in this year's rankings as he has taken a little bit of a hit since the midway rankings came out back in January where he was ranked #50 among North American Skaters. Theirs no doubt that Fallon's controversy move from the USNTDP to the Indiana Ice back in the middle of the season has hurt him in this.

For Jacob Fallon's Indiana Ice team has had some problems as the Ice will probably will need to keep the score's low to have a shot against the Cedar Rapids Roughriders. All the wins this season against Cedar Rapids came in low scoring affairs.

The high scoring game that was played that the Ice lost 7-2 back in Early March. Fallon will need to show that he help his team in all sorts of games during the playoffs to convince possible teams that may be interested in picking him in June's draft.

Ryan Daugherty got a hit in the rankings as he fell over a hundred spots from 68 in the mid-term rankings to 179 as a minor knee injury affected his play where he scored just 2 points in 16 games.

Hopefully though, a strong end of the season where he scored 6 points in 7 games will help his stock some and possibly a strong playoff performance can help out even more as he looks to come back to prove the scouts and the rankings wrong as the final rankings came out this week.

For both of these guys, a strong playoff performance can help bring some interest from possible teams to get a chance to impress and to show what he can do.

Even if your a triple digit ranking like Daugherty is, your still among the best at your age group and to get on different team radars is also a bonus for anybody who's looking to get drafted.

Despite the final rankings in this report, with the exception of the top handful of players. A strong playoff performance and with events like the Scouting Combines and teams inviting possible draft picks, things can change constantly.

I have seen players rise and plummet at all times during the draft. This is a living, breathing org. that constantly changes before and during the draft with trades and teams moving up and down in the draft.

One of the great things about the draft is that you have 30 teams to impress and sometimes you only needs to impress a few to have a serious shot of getting picked. If you don't get picked, then you are a free agent that where you can work out and sign with anybody you want and a lot of times it may be a long shot, but you see all sorts of players that turn be great players who weren't highly picked. Jamie Been for instance was picked in the 5th round during his draft year back in 2007.

As for overall top players for this year. Taylor Hall & Jonathan Seguin should be battling it out for the #1 overall spot in the draft as the top 2 players all year as the Windsor Spitfires & Plymouth Whalers were in a series that just wrapped up in the OHL 2nd Round.

For NA Goaltenders, the starting goalies for the upcoming U18 World Championships as Calvin Pickard of the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL) & Jack Campbell of the USNTDP U18 Teams as they are expected to be the battle for the top goalies in this year's draft. The upcoming U18 World Championship could tell us a lot as the tournament will begin on April 13 in Belarus.

Sweden has been the big winners from Europe this year, but we got a much bigger variety of leagues and nations being rep. this year, including the leagues like the KHL & SEL. We got a few guys from some more unexpected places like Germany and Slovakia that have high hopes this season.

For more on the 2010 NHL Draft which will be taking place in Los Angeles coming up in June.

www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm?location=/draft/2010

Southwest Noteables

68. Jacob Fallon 5'10" 180, Southlake, Texas C, Indiana Ice (USHL)

179. Ryan Daugherty 6'2" 179, Allen, Texas RW, Omaha Lancers (USHL)

Here's a look at the top 10 North American & European Skaters.

In addition to the forwards and defensemen, the top 5 Goaltenders from both North America & Europe will be shown as well.


North America

Skaters
1. Tyler Seguin 6'1" 172, Brampton, Ontario C Plymouth Whalers (OHL)

2. Taylor Hall 6'1" 185, Calgary, Alberta LW Windsor Spitfires (OHL)

3. Brett Connonnly 6'2" 181, Campbell River, BC RW Prince George Cougars (WHL)

4. Erik Gudbranson 6'4" 195, Orleans, Ontario D Kingston Frontenacs (OHL)

5. Cam Fowler 6'1" 190, Windsor, Ontario D Windsor Spitfires (OHL)

6. Brandon Gormley 6'2" 185, Charlottetown, PEI D Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL)

7. Mark Pysyk 6'1" 174, Edmonton, Alberta D Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL)

8. Emerson Etem 6'0" 190, Long Beach, California RW Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)

9. Derek Forbot 6'5" 198, Duluth, Minnesota D USNTDP U18 Team (NTDP)

10. Ryan Johnson 6'2" 192, Vancouver, B.C. C Portland Winterhawks (WHL)


Goalies

1. Calvin Pickard 6'1" 195, Moncton, N.B. Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)

2. Jack Campbell 6'3" 175, Port Huron, Michigan USNTDP U18 (NTDP)

3. Kent Simpson 6'3" 182, Edmonton, Alberta Everett Silvertips (WHL)

4. Mark Visentin 6'2" 187, Hamilton, Ontario Niagara Icedogs (OHL)

5. Louis Domingue 6'3" 180, St. Hyacinte, Quebec Quebec City Ramparts (QMJHL)


Europe

Top Skaters

1. Mikael Granlund 5'10" 180, Oulu, Finland C HIFK Helsinki (FIN, SM-Liiga)

2. Vladimir Tarasenko 5'11" 202, Yaroslavl, Russia RW Novosibirsk (RUS, KHL)

3. Evgeny Kuznetsov 6'0" 172, Chelyabinsk, Russia C Chelyabinsk (RUS, KHL)

4. Calle Jarnkrok 5'11" 156, Gavle, Sweden C Brynas JR (SWE JRS)

5. Ludvig Rensfeldt 6'3" 192, Gavle, Sweden LW Brynas JR (SWE JRS)

6. Maxim Kitsyn 6'2" 194, Novokuznetsk, Russia LW Novokuznetsk (RUS, KHL)

7. Oscar Lindberg 6'0" 187, Skelleftea, Sweden C Skelleftea JR (SWE JRS)

8. Tom Kuehnhackl 6'2" 172, Landshut, Germany RW Landshut Cann. (GER-2)

9. Adam Petterson 6'0" 186, Skeeleftea, Sweden C Skeeleftea JR (SWE JRS)

10. Martin Marincin 6'4" 187, N.A., Slovakia D Slovakia U2O (SVK Extraliga)


Goalies

1. Sami Aittokallio 6'1" 174, Tampre, Finland Ilves JRS (FIN JRS)

2. Fredrik Pettersson-Wentzel 6'1" 169, Finland Almtuna (SWE-2)

3. Benjamin Conz 5'10" 198, Porrentruy, Switzerland HC Geneve (SUI, NLA)

4. Lars Volden 6'3" 189, Oslo, Norway Stavanger Oilers (NOR, Get-Ligaen)

5. Johan Gustafsson 6'2" 194, Koping, Sweden Farjestad JRS (SWE JRS)