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Thursday, October 29, 1998
Poor goal production troubles Hull
By Mike Heika
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
IRVING, Texas - Brett Hull is second on the Stars in scoring,
and is still frustrated.
The winger, the Stars' big free-agent pickup in the off-season
who signed a three-year deal for $17 million, has seven points
in seven games, second only to Darryl Sydor's 11 for the Stars.
However, Hull has just one goal among those seven points, despite
leading the Stars in shots with 28.
So does the lack of goal production bother the man who has
555 career goals?
"Sure it does," Hull said. "How many 2-1 games
have we had? If I score, maybe it's 3-1 or 4-1. My job is to go
out there and score. Mike (Modano) and I talked about this. You're
disappointed when you don't do the things that help your team
win easier."
Still, Hull is a plus-2 and his team is 5-1-1, so the level
of frustration is relative.
"The other part of the game is that we're not getting
scored on either," Hull said. "As long as I'm getting
the chances, that's fine. It'll go in sooner or later."Take
the day offThe Stars are taking today off since they have five
free days between their game Saturday and their next game, on
Friday, against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Stars coach Ken Hitchcock put the Stars through two heavy practices
Monday and Tuesday, along with intense off-ice workouts. He said
players will resume a regular workout beginning Thursday.
"It's a tough thing for an older team, I think there's
a tendency to get stale," Hitchcock said. "If we were
playing poorly, we'd welcome a break. But we were just coming
off a game in which we played our best five-on-five hockey of
the season, so we wanted to keep it going."
Hitchcock's practices focused on forechecking Monday and the
transition game yesterday. He said the team would dedicate a good
deal of practice tomorrow to work on the special teams. The Stars
rank first in the NHL in power-play success with 13 goals in 48
attempts for a 27.1 success rate. They are eighth in penalty killing,
stopping 30-of-34 chances.
Injury update
Center Guy Carbonneau missed his second day of practice nursing
a groin pull. He said he expects to skate tomorrow and would like
to play in back-to-back games Friday against the Ducks and Saturday
against the Detroit Red Wings.
Defenseman Shawn Chambers skated in practice with a charley
horse in his left leg. Chambers said he expects to play Friday.
Winger Brent Severyn is 100 percent recovered from the muscle
strain in his neck, Hitchcock said.Statistically speakingThe NHL
is using expanded statistics for an entire season for the first
time. For half of last season, the league charted statistics such
as ice time, hits, faceoff wins, giveaways and takeaways.
Through seven games, the Stars are second in the NHL in hits
with 205. The New York Rangers have 244. Stars defenseman Derian
Hatcher leads the NHL with 30 hits and defensive partner Richard
Matvichuk ranks second with 28.
"We have to have something to look at," Matvichuk
said. "We certainly can't be judged on goals and assists."
Hatcher leads the Stars in ice time and ranks 21st in the NHL
with 25.2 minutes per game. The Rangers' Brian Leetch leads all
NHL players with 32 minutes per game.
The Stars rank seventh in faceoff percentage, after leading
the NHL last season. The Stars have won 53.5 percent of their
draws as opposed to 54.8 percent last season. Joe Nieuwendyk,
who finished second in the NHL last season while winning 59.5
percent of his draws, is 18-6 in two games since returning from
injury. He is expected to help the Stars contend for the faceoff
championship once again.
(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web: www.star-telegram.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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