Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Situation in Dallas

The Dallas Stars have really been a wreck of a team so far this season. Dallas is dead last in the Western Conference with a 9-11-4 record. Things got even more interesting when Sean Avery was suspended this week for an inappropriate comment that he made to the media.

The Stars won their game without Avery, so perhaps he is a large part of the problem. Team management has since talked about how they intend to hold him accountable, and about how his actions are unacceptable to their organization. They should have thought about that before they signed him. They knew what they were getting, and now they are suddenly paying for their mistake. Avery signed for a four year deal, so the Stars are stuck with him for awhile.

The thing is the team doesn't even want him around anymore. One of the biggest critics that Avery has in his own locker room is goalie Marty Turco. Turco describes Avery's comments as "ignorant", and this isn't the first time that the goalie has condemned his teammates behavior. The Stars need to realize that Turco's contract is up in 18 months, and there is no reason to believe that he would elect to continue playing on a team with Avery who will still have two years left at that point. Perhaps Turco's problem this season is that he honestly does not care about the success of his team.

The Stars lack of leadership is what is killing them this season. The loss Stu Barnes is what is killing this team. Mike Modano is still there, but given how the team is doing you have to wonder why. About Avery Modano said that "out of what we expect out of each other" and that "It's gonna be dealt with". Still the team is a mess, and Avery will continue going on doing whatever he wants.

Even if the team released Avery it looks as if the Star's current season is already a loss. The bigger issue is that in the coming seasons it only looks as if things are going to get worse for Dallas in the coming seasons.

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