Sorely Missed

posted February 13, 2001

Note from the Webmaster: If you keep up on the Dallas Stars in the Texas press, hardly a week goes by when a particular player's name is mentioned--a player who happens to be nine months gone. As the Stars have struggled this season to find the championship form for which they used to be feared, there is but one champion missing from the fight, one piece of the puzzle without with it doesn't fit together. Oddly, he wasn't their top scorer, their goalie, their captain. Oddly, he was just a "role-player"...but few people in Dallas deny that apparently that role was the key to this team's success.

Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News will complete this thought for me...

Let’s all say it in unison, with a hard "G’ sound at the front.

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeeee.

Has any other team ever missed a departed 40-year-old like the Stars miss Guy Carbonneau? They miss him in the face-off circle, they miss him on the penalty kill where they have allowed 14 more goals than at this point a year ago, and they certainly miss his guiding hand in "the room."

"This is a different team from two years ago," said Benoit Hogue, who returned to the Stars last month. "Without Carbo and [Craig] Ludwig, we’re missing some experienced guys."

Carbonneau was indispensable in the club’s two runs to the Stanley Cup Finals, regularly logging 18 to 20 minutes a night and protecting leads in the final minutes. The Stars have tried to shove Jamie Langenbrunner and Roman Lyashenko and Shaun Van Allen into that role without consistent success.

As they stand right now, the Stars, who played into June the last three years, are in danger of gaining an extra month off when this season ends.

Photo thanks to Chris D. in Minnesota!