[NHL.com Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview - Official Gameday Thread]Welcome back, Jeff Halpern. For the second time in five days, the Caps will face one of their former captains, this time the Little Jew That Could. It'll be interesting to see how many faceoffs Jeff gets thrown out of (the over/under's set at five, and the betting windows are open). So far, Halps has eight points in 24 games and has cashed approximately $500,000 in paychecks from the Stars - not bad work if you can get it (and yes, I know his role doesn't require him to be a big point producer, but still... three goals more than a quarter of the way through the season? C'mon.).
In Dallas, the Caps face a team that has the League's best GAA and allows the second-fewest shots against per game. On the plus side, the Stars will be travelling from Chicago after facing the Blackhawks on Wednesday night and plan to start the same goalie - Marty "What Do You Mean There's A Season After The Season?" Turco - against the Caps as they started against the Hawks, so perhaps he and they will be tired. On the minus side, he's really good.
Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:
- NHL.com has a profile on Mike Green up.
- According to the Arizona Republic, Jeremy Roenick "missed practice on Monday and Tuesday because of an upper respiratory illness." The illness in question apparently keeps J.R. inhaling non-stop. Trained physicians recognize this as the medical diagnosis for "sucking."
Daily Awards
- Hart: Tuomo Ruutu (GWG with 1:48 left in 'Hawks 2-1 win)
- Ross: 27 players tied with 1 point each
- Norris: Shea Weber (A, +2, 3 hits, 1 blocked shot)
- Vezina: Nikolai Khabibulin (W, 20 saves on 21 shots against)
- Richard: 11 players tied with 1G each
- Calder: Joe Pavelski (G, +1, 4 SOG, 2 blocked shots in 2-1 win)
- Aiken: Jussi Timonen (-2, 0 points, 0 SOG)