Odd Man Rush

I know that the 2008-09 NHL season is very young, but if the playoffs started today, the Dallas Stars would have an early vacation.  How can this be happening?  The Stars were expected to improve on last year, when they made it to the Western Conference Finals and gave the Red Wings a better series than any team from the East could ever have done.  Instead, they’re 3-4-2 and lagging behind teams like the Blackhawks, the Predators, and the Flames.  What’s worse are the statistics that lie behind this horrid start.  4.22 goals allowed per game is terrible for any team, and it’s even more dire for the Stars, which are supposed to be a defense-first team.  Sure, Zubov is out, but he was out for the stretch run last year.  Ditto for defensive-minded forward Jere Lehtinen.  Boucher is not 100%, but has he ever been?  You can chalk it up to laziness, or lack of cohesiveness, or perhaps just a bad start for Marty #%^@-ing Turco.  Fine.  I was all for that, until I read Mike Heika’s article in the Dallas Morning News on Sunday.

The takeaway from the article is this: the organization realizes that there’s a problem with the defense, and they’re working to fix it.  Practice is focused on defense, the co-GMs are looking at possible personnel moves, etc.  But one important fact was mentioned and glossed over.  I’ll quote it for you here.  See if you react the way I do.

"The long-time Stars goaltending coach [Andy Moog] had been scarcely seen the past two seasons – in part because of additional player development responsibilities he had picked up within the organization, and also because Marty Turco was focusing on coaching himself. But the fact that the Stars have the worst goals against average (4.17) and save percentage (.840) in the league means this is a good time for Moog to take time with the net-minders."  [Link to the article]

Wait, what?  Marty Turco has been coaching himself?!?  Look, he’s not exactly the drunken Ed Belfour, talking to his goalposts and what-not, but professional athletes, particularly crazy ones like Turco, do not need to be coaching themselves.  I don’t know if this is common practice in the NHL, but frankly I don’t care.  It doesn’t need to be if it is.  Every major sport has coaches for every position.  Football has O-Line, D-Line, Linebacker, Quarterback, Receiver, and Running Back coaches, and I’m probably missing some.  Baseball has hitting and pitching coaches, and they are considered invaluable.  The Dallas Mavericks, the team that shares a building with the Stars, have a Free Throw Coach.  Granted, the Mavs are the only team in the league to employ such a person, but they consistently are among the league leaders in free throw percentage.  Tiger Woods has a swing coach and a caddy (and probably a short game coach, too.  Phil Mickelson has one.) that he relies upon to play golf at the level that he does.  He doesn’t coach himself.  The very idea is ridiculous.  

Here’s the point: Dallas Stars management should stop giving their goaltending coach so many extra assignments so that he isn’t their goaltending coach anymore.  I have been directing my anger and frustration about this slow start at Marty Turco, but it seems like the buck needs to stop with whomever decided it was a good idea to let players flop around on the ice with no guidance.