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All-Star left winger Jamie Benn, 22, talks about the current state of the Stars, his relationship with Mike Modano and expectations moving forward.

 

It wasn't that long ago that a regular-season tilt between the Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars featured two of the top teams in the Western Conference and a Stars team that was stingy on defense, difficult to play against and opportunistic when given a scoring chance.

That was a team that won a Stanley Cup, with Joe Nieuwendyk capturing the Conn Smythe Trophy. It was an organization that contended with solid play at the blue line and goaltending that made all the big saves.

As the two prepare to face off at 7 p.m. tonight at American Airlines Center, Stars fans are starting to see signs of that type of team again, though it's a work in progress.

It's a team stressing the defensive part of the game. It's not that they don't want to score goals. They do. Nieuwendyk and coach Glen Gulutzan much prefer the 4-2 games to the 2-1 finals. But there's a belief that winning games starts inside your own blue line.

For that to even start to happen, though, Nieuwendyk had to change the most important position on the ice.

Click here to learn more about the key to the Stars' plan.

Florida Panthers forward Krys Barch was ejected after reportedly directing a racial slur at a Montreal player Saturday night, and Florida coach Kevin Dineen said it was now a matter for the NHL to investigate.

The Dallas Stars traded Barch to the Panthers back on Dec. 7

Barch was given a game misconduct after a dustup at the end of the first period in Florida's 3-2 win. The Miami Herald, citing an unidentified league official, said linesman Darren Gibbs overheard Barch use the slur against P.K. Subban, whose parents are Jamaican.

NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell is investigating the incident but no decision is expected Sunday, a source told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun. The Panthers don't play again until Thursday.

Barch, 31, played his first 263 NHL games with Dallas, registering 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) and 578 penalty minutes.

The Stars sent Barch and and a sixth-round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft to Florida for left wing Jake Hauswirth and the Panthers' fifth-round pick in 2012.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Dallas Stars defenseman Philip Larsen left Saturday's game against the Boston Bruins in the third period with a lower-body injury.

His return is questionable.

There's a been a shakeup in the Pacific Division coaching ranks. The Anaheim Ducks axed Randy Carlyle after last night's win against Montreal and announced that they had hired Bruce Boudreau, who was canned by Washington on Monday.

Last night's win snapped a seven-game winless streak (0-6-1) for the Ducks, who are in 14th place in the Western Conference with a 7-13-4 record.

The story is here.

Former Dallas Star Sean Avery is in trouble again, and this time his actions have landed him in jail. Avery was arrested in California early this morning after police said he shoved an officer who was responding to a noise complaint at Avery's Hollywood Hills home.

The 31-year-old Avery, currently a New York Ranger, was booked on suspicion of battery on a police officer.

The story is here.

ESPN.com is running a poll on who will win the Western Conference divisions. The Stars aren't getting much love in the Pacific Division, where they ranked fifth in the voting the last time I checked. The Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks are getting the vast majority of the votes. You can vote and see the results here.

The poll on who wins the Eastern Conference divisions is here.

A couple of tidbits for the last Sunday of July.

*NHL.com has been looking at the offseason moves division-by-division. This weekend the focus was on the Pacific. We already know what the Stars did, but it's worth a read for the recap of what the rest of the division has done so far this summer. You can read it here. There's a also an offseason recap for the Central Division and Northwest Division.

*There's a big vote tomorrow in Nassau County, NY, where voters will give a thumbs up or thumbs down on a referendum to build a new arena for the New York Islanders. The Islanders' current lease with the outdated Nassau Coliseum runs out after the 2014-15 season, and without a new building the belief is the Islanders would be moving somewhere else. Monday's referendum, if passed, would be just a first step. Good read on the issue here.

Some Monday morning notes:

*The Stars will hold a development camp for prospects starting Friday (July 1) at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in McKinney, and will run one week. It's being held in McKinney because of a scheduling conflict with the rinks in Frisco. Stars 2011 first round draft pick Jamieson Oleksiak is scheduled to attend along with several other of the team's top prospects. A roster and schedule of the on-ice sessions should come in a day or two.

*Former Stars player Ed Belfour heads the class of first-year eligible players for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk, who missed in his first year of eligibility last year, is a strong candidate again this year. The Hall of Fame Class of 2011 will be announced Tuesday afternoon. The list of candidates, which includes some other former Stars, is here.

*The NHL's plan for realignment in 2012-13 could entail more than just shuffling a few teams around. Some reports indicate it could involve changing from the current six divisions to four. That would be a major overhaul. Some details on that are here.

It's been a busy Thursday afternoon in the NHL, especially for Philadelphia Flyers Paul Holmgren. He pulled a couple of big trades and then added a significant signing to beef up his goaltending.

Trade 1: Center Jeff Carter to Columbus for forward Jakub Voracek, the eighth overall draft pick Friday night and a third-round draft pick from the Blue Jackets. Read more here.

Trade 2: Center Mike Richards to Los Angeles for prospect Brayden Schenn, forward Wayne Simmonds and an undisclosed draft pick. Read more here.

Then, according to ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun, Holmgren signed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, whose negotiating rights he had acquired from Phoenix, to a nine-year, $51 deal. Details on that are here.

As for the salary cap, the official numbers have been set. The upper limit of the cap will be $64.3 million and the floor will be $48.3 million.

The Stars have 17 likely roster players for a cap hit of $38.67 million. That means the Stars would need to spend $9.63 million to get to the cap floor. I'm not sure Tomas Vincour is a lock for a roster spot, so if you subtract his $800,000 cap hit then the Stars are $10.43 million away from the cap floor.

NHL GMs met in Boston on Wednesday. One bit of news was the proposal to broaden Rule 48, which was put in place this season to eliminate those blindside hits to the head.

Now, the GMs want to take the word "blindside" out of the rule to allow more kinds of hits to fall under the rule.

"I think it is a broadening (of Rule 48), incorporating more of the hits that we don't like to fit within the rule. But now it has to go through its proper channels. We've made the recommendation. We'll meet with the competition committee. We obviously have to get input from the players' association and move this thing forward as the summer moves along," Nieuwendyk said.

More here from ESPN.com's Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun.

Nieuwendyk also talked to reporters in Boston about his search for a head coach and his efforts to try to trade the negotiating rights of Brad Richards, who will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Pierre LeBrun had an update on that in a story on some of the other items from the GM meetings.

The Dallas Stars have interviewed four candidates so far in their head-coaching search: Kirk Muller, Peter Horachek (Preds assistant coach), Ken Hitchcock and Glen Gulutzan (Stars AHL coach).

GM Joe Nieuwendyk said he's nearing a decision this month.

"I'd ideally like to have it done before the draft, but certainly before free agency," he said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, trade talks involving the rights to pending unrestricted free agent Brad Richards continue.

"I have had discussions with teams. It's our intention as well to move those rights along, and so we're working towards that," Nieuwendyk said.

Richards, of course, would have to approve any trade. My impression is that there are mixed signals coming from the Richards' camp on whether Richards would be agreeable to waiving his no-trade clause, so we'll just have to be wait and see. I am not holding my breath waiting for it to happen, but I am not ruling it out either.

As for coaching search, Nieuwendyk talked about what he's looking for in a head coach earlier this week during a media briefing in Frisco.

"I am looking for a guy that can relate to players and grow with a young group of players," Nieuwendyk said. "I want a longer-term guy. I don't want the recycling. I want a long-term guy that can build with our young group of players. ... The offensive side of things hasn't been bad. Obviously, I'd like to be a little bit better on specialty teams. I think the structure and the fall back, forming more of an identity. That will be important in the qualities."

If you ask me, that sounds like Gulutzan. Although the more I learn about Horacheck, the more I am impressed. We should know who it is in a couple of weeks or so.

NHL realignment will not happen this coming season, but it will come in 2012-13 and it may involve a more balanced schedule. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hinted at the schedule adjustment while addressing the media prior to the opening of the Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver Wednesday.

Bettman said that while realignment will be coming now that the Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg, there’s not enough time to give it proper treatment prior to the 2011-12 season. As a result, Winnipeg will play in the Southeast Division for one season as the league sorts through the realignment issue.

Several teams will be looking to take advantage of realignment, including the Stars who could benefit from moving out of the Pacific Division and into a more time friendly and travel friendly division such as the Central.

“We have a number of clubs that would like to address specific issues on realignment. All those clubs need an opportunity to be heard,” said Bettman. “That's a process we'll go through the first half of next season, looking at the issues that clubs want to raise, looking at various possibilities, and trying to figure out what will make the most sense moving forward.

“If I had to guess anything, and this is purely speculation, as much as I hate to do that, because ultimately it's a Board decision, I think we'll wind up moving towards a slightly more balanced schedule to accommodate the variety of issues I've heard so far from the clubs.”

What that more balanced schedule will entail isn’t clear, but it could include more inter-conference games to ensure that each team plays in every NHL building during the season.

A few other notes:

*Bettman announced that he is creating a new department of player safety that will be headed by Brendan Shanahan, who also will be in charge of supplemental discipline next season. He will be taking over for Colin Campbell, who has stepped down from handling discipline but will his retain his position in the Hockey Operations department.

“First, I know this is one aspect of Colie's job that he hates. It could be the most thankless and worst job in hockey, particularly after enduring it for more than a decade,” said Bettman. “Two, both Colin and I believe that it is time to take a fresh look at the standards that we use, and if we're going to move to harsher discipline, that change needs to send a clear message, and we think it would probably be best to do it on a clean slate. Having Brendan, who only recently came off the ice after a wonderful career, will give us the adjustment and the focus and the credibility that this change will bring about.”

*NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said next season’ salary cap is expected to top $60 million and could go as high as $63.5 million.

*The Florida Panthers became the first of the teams looking for a new head coach to fill the vacancy, announcing today that they have hired Kevin Dineen. He takes over for Peter DeBoer, who has fired after three seasons behind the Florida bench. Dineen has the spent the last six seasons as the head coach of the Portland Pirates of the AHL.

Another great game between the San Jose Sharks and the Detroit Red Wings last night, and the Sharks win 3-2 to take Game 7 and move on to the Western Conference Final against Vancouver.

ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun has the game story here.

Was it the best series ever? Best one I can remember watching, and I’ve been watching for a long time. It definitely was the closest, with six of the games being decided by one goal and the one that wasn’t was a two-goal game due to a late empty net tally.

Mike Modano was a healthy scratch Thursday night, and it could mark the end of his NHL career.

The Conference Finals start Saturday.

The schedule is here.

Scott Burnside previews the Shark-Canucks .

Burnside looks at the Bruins-Lightning here.

Some news and notes as I count the hours and minutes to tonight's seventh game between the Red Wings and Sharks. It's been a great series and it should be a great game tonight, at least I hope it's on a par with the first six. Mike Modano's status is up in the air for the Red Wings. He could be in if Johan Franzen can't go. ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun breaks down Game 7 here.

With the Phoenix Coyotes staying put in Glendale, Arizona, the relocation focus has now shifted to the Atlanta Thrashers. Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution talked to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly today and Daly couldn't guarantee the Thrashers would be playing in Atlanta next season. If the Thrashers were to move, say, to Winnipeg, that would open the door for divisional realignment. That could possibly affect the Stars, who could finally get into a more time zone friendly division. It's a story worth watching.

On the international front, Russian knocked Canada out of the World Championship today. The Russians won 2-1 and will play Finland, which beat Norway today, in the semifinals tomorrow. Loui Eriksson and Sweden will play Czech Republic in the other semifinal game tomorrow.

ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun caught up with former Stars forward James Neal and talked to him about his recent trade to Pittsburgh (Neal called it a "total shocker") and his adjustment to playing with the Penguins.

LeBrun's story begins:

James Neal had one heck of a scouting report on the Pittsburgh Penguins, so when he walked in last week he felt like he already knew everyone.

"You watched them on HBO and see behind the scenes, they're a great group of guys and great atmosphere in the room," Neal said Wednesday after the morning skate at Air Canada Center.

Huh, the hit documentary series that just keeps on giving.

"It's kind of weird," said Neal. "All the players around the league watched that show, it was a great show and they did an unbelievable job. You got to see the behind the scenes at this particular group. And it just so happens I got traded here."

The complete story is here.