The NutzBus Is Back on the Road (or: The Tom Wandell Era Begins)

In a shocking turn of events, the seemingly hopeless Dallas Stars scored a victory tonight over the visiting Detroit Red Wings, carried by two quick tallies by Swedes Fabian Brunnstrom and Tom Wandell. (Yes, Tom Wandell is Swedish. We checked.)

Missing disfigured defensive stalwart Stephane Robidas with a broken jaw -- Seriously, can this poor guy sustain an injury that doesn't mangle his face for once? -- recently repatriated Darryl Sydor paired with regressing second-year man Matt Niskanen in a strong performance to lead the Stars' defense, which, despite yielding a whopping 38 shots, didn't lose track of players around the net like they so often have this season.

The Stars were outshot 14-3 in the third period despite no penalty kills, making this look like a "300 on Ice Game,"* but the Stars actually did play their best team defensive game of the season, and Marty Turco was positionally sound throughout. Indeed Dallas caught a couple of breaks -- most notably Johan Franzen missing the net on a backhander when he had plenty of daylight to hit -- but the performance was solid enough to merit a win.

*Color commentator Daryl Reaugh actually referenced the movie "300" during the third period of the broadcast tonight, so we felt compelled to mention the concept of the "300 on Ice Game," which Snizza and I made up a couple years ago during a game in which the Stars were brutally outplayed by San Jose but still won. Let it be known, though, that we'd be honored if Razor thought of something we thought of first. He's the best color guy in the NHL by at least the length of Visanthe Shiancoe's wang.

Ah, but what about the cashmere-clad elephant in the room? Some relevant wads-o'-grist emerged from the ol' mill today:

It's been substantiated that the New York Rangers are putting on the full-court press in their efforts to sign Mats Sundin, but they lack the salary cap space to pull this off. So they've gotta make room. Two paths to this end have been suggested (but, notably, not widely corroborated):

The first is that the Rangers will trade Chris Drury to Montreal. Sundin would presumably displace the underachieving Drury from the Rangers' top three lines, and with the continued production of Brandon Dubinsky (or emergence of Lauri Korpikoski) and the acclimation of Scott Gomez, the Rangers' strength up the middle would still be formidable. Montreal, meanwhile, is looking for help up front, as evidenced by their pursuit of Sundin (and their bewilderingly terrible power play).

The second is that the Rangers will trade defenseman Michal Rozsival (salary: $5M) to the Stars for Sean Avery, then stash him in Hartford of the AHL.

Well... How 'bout the Rangers do both? Drury was reported to be the loudest in-house voice opposing the Rangers re-signing Avery this past off-season, and the Rangers clearly lack the "jam" they showed with Avery in uniform last season. (Seriously, find a Rangers fan and ask him what's wrong with the Rangers this year.) And unlike the Stars' players, at least the Rangers' players have proven they can co-exist with Avery.

So here's a nickel's worth of free advice to Glen Sather: sign Sundin, ship Drury to Montreal for prospects and picks, wait for Avery to clear re-entry waivers in Dallas, then trade Snizza's boy Rozsival here for Avery.

Not only might the Rangers actually be able to keep Avery in Manhattan rather than shipping him to Hartford -- after all, Drury will be gone -- but they'll be about $3M under the cap after assuming only half of Avery's contract when he's cleared waivers twice. With the savings, they can bring back Brendan Shanahan to help fix their busted-ass power play (and nix the possibility of him landing with the rival Flyers).

Alas, I see a light at the end of the NutzBus.

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