DALLAS -- The verdict came early last night: Dallas Stars forward Mike Ribeiro will not be suspended for his love tap, baseball-style, on Detroit Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood as time ran out in the Stars' 2-1 loss on Saturday.
Ribeiro received a match penalty for the incident, which meant it was automatically reviewed by the NHL.
Presumably, the league office saw what Stars head coach Dave Tippett did, too - a little provocation from Osgood to set off Ribeiro. And rather than suspend one or both, the league slapped their wrists and said play on.
So tonight, when the Western Conference final playoff series resumes, the Stars will have their leading scorer in the lineup and the Red Wings will have their starting goalie - which is the way both wanted it.
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There wasn't enough menace on either side to warrant more. Ribeiro was guilty of stupidity; too bad they can't (and don't) issue suspensions for that.
The larger problem for the Stars is not that they waited until the final 20 seconds of the second game to get involved in the best-of-seven Western Conference series, but that they are now down 2-0 to a Red Wings team on top of its game, which means time is running out on Dallas's season.
The Stars better be better tonight; otherwise, it's all over.
Stars centre Mike Modano pretty much said that yesterday after the team assembled at its practice centre. The question was: Will the emotions ramp up even higher for tonight's game, now that the teams have developed a distinct dislike for each other?
Modano, perhaps aware that the Stars need - among other things - to play with more discipline, suggested: "That's probably the most you're going to see of it, hopefully - frustration boiling over and not being able to control your emotions.
"They're not a very physical team by any means, but they do play the game. They play with the puck so well. And for us to try to get into some street fight ain't going to work. You have to play the game of hockey, and right now, they're doing it better than us."
A good thought there.
After a fairly sedate start to the series, much happened in the past 48 hours - Red Wings forward Johan Franzen being diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, and the Stars' Jere Lehtinen out with a leg injury - but little actually changed.
The Stars were bad in the faceoff circle again (a 39-16 advantage for the Wings). Against a puck-possession team such as Detroit, that's nothing short of disastrous.
They took too many penalties again. As defenceman Stéphane Robidas so aptly put it, one of the Stars' reasons for their success in the early rounds, especially against the Anaheim Ducks, was they let their opponents take all the stupid penalties.
In this series, four of the Red Wings' six goals have been scored with the man advantage, including the winner both nights. So reining in tempers (to avoid the penalties of overaggression) and moving feet (to avoid the hooking, holding and interference calls) become two priorities for Dallas.
It wouldn't hurt to get more pucks on Osgood as well. In two games, Dallas took 21 shots one night and 18 the next. Some of that was self-inflicted; the Stars would get themselves in a good shooting position and then miss the net.
"One of our mottos is playing as a pack," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "I think they demonstrate that pretty well. They're five guys strong through the neutral zone, in front of the net and blocking lanes.
"So, yeah, they're frustrating to play against. As much credit as they get for being a good offensive team, they're probably the top defensive team as well," he said.
"But we had opportunities. Early in the game, we had three or four point-blanks, a 4-on-1. Those come back to haunt you. What happened at the end - three penalties in 20 seconds there - was just frustration."
Frustration is a luxury the Stars cannot afford at this stage. Dallas, which isn't exactly an offensive juggernaut, has scored nine goals in its past six games overall dating back to its series against the San Jose Sharks and just twice in two losses to Detroit.
Attrition usually occurs when teams get this deep in the NHL playoffs, and this past weekend, attrition cost each team a player.
Franzen stayed behind in Detroit for tests after he developed headaches. Officially, he is displaying concussion-like symptoms that, according to the Red Wings, date back to the series against the Colorado Avalanche, in which he scored nine goals in four games, an NHL record. Franzen is definitely out for the third game.
As for the Stars, Ribeiro is in, thanks to the largesse of Colin Campbell, the NHL's chief disciplinarian, centre Stu Barnes is still out with a concussion and Lehtinen is a maybe.
"When you have key injuries to key people, our philosophy all year long is that's not an excuse for not winning," Tippett said. "We have injuries, but we want to find ways to win hockey games. We feel if we go out and win a game tomorrow, we're back in the series."
Of course, if they don't, we all know what happens next. And isn't everybody getting just a little bit tired of hearing about the 1942 Toronto Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders? Thought so.
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