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DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars tried - but not very hard - to convince everyone that Brenden Morrow skipped practice on Tuesday because of the flu. Morrow didn't skate again Wednesday morning either, but said he would be in the line-up for tonight's fourth game against the Detroit Red Wings.

Nobody would say officially what was bothering Morrow, but it was clear he injured his shoulder, crashing into the boards, after a bodycheck attempt misfired, back in Monday's 5-2 loss to the Red Wings. Witnesses in the corridor said he was screaming in pain afterwards and that it looked as if he'd dislocated that shoulder. The suspicion that doctors popped it back in and that he'll play in pain tonight, although clearly not at 100 per cent. Morrow fell awkwardly, but kept insisting: "It looks worse than it feels; we'll put it that way. It's not as bad as it looks. It looks like it was pretty awkward when I went down on it.  But it looks worse than it is. It feels pretty good."

Few were buying that interpretation, but it would hard to dispute this one from Morrow, on the challenge facing the Stars: "We've got to stay away from the big picture, just look at 60 minutes at a time, use all those clichés that everyone uses this time of year. But we believe if we keep it a shift at a time, keep it simple, start with one, we'll take our chances after that."

Incidentally, much of the chatter on Wednesday morning revolved around when the Stanley Cup final might start if both the Western and Eastern Conference series end in four games. No one was saying officially, it was thought that they could start as early as next Tuesday in Detroit, which would be more than a week ahead of schedule. If one or the other series goes five and ends on Saturday, it is unlikely then that the final will start before next Thursday.

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