Did you know that Gordie Howe spent the most personally fulfilling years of his career in Houston? That’s according to the book, “The Lone Star Skate.”  Everyone knows that Texas is the land of football, but hockey has actually had a presence there for many years.

There were many great anecdotes throughout the book. One of my favorites was an interview with former coach Rick Kozuback about the first pro hockey game in Belton, TX:

 We packed the Bell County Expo Center with 6,200 people, and I don’t know if any of them had ever seen a hockey game…it was a great game, and then the second period ended. All these people get up and head into the concourse area. “At first, we thought they were just going to the concessions,” Kozuback continues. “Then we realized a lot of them were going outside. We thought, Wow, there must be a lot of smokers here in Central Texas. Then we start seeing the car lights go on. People were leaving. We ran out of the building telling people to come back, there was another period. Some of them came back, but we probably lost 1,500 to 2,000 people. It was crazy.”

Another tale was about the Dallas Stars’ early days. In order to get people in the door, one of their marketing strategies was to hand out free tickets to sorority girls and topless dancers. Once male attendees saw the quality and quantity of beautiful women in the arena, it became the place to be.

The book was a good read- lots of interesting information and photos. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the lack of captions for some of the photos. Still, that’s a minor quibble, especially compared to the quality of the book.

For more information, visit The Lone Star Skate.

A month ago, the Stars were the success story of the NHL, shining brightly atop the Pacific division in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year in Dallas. They lodged themselves in first in the Pacific for a healthy chunk of fall and winter. But February has been cruel: 1-8-1, and the losses often have been of the resounding variety. This morning the Stars are on the outside looking in at postseason qualification in the West — 10th, but that’s far from daunting; the fifth-seeded Wild (70 pts.) hold just a two-pt. edge over Dallas. Teams five through 12 out West are separated by just four points. Still, with a star-starved Stars’ lineup, and with their best player presently shelved, it’s easy to imagine the early upstarts falling out of playoff contention. And it’s easy to imagine another defeat for Dallas in Motown tonight. In short, it’s easy to imagine Dallas wearing a Cinderella’s skate, and midnight beckoning.

And so a pressing question increasingly emerges: if these are the real Stars, seriously slowing down after so hard a charge out of the gate, does the GM initiate a widely expected rebuild, belatedly, this trade deadline season? Second-year general manager Joe Nieuwendyk has already re-fashioned his roster in the last week, sending winger James Neal and defenseman Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski. Both Stars’ players had fallen on tough times, and out of favor. Goligoski is a coveted young puck-mover. A second huge question also confronts Nieuwendyk: what to do with free-agent-to-be Brad Richards, currently out of the lineup (since February 13) with a concussion? The answer to the first question, I think, largely determines the answer to the second. Or maybe not.

Does Richards’ concussion cloud his status altogether for the Dallas GM? Maybe Richards is back in 10 days and helping the Stars qualify for the postseason with still 15 games remaining. But what if he’s out longer? And for a team — say the Capitals — keenly interested in acquiring a difference-making man in the middle: how much in picks and prospects do you potentially part with uncertain of when — if — Richards could join your lineup?

Should he choose to, Nieuwendyk would be a seller in a thickly clogged market of bidders. And he possesses perhaps the market’s biggest prize. And it happens to be precisely the sort of player this Washington Capitals’ team should covet.

Who is Brad Richards? Well, first and foremost, he’s Dallas’ best player, in the prime of his hockey career (he’ll be 31 in May), and a former Conn Smythe winner (with Tampa, in 2004). Twice he’s been a 90-plus point player, and he’s on pace to come close to that again this season. His present injury notwithstanding, he’s been remarkably durable: five times in his NHL career he’s played all 82 regular season games. He possesses a fantastically accurate shot and a quick release; while not especially big he’s strong on his skates; he’d be an ideal jolt of offense to an offense-starved Capitals’ power play. Were he acquired by George McPhee in these final days of player movement he would turn a season-long question mark for the Capitals’ second line into a unit of strength. He makes $7.8 million in this final year of his contract, but at this point in the season most of that is already paid out.

As a pending free agent, of course, he’s a rental. Meaning: his price point in a trade is rather hard to forecast. And his injury makes it more so. Dallas, you wouldn’t think, would have much leverage in keeping him beyond Monday’s 3:00 trade deadline. With or without Richards they aren’t going to win a Cup this spring, and somebody will throw mean, large coin at him come summer. And if you haven’t noticed, the Stars aren’t filling seats at home with Richards.

The Capitals, it is the opinion of this blogger, need to be bold with one or two roster moves before mid-afternoon of Monday next. All teams above them in the East have recently fortified already strong rosters, while the Caps have stood pat. Even a first-round matchup with a brutally beat-up Penguins’ club wouldn’t be any cakewalk. (And Sidney might well be back for it.) All season long the Capitals have approached staffing the middle of their second line with a committee of auditioning, wet-behind-the-ears prospects, without durable success. Serious Cup contenders do not enter the postseason with gaping weakness within their top six forward pairings. And this weakness bears directly on the disheartening and dreadful power play (21st in the league, at an agonizing 16.8 percent success rate).

Dallas and Washington don’t often deal. You have to go all the way back to January of 1995 to spot a trade of note between the clubs: the Caps acquired Mark Tinordi for Kevin Hatcher then. Conditions today seem ripe for an important phone call between the managers.

It has been some while since George McPhee has gone really bold at a trade deadline. It has also been some while since his roster needed notable re-engineering in February. McPhee isn’t known for going big and bold at the deadline; instead, he prefers to tinker around his roster’s edges.

The Capitals need to rent Brad Richards this spring, and in doing so make a serious statement in an Eastern Conference offering little elite swagger at the top. This is a Capitals’ roster less in need of tinkering around the edges (like last year); it needs a jolt of difference-making. The Capitals desperately need help on the power play, and they desperately need help solidifying their top six, and adding a player in his prime boasting a Conn Smythe pedigree would do that and much much more.

Moreover, the men who officiate our sport often went unloved as children, and skate their labor with the scars of that.

The most egregious and insufferable shortcoming with hockey’s officiating occurs when a zebra makes a judgment call, through a maze of bodies, that undoes late-game heroism. It’s a moment when an official, rather than world-class athlete(s), determines a game. We fans pay good money to see special athletes thrill us, occasionally surmounting enormous obstacle and odds to triumph. Their doing so affords us sports’ most indelible images.

Thursday night at American Airlines Arena in Dallas, in a game of conspicuous involvement — as well as lack thereof — by the officials, the Capitals’ 2-1 loss to the Stars brought about an infuriating ending, and that just seemed appropriate given the work of the officials pretty much all night long.

It was a night when Capitals’ players again had their sticks chopped in half with impunity. Meanwhile, in the middle of the Capitals’ more than commendable road effort after triumphing in St. Louis the night, referees Thursday night went whistle-happy against the visitors in a momentum-altering six minutes of the second period. Three Capitals went off with minors, forcing a fatigue-defying club onto a perpetual penalty kill. Nothing ostensibly wrong with calling a tight game (though it’s dull); it just has to be called so on both halves of the ice.

There is no denying that Alexander Ovechkin is mired in one of the worst slumps of his career — from the vantage of scoring goals. But last night he aptly demonstrated that even without lighting the lamp he can have a big and positive impact as leader for his team. He doled out big hits; he continued to effectively distribute the puck to his teammates; most impressively, when Marcus Johansson was rudely greeted in open ice (cleanly, but rudely), the captain raced in to confront the assailant and let him know all was not well. In short, Ovi did a lot of dirty work Thursday night, precisely the sort of dirty work a team needs to win a game.

None of it was dirtier than in the game’s waning seconds, with Michal Neuvirth on the Capitals’ bench and the Caps pressing for a tying score. Ovi, on another evening when perhaps he was squeezing his stick too tightly, and firing too many shots high or wide of the opposition cage, decided to do what would best help his club in this trying time: making menace in front of Andrew Raycroft, to see if he could help his team avoid defeat with his strength and work ethic rather than his AWOL scoring touch. Good for him.

That he entered Raycroft’s crease with 8 or 9 seconds to play is beyond dispute, but so, too, did Dallas defenders Stephane Robidas and Karlis Skrastins. But it was Skrastins, not Ovechkin, who barreled into Raycroft, impairing the goaltender. In a night-defining flash, the Caps in a mad scramble got the puck past Raycroft, an Atlanta-sized home crowd was hush-struck, Ovi turned to embrace his determined teammates in elation, and terrorist referee Dan O’Rourke instantly and emphatically began motioning with his arms that no late-game heroics would be allowed on this night. All Caps’ fans with a wide-angle-eye approach to the moment were denied a scintilla of celebration as O’Rourke’s judicial activism intervened immediately behind Raycroft’s cage.

The Capitals’ head coach threw a tantrum, and earned an abuse of officials penalty soon thereafter. Good for him.

“What do you want me to say that I can’t get fined for?,” he asked red-faced in the postgame. “If you take a look at the friggin call . . . Ovi doesn’t touch the guy. It cost us two points.

“I thought we outplayed them pretty well.”

If you’re gonna wipe out a game-tying goal in the waning seconds, if you’re gonna be the deciding factor in an immensely rugged and spiritedly competed hockey game, hadn’t there ought to be something approaching metaphysical certitude that in the defining moment you can’t get possibly get it wrong? Gabby alluded to precisely this point: “You better be sure” he cracked in appropriate disgust. We fans, after all, are paying good money to watch these great athletes make great and heroic plays, and that’s precisely what the Capitals did in Thursday night’s final minute.

Replays of Thursday night’s disallowed late heroics by the Caps seemed to indicate that O’Rourke may well have gotten it wrong. And if so that’s egregiously worse than missing a slash behind the play. If wrong the integrity of the evening has been compromised.

In NHL scrutiny of officiating, of course, such a play is not objectively reviewable in Toronto.

Ovechkin for his part seemed just as incensed by the call out on the ice as his coach. He seemed in his animation far more perturbed than your typical athlete on the short end of a tough call. In the visitor’s locker room he reviewed the replay and kept his ire clipped and curt.

“I just saw the replay. No comment about it. It’s unbelievable.”

Rebecca over at Japers’ Rink offers important context for this bitter ending. “It’s a call that, along with goaltender interference calls (and non-calls) has seemed to haunt this team in recent years.”

But the goaltender of the night was Semyon Varlamov; his 37 saves rightly earned him first star designation. “I think this was his best game because his rebound control was so good,” Bruce Boudreau said afterward.

• A 4-1 win on the road is definitely an impressive, especially in a victory-drought town like St. Louis, and the Caps deserve credit for delivering the third and fourth knockout-punch goals in the third period, after St. Louis closed it to 2-1 late in the second stanza.

• St. Louis had just lost their first game at home on the season last Saturday night to Dallas, and they had to play in Chicago on Tuesday night — a wild 7-5 setback. But the Blues’ took a fair bit of the play to the Caps Wednesday night when you thought that perhaps the fatigue associated with travel and a tough game might have aided the visitors.

• Both the separating tallies in the third came from Nicklas Backstrom, whose offensive output has dramatically increased of late. His second goal was an empty netter, but the announcers noted – and it’s worth repeating – that the goal could have easily been an Alex Ovechkin attempt, but Ovi decided to make a great pass to a teammate instead of trying for the shot on goal himself.  It was just the type of decision you want to see out of a team captain. The only real “uh-oh” moment of the game for the Caps came when the Blues scored their one and only goal at the end of the second period.

• That being said, Wednesday’s game reminded us how much we can’t wait to see the new defensive defenseman and latest acquisition Scott Hannan log ice time for the Capitals.  While the Caps finished with a solid 3-goal lead, the shots on goal were lopsided in the Blues’ favor: 38 to 26. And, frankly, while it’s breathtaking to watch, Semyon Varlamov had to make a few too many showstopping saves.  Here’s hoping Hannan can help give the Caps’ netminders a bit more breathing room, more of a comfort zone not far out of the crease.

• D.J. King got his first point of the season against his old team when he had an assist with Tom Poti on Boyd Gordon’s second-stanza tally. The scoring sheet was an interesting mix this evening – Nicklas Backstrom dominated with three points, but Mike Knuble, John Carlson, Ovechkin, John Erskine and Alexander Semin had a point each, and Brooks Laich got a goal on the Caps’ power play.

• Finally, the one goal Varlamov did let in was a weird beauty – Alexander Steen shot from along the near boards, and it looked like neither Varlamov nor those watching at home on TV (ahem) could quite figure out how it went in. It was very much a seeing-eye strike.

• It’s quickly back to work for the Caps, who could be prone to the proverbial letdown game tonight in Dallas against a surprising Stars’ club. The Stars were believed by many to be close to being in rebuilding mode entering this season, but this morning they’re in first in the Pacific division and third overall out West. Another historically tough building for the Caps to play in.

On any other night, against virtually any other netminder, Alexander Ovechkin’s roof-raising two tallies, which emphatically ended his six-game goal scoring drought, would have earned him the game’s first star and the Capitals another win. But not Monday night. Such is hockey.

“I told [Ovi] this morning, ‘you just have to work harder,’” said Capitals’ head coach Bruce Boudreau. “I thought he was in a mode where he was waiting for the play to come to him instead of going out and creating the play. But you saw in his first two or three shifts in the game he was going out and hitting guys and he had his energy back. When he has his energy, he is what he is: the best player in the world.”

There were struggles Monday night for the Capitals’ defensemen — John Carlson and Joe Corvo in particular. At long last Carlson looked something like his age — at times. Still, he made a lot of terrific passes, skated more than 18 minutes, and perhaps most notably got his nose dirty a bit against Steve Ott near the end of regulation time when Ott was making life a little too uncomfortable for Semyon Varlamov. The Caps could use more of that jam on the back end. That may be one reason Carlson figures to remain in Washington however long springtime hockey here lasts.

Like Carlson, Varlamov didn’t enjoy his best outing either, but whereas Carlson is learning to play defense in the NHL, Varly is playing his way into shape again after a fairly lost winter due to injuries. Boudreau saw progression in his young netminder Monday night, pointing to poise and smoothness in his performance in the first two periods. He certainly didn’t find fault with him on the two power play strikes that earned Dallas a 2-2 tie early in the third period. And even on the third goal he surrendered in the final frame Boudreau suggested that the puck may have been fluttering a bit from a deflection. Still, that’s a shot that has to be stopped in a 2-2 game in the third. Varly knows it.

Eric Belanger centered Alexander Semin and Brooks Laich on Monday night, and Boudreau took note of the speed that line generated all night long. A lot of commentators suggested that Belanger was brought in at the trade deadline by the Caps to center the team’s third line. Maybe, maybe not. The likelihood is strong that as he gets to know the team’s wingers better he looks even better than he has the past two games, which was pretty good.

Said Belanger: “We have to learn to believe in each other and trust each other in the defensive zone, and I think this team has the players to do it.

“They’re fighting for their lives and [Marty Turco] came out huge for them. When you get over 50 something shots, you’re doing a lot of good things. As an example, we were all around their net all night and it [puck] was just bouncing over the stick . . . When the goalie’s on and controls the rebound pretty good I don’t think we could have done more than we did.”

Here are some trends, stats, and pros and cons for each position:

Goalies

Washington has alternated goalies very regularly throughout the season, but I would argue that if Theodore did not sustain a back injury, he would have played in more than just nine games. He has been the better goalie, but the Capitals seem to play better – and more importantly – get wins in front of 21-year old Semyon Varlamov. Theodore’s play was outstanding during a four-game losing streak, except for two shaky goals to the Rangers’ Marian Gaborik. During that streak, Theodore took the loss for Varlamov against the Flyers, after the Russian had been shelled four times.

The young Russian goalie has a 5-1-0 record, yet has been mediocre in the seven games he has started. He owns a 3.18 GAA and sub-.900 save percentage. The trend here is the Capitals don’t play more defensively when playing in front of Varlamov; they just score more goals and allow more goals. Varlamov has played in three games – two against Atlanta and one against Toronto – in which the Caps had jumped out to huge first-period leads only to allow the opponent to make a quick comeback. Come playoff time, a 3.00 GAA is not going to cut it against the likes of the Penguins and Flyers. While Theo’s stats are not much more spectacular than Varly’s, he’s been the better of the pair.

Defense

The league-leader in defensive scoring isn’t Mike Green, but instead comes from the second-worst team in the league. Thomas Kaberle leads the league’s D-men with 18-points in 14 games. Number 52 does have a respectable 13 points in his 16 games played, but his two-goal season thus far is modest. Now he’s banged up a bit. ESPN projects him to total 11 goals and 71 points this season — which is all well and good — but his $5.25 million paycheck invites expectations approaching 25 goals a season. In his own end, Green remains a work in progress. He’s been noticeably absent physically as well.

Other defensemen have picked up the slack to support the team. In the first part of the season, the defense is better than it was last year. It is virtually the same corps as last year, plus Tyler Sloan, who had a two-game goal scoring streak.  One more year of experience and playing together has helped the Caps tremendously. Tom Poti has been solid. Offensively, it’s nice to see Brian Pothier contributing for the regular D-men — he might be playing the best hockey of his life these days. I suspect he’ll be the go-to-guy on defense while Green’s lost to injury.

However, there’s tons of space for improvement on that end. Jeff Schultz and Milan Jurcina are the biggest guys on the team, but it amazes me how often they get beat to the puck, even when they’re in an advantageous position. Schultz seems scared to use his body and Jurcina often gets beat because his stick isn’t on the ice when he goes to the corners to clear the puck.  It’s nice to see a healthy John Erskine in the line-up again.

Offense

What is up with Semin?

As of last night, approximately $15 million worth of offensive cap space has vacated the roster through injury, but the slick Russian hasn’t made an impact on a game yet. Check that, a positive impact. He had two secondary assists on Sunday against Columbus in Ovi’s absence, but his last worthwhile contribution was October 27 at home versus Philly in which he scored the game-winning goal with a sick wrister to the roof. This is Semin’s contract year, and his opportunity to make his next contract as valuable as possible. Read Andrew Tomlinson’s piece titled Stand-in Savior for more on Semin.

Alexander Ovechkin had six two-goal games and one one-goal game through the first 12 games of the season, meaning he scored in seven of those 12 — perfectly respectable for the league’s best player. He’s been an impact player in just about every game, and the Caps are hopeful of having him back in the lineup as early as this week.

Enter Mathieu Perreault. I’ve been a big fan of this guy since he was a Junior player when the Caps drafted him in 2006. The Quebecer put up monster numbers for Acadie-Bathurst in the Q and despite playing fourth line minutes in Hershey, he still put up 50 points in 2008-09. In the three games he’s played, he’s been an impact player despite his diminutive size, shaking off hits and physical play to keep possession of the puck. He assisted twice in his first game against the Devils and scored the first goal of his NHL career against Florida last night. He might not be returning to Hershey as soon as either the Caps or Bears imagined a week ago.

Speaking of AHLers, I was watching the New Jersey broadcast of Wednesday’s game when Mike “Doc” Emrick noted that Alexandre Giroux is a 28-year old 60-plus goal scorer in the AHL. The commentator said, “You’d think some team would have picked up on his skill and put him in the NHL.” I completely agree. I don’t think Eric Fehr or even Tomas Fleischmann have got the offensive upside of Giroux, though they may have more NHL career potential. If Boudreau wanted three scoring lines he’d perhaps consider rolling out Fleischmann, Perreault, and Giroux on the third line.

Wrap-Up

The Caps are tied for fewest regulation losses in the NHL with three. Buffalo, Colorado and Dallas are the others. They have collected points in 14 of their 17 games.

Some key questions ahead: Will Tomas Fleischmann show he is a reliable, top-six talent? Will  Mathieu Perreault show he can stay in the big league this season? How will Eric Fehr contribute? What do we think of Alexander Semin’s play — most particularly in the past week — in this the most important year of his NHL career to date?

We may well have the answers to these questions by the midway point of the season.

I’ve included picks made by the Whale with those of the Hurricanes, and of those made by the Nordiques in association with Colorado, to even out the survey period. No need however to add Winnipeg to Phoenix’s draft woes — the Desert Dogs know how to screw the draft pooch up high all on their own. Take a look:

The six “over .500″ teams are Detroit, Washington, Anaheim, the Rangers, Montreal and Dallas.