For Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi, it’s been a long and windy road for both Dallas Stars netminders, the two 33-year-olds that share the crease for the returning Central Division champions. In a fundamentally flawed two-goalie system with a young and inconsistent defense behind them, they’ve both played some of their best hockey to date in Victory Green this season.
The Stars are a team that, since the inception of the now half-finished season, have been dealt a bad hand with injuries. Cody Eakin, Mattias Janmark, Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp, Jiri Hudler, even captain and 40-goal scorer Jamie Benn have missed considerable time with ailments like theirs.