Should Stars Pull Back to Go Forward?

Dave Tippett has done a smart and thorough job to keep the Dallas Stars among the NHL’s elite while playing in the tough Pacific Division. The Stars were four points behind the first-place Kings on Jan. 2 but surged past them and into a formidable lead, positioning themselves to win their second division title in Tippett’s three seasons and become the No. 2-seeded team in the West.

Tippett, a former King assistant coach, has proved he can handle adversity. Now, he and his team must prove they can handle success.

After taking a brief run at the Detroit Red Wings for the top record in the conference, the Stars have settled into a relatively smooth rhythm. They’ve worked Finnish rookies Jussi Jokinen and Antti Miettinen into key roles and improved a power play whose success rate lags behind its talent level.

However, being locked into a good position poses unique challenges. With little at stake, Tippett must keep his players sharp without pushing so hard that they’d fade during a long playoff run, and motivate them without prodding them to a high emotional pitch too soon.

It’s a delicate balance. To achieve it, he held defenseman Sergei Zubov out of games against the Mighty Ducks and Kings last week because of a minor injury that probably wouldn’t have kept Zubov out of a playoff game.

“If we weren’t in this position, do you push him in? Maybe,” Tippett said. “For me, this is just about being a smart team, not doing anything crazy.

“We’re aware of our circumstances, but we’re also aware of how we know we’re going to have to be playing three weeks from now.”

The peril in pulling back on the reins is that relaxing too much can create bad habits and trigger an irreversible slide. Tippett hopes that because most of the Stars’ opponents are scrambling for playoff spots, they’ll bring an urgency that will ignite his players’ competitive instincts. However, the Stars are winless in their last three games.

“We’ve really talked a lot as a team about making sure there’s no dips. You can’t just turn the switch on and off at playoff time,” he said. “All these teams that we’re playing here in this stretch of division games, they’re all desperate teams, and I think it’s good for us to play at that level.

“We don’t want any dip at all. We’re certainly aware of where we are and what we’re trying to do, but we also are very in tune with how we think our game has to be, going into the playoffs, so we’ll treat that accordingly.”

He’s also conscious of the importance of varying his message throughout the season, mixing video sessions with on-ice instruction and a stern voice with what he called “the quiet treatment.” His current theme is eliminating mental errors.

“They’re very receptive to that right now,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, this is who we are, this is how we’re going to win. These are things that can’t happen in a big game.’ ”

If they’re listening, it’s because they trust and respect him.

“He’s an honest guy. He was an honest player, a hard-working player who showed up every day, and that’s how he wants us to be,” forward Bill Guerin said. “That’s the way he thinks that we can compete and we can win.

“The message deep down is always the same, but he keeps it fresh. Things don’t go stale. It’s not an easy thing to do. He remembers what it’s like to be a player, and that’s important. He’ll adjust the schedule, adjust practice times, adjust the way practices are run, and he gives players a lot of responsibility too. A lot of different things, just to keep it right for us because he knows what’s going through our heads.”

A few weeks ago, the Stars exercised an option to keep Tippett through 2007-08 and extended the contracts of assistants Rick Wilson, Mark Lamb and Andy Moog through that season. That’s not likely to give Tippett a sense of complacency now or ever.

“You’re never comfortable. If you’re not on edge going into the playoffs, you’re not going to be very successful,” he said. “You’ve got to be on edge, with the anticipation that it’s going to be hard and you’re going to have to get to a competitive level that you haven’t reached before.”

A Matter of the Heart

When he felt the sting of heartburn one day while walking to a game in San Jose, Jack Ferreira thought it odd because he hadn’t eaten anything spicy or unusual.

But Ferreira, general manager of the Mighty Ducks for their first five seasons and now director of player personnel for the Atlanta Thrashers, knew something was seriously wrong when he felt the same sensation after the game and again while going to his gate at the airport the next day.

“I called my wife and said, ‘I’m going to get this checked,’ ” said Ferreira, who still lives in Southern California.

An angioplasty found three blocked arteries. As soon as doctors rounded up enough units of his rare B-negative blood type to have on hand in case of emergency, Ferreira underwent triple bypass surgery. “It was Feb. 14,” he said. “On Valentine’s Day, I got a new heart.”

Ferreira, 61, is on a workout schedule that includes a lot of walking. He has lost weight and jokes, “Anything that looks good, I can’t eat,” but he said his energy has improved. He returned to work Sunday, scouting the Ducks’ game in Anaheim.

“I feel so much better,” he said. “I used to be on the road and feel I wanted to lie down in the late afternoon before a game. Now, I couldn’t fall asleep if I tried.”

Slap Shots

Senator General Manager John Muckler denied a report in the Ottawa Sun that goaltender Dominik Hasek, who pulled an adductor muscle at the Olympics, is done for the season. Muckler said Hasek’s recovery is proceeding as expected. He put on pads Thursday for the first time since Feb. 15.

“We’ve had a plan right since Dom got injured,” Muckler told reporters in Ottawa. “The plan is to have Dom 100% and when he’s 100% he will come back and he will play in the playoffs.”