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The Dallas Stars set their sights on the NHL's second season and the chase for Lord Stanley's Cup.

It may be asking too much for them to overtake the Detroit Red Wings for first overall in the Western Conference, but they sit a solid second as the playoffs stand on the horizon. 

When you talk about serious contenders for the Stanley Cup however, they're almost an afterthought, but they shouldn't be.

They don't have the cache of the Red Wings and they're not the hip pick like the Carolina Hurricanes, but they're deep and smart. They have an All-Star goaltender in Marty Turco and a bright, driven coach in Dave Tippett. General Manager Doug Armstrong, as low key as his team, made some smart in-season moves by acquiring Janne Niinimaa and Willie Mitchell to make them deeper along the blue line. The usual suspects, Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen and Sergei Zubov are putting up the expected numbers but it's one player who once trashed Dallas' dreams of a Cup that could be the X-Factor for this second season. 

Jason Arnott is the prototypical power forward, with size and strength in abundance (the program lists him at 6-4, 220 lbs.) and speed to match. When selected as the Edmonton Oilers' first round pick (7th overall) in 1993, superstardom was predicted for the now 31-year-old native of Collingwood, Ontario. 

But things do happen on the way to being next Lemeiux or Gretzky, and Jason never amassed more than the 33 goals and 68 points in his rookie campaign. 

Yes, he did score the Stanley Cup winning goal for the New Jersey Devils in the 2001-02 season against his current team, but as was the case in Edmonton, he fell out of favor in the Meadowlands and was dealt at the 2002 trading deadline to the Stars. 

He's had a couple of 20-goal seasons in the LoneStar State but nothing spectacular. This season, if he finishes with a flourish, he could surpass Modano as the team's leading scorer and establish a career high for points. 

"He's been a very good player all year," Tippett related, an acknowledgment that consistency has always been an issue with the big winger. "He's had a couple weak games here and there, but you only notice them because he can be such a dominant player at times. He is SO good some nights that when he's down a bit, people notice it." 

The third year coach has high praise for Arnott's work to overcome his greatest weakness.

"I don't think he gets enough credit for how consistent he's been this year," Tippett said. "We've talked one on one this year a great deal and I've told him that to be able to help our team the most, he has to be a player we can rely on every night. He's been that for us and I give him a lot of credit, he's battled hard and he's put a lot of points on the board."

Arnott plays right wing on a line that's currently centered by the gritty Stu Barnes, while Brendan Morrow does his disturbing best on left wing. Come playoff time, it's a nice combination behind the Modano-Lehtinen-Jussi Jokinen line. 

Barnes has always been a personal favorite, a heady centerman that kills penalties and can be counted on for 15 goals. Tippett, for one, is a big fan. 

"He's the ultimate utility guy. He has the skill to play with your top players; he can play on the checking line as well as kill penalties," Tippet said. "What's overlooked at time is that Stu's a great leader in the room."

Barnes' personality shuns the spotlight, preferring to give credit to his more famous teammates. 

"I've been fortunate over the years to have the opportunity to play in different situations. You throw me over the boards and I'm happy," said the thirteen-year veteran who's played with Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Florida and yes, even Winnipeg. "Playing on a line with Jason and Brendan, I think the big thing is staying out of their way, create some turnovers for them and let them do their thing." 

Arnott believes Barnes makes it easy for him and Morrow. 

"He's played with us before and he fits right in," Arnott said of his linemate. "He's an easy player to play with, he's been around, he's played with the best and he knows that it takes to win." 

Morrow will always stir the pot and has already established a career in points as well as penalty minutes. Their emergence as a unit has offset the sub-par season put in by perennial All Star Bill Guerin. Barnes was plugged when Guerin suffered a fracture of his right orbital bone. 

"That's the great thing about Barnes, he's the ultimate pro, you stick him in there and the line plays like they never missed a beat," Tippett observed. 

Improving each of his four seasons in the big show, Marty Turco has taken this team on his shoulders and made a definitive statement about being a Top Five goaltender. 

Since mid-January, he's been in the net for 20 of the last 21 matches and is arguably, the West's best netminder. With a division title a mere formality, there stands a possibility of rest but we wouldn't be surprised if the two-time All Star plays the fifteen games remaining in the regular season. 

When asked if he'd like some time off, he stoically responded, "I don't know. It's not like I'm looking at this as a fifteen game segment of the season. It's a game-to-game thing and it's not our priority to judge goaltending workloads. We don't have many back-to-back games and we've got a nice homestand coming up, but (resting) is something I have in the back of my mind." 

As it regards workloads, Turco's 2003-.04 season established his career high for games played with 73, a mark he could equal if he doesn't take a blow for the rest of the regular season. More importantly, with two victories, he will establish a career best with 38 wins. 

Despite this career year, the most important numbers are in the second season, where the former Michigan All American needs to improve on his 7-10 post-season win-loss record to be considered one of the elite netminders in the NHL. The team in front of him has the firepower to make a deep run into the tournament, so the spotlight will shine brightly on him come mid-April. 

Although they're within striking distance of Detroit for first in the West, they're focused on one goal, winning the Pacific. 

"Our goal coming out of the Olympics was to extend our (Pacific Division) lead and our team has been playing better to realize the goal. We're playing the kind of hockey we need to play going down the stretch and into the playoffs," Tippett conveyed. 

"We're concentrating on winning our division, if we get close to Detroit, that's great but we're not counting on it," said Captain Mike Modano, who despite the trials and tribulations of the Olympics, still leads the team in scoring. 

"We're in a situation where we're in a position to win the division. We have to keep winning and we'll hope Detroit stumbles, but if they don't, the good news is that you're playing as best as you can going into the playoffs," Barnes said. 

The last word goes to Arnott...

"I think just we're just concentrating on ourselves and the division. If we were to pass Detroit, that would be fantastic and we'd be thrilled, but we're just trying to focus on our game these last few matches before the playoffs. We're trying to get ready for the playoffs, but it takes 20 guys working together to make it so; when we have that commitment from everyone we're a very good team.

"One of my goals this year was to be as consistent as possible, not only for points but my overall play. There's still a long way to go, but this season has certainly been a confidence booster."

HERE AND THERE

Part 1) As the Los Angeles Kings slide to oblivion, the blame squarely rests on the defensive end of the ice. 

Mathieu Garon has proved he's not ready for prime time in home losses to Phoenix and Dallas last week. The Kings have now surrendered more goals than the lowly St. Louis Blues and a pair of their more consistent defenders is in the midst of the bad stretch. 

The usually reliable Aaron Miller is minus-8 for the month of March and youngster Tim Gleason is a minus-9 through the same stretch. Ouch! Gleason missed Saturday's game against the Blues with a wonky knee but his game has been bruised in March as well, clearing the way for significant ice time for former Islander Brent Sopel. 

Sopel, a more offensive defenseman, gives some more flair to their backline. While the Kings are banged up (recently their entire first line, Craig Conroy, Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov missed the Dallas contest), whispers are starting that if the Kings miss the Final Eight the West, it's curtains for the Dave Taylor-Andy Murray regime. 

Murray, for his part, tells us where his destiny lies: "At this point of the season, there's really not anything more I can say, it's up to the players."

Part 2) Yes, the aforementioned Blues are a disaster but maybe all that housecleaning for a hoped for sale of the team did some good. Since January 30, they're over .500 (9-7) and had some decent play from recently sidelined goaltender Curtis Sanford (2.66 GAA and .908 save percentage). They've even caught Chicago in the race to stay out of the basement of the Western Conference. 

Former Blues stalwart Bernie Federko says, "The owner (WalMart heir Bill Laurie) really wanted an NBA team in St. Louis and never got one, so he has no interest in keeping the team," 

Wouldn't they look great going to Winnipeg? Too much of a legacy in St. Looie to make that happen.

Part 3) Interesting race for the eighth and final seed in the East, as Montreal leads Atlanta by a point, but with Montreal having ten of their sixteen remaining matches at the friendly confines of Bell Centre, looks like they'll win the right be ousted by Ottawa, Carolina or our sleeper, the Buffalo Sabres. As for the top of the conference, we like the Rangers to hold their lead over the Flyers and make Philly the four seed. An MVP performance by Jaromir Jagr and a surprise season by Vezina candidate Henrik Lundqvist makes it so.

THE LAST WORD

Sidney the Terrible? The word around the league is that the Second Coming, Sidney Crosby, ain't the most gracious guy. Temper tantrums and taking advantage of his celebrity make insiders say that he needs to slow his role and be the mature young man he was made out to be during the media hype last season. One Eastern Division spy tells us, "The kid is spoiled, he takes advantage and a lot of guys in the room in Pittsburgh say he needs to grow up. I'd take (Washington's) Alexander Ovechkin over him ten times out of ten."
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.