The Stars hope to take another step forward in their new era Friday by playing host to former goalie Ed Belfour and his new team the Toronto Maple Leafs.

	CHIRPIN'
	"I've told people many, many times, 'a couple more weeks.' It seems like I've said that eight times now." -- Blues goalie Brent Johnson on the frustrating delay of his return from a sprained ankle. He would like to start working out with the team in 7-10 days.
	THE NUMBER
	78.9 The Avalanche's percentage on the penalty kill, which ranked 28th in the league entering the weekend. Colorado ranked second last season, killing 87 percent of opponents' chances.
	WHO'S HOT
	Tyler Wright and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Wright has six goals in the past six games and the Blues Jackets are 4-1-0-1 in that span, including impressive victories against the Blues, Stars and Kings. Maybe the Wild have started something in this expansion rivalry.
	WHO'S NOT
	Dallas forward Pierre Turgeon. He's played with Scott Young. He's played with Jere Lehtinen. He's played with Jason Arnott ... and he can't get anything going. The $6 million center entered Friday's play without a point in his past eight games.
	THIS WEEK'S SIGN ...
	... that it's not your year: Nashville Predators management makes a bold promise to refund ticket price hikes if the team doesn't make the playoffs and then watches as the Preds roll up nine losses by one goal in the first month of the season.

Belfour was sometimes catalytic and sometimes cataclysmic in his five years in Dallas, but former teammates say they appreciate what he did for them.

"When he got on the ice, he was serious about his job and wanted to compete at a high level of play," said center Mike Modano. "That's really all I cared about."

Belfour left a laundry list of transgressions that included getting arrested the night before a game for an incident at a hotel, leaving the team on the road after an argument with coach Ken Hitchcock and breaking up some video equipment after getting pulled from a game.

However, he also left with franchise records for regular season wins (160) and playoff wins (44).

One of the biggest supporters of Belfour was the man with whom he quarreled the most. Hitchcock was almost singularly responsible for getting Belfour on the Canadian Olympic team in February (resulting in a gold medal for Belfour) and also gave him a glowing review when Maple Leafs GM Pat Quinn inquired during the summer.

"Ken Hitchcock had as big an influence on me as anybody did," Quinn said. "Everyone knows there was a public tiff sometimes, but what never seems to get out is the admiration both guys felt for each other in how they approached their jobs."

Hitchcock said appreciating the good side of Belfour was easy.

"He brought us championships, lots of them -- division titles, conference titles, the Stanley Cup," Hitchcock said. "There's a certain level of commitment we owe a player after he's done that."

Still, Belfour didn't believe the commitment was enough. When the Stars refused to give him a contract extension last season, Belfour struggled. When it was clear his time with the team was done, he vented.

"I'll come back and prove everybody wrong," Belfour said at the end of last season. "I know I am more motivated than ever to prove to everybody who has doubted me and not been in my corner and betrayed me or not been loyal to me."

He was a little more calm on the subject Thursday, saying he had nothing to prove to anybody and that his time in Dallas was great. But it has been rare in the Dallas sports scene that a player has done so much for a franchise and then parted so gruffly. That said, the Stars chose to focus on the positive.

When asked if goaltending was a key reason the Stars missed the playoffs last season, captain Derian Hatcher responded: "Sure it was part, but there were a lot of parts. To just pinpoint one thing is not the way hockey works. We had a lot of problems last year."

In the end, the players simply closed the book on any controversy by saying they understood Belfour's quirky, sometimes destructive, nature.

"Eddie was just consumed with what he needed to do to play well," said goalie Marty Turco, who admitted the two were partners only by title. "He didn't have much time for others. It wasn't his fault."

Diamond on the scrap heap?

	Lindgren

Never mind the big trade to get Marek Malik and Darren Langdon, the Canucks' best move last week might have been signing Mats Lindgren as an unrestricted free agent.

Lindgren has battled back pain and various injuries that have kept his games played down over the past few years. He fell through the cracks last season with the Islanders as they gave younger, hungrier players a little more ice time. But the simple fact is Lindgren is a 6-2 checking center who can win key faceoffs, play 15 minutes a game and be defensively responsible. He's only 28, so he's got plenty of zip left. And he only cost $500,000 on a one-year contract, so he's not much risk. What's more, he really seems happy in Vancouver.

This could turn out to be one of the best adjustments a team has made since the start of the season.

Unwanted heavyweight

	Probert

The Chicago Blackhawks have hidden Bob Probert on injured reserve for the start of this season, because they were trying to find a nice way to figure out what to do with him.

This week, they decided.

Probert has been told by the club that he can accept a demotion to the minors or a place within the organization, but that he won't be a part of the 23-man roster this season. That was made clear with the trade for Chris Simon.

Ironically, Probert said he was surprised the team signed him in the first place during the summer.

"I was surprised," Probert told reporters. "By not playing much last year, I took that as being my last year here."

When the team did sign him, Probert started working out hard, but team officials said he bulked up too much. Now, with the crackdown on obstruction, many wonder if the 37-year-old can play in the league any more.

Probert's agent Patrick Ducharme has been given the OK to shop the winger, who is under contract for $600,000.

Apparently, you can't pick your coach, either

	Fernandez

Manny Fernandez and Jacques Lemaire might have to get separate tables at the next family reunion. Lemaire, the Minnesota Wild coach, is the uncle of the team's No. 1 goalie. So it's understandable that Fernandez might get a little ticked off when he gets pulled from a game (the way he was Thursday in a 4-1 loss to Phoenix).

"I'm not the coach. He can very well do what he wants," Fernandez told reporters, before adding, "He doesn't talk to me. Like I said, it's not my call."

Don't expect the bad feelings to linger, Lemaire treats his non-relatives the same way.

Depth chart

	Zyuzin