As much as "youngster" Tony Granato seemed an unlikely choice to step in and run one of the top teams in the NHL, the player-to-head-coach-in-a-couple-of-years trick has been pulled off before.

	CHIRPIN'
	"The glass is a real issue. What's the cost? It shows you how important the players are. It's just a meat market -- move them in and move them out. Get some younger guys whose brains aren't scrambled yet." -- Stars center Mike Modano on the issue of seamless glass and why the league hasn't moved to replace all of it immediately. Modano hit his head on seamless glass in Philadelphia, where he was hit from behind by Jeremy Roenick.
	THE NUMBER
	35 Cory Stillman's points through 31 games. The Blues winger, run out of Calgary in 2001, was generally considered a flop when compared to Craig Conroy (who he was traded for that spring). However, Stillman is now on pace for a personal-best 85 points, is a plus-12 and is doing that while averaging just 17:08 of ice time per game (least among the NHL's top 25 scorers).
	WHO'S HOT
	Sparked by the power play of new coach and former teammate Tony Granato, Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake has three goals and three assists for six points in the past three games. He also has been a plus-4 in that span.
	WHO'S NOT
	After scoring 10 goals in the first 17 games after being recalled from the minors, Eric Boguniecki has one goal in the past 16 games. The Blues winger was a healthy scratch Thursday and could find it more difficult cracking the lineup if the team stays healthy.
	THIS WEEK'S SIGN ...
	…the world isn't fair: Kings winger Adam Deadmarsh has been placed on injured reserve (again) because of dizziness. While the 27-year-old has a history of concussion problems, an MRI seems to have ruled out post-concussion syndrome in this case. Instead, doctors are focusing on a past neck injury. When Deadmarsh has been healthy, he's been one of the best players in the West with 13 goals in 20 games.

Kevin Lowe went from defenseman to assistant coach to head coach to general manager in three years, from 1999 to 2001. In his one season as bench boss of the Oilers, he led them to a 32-26-16-8 record. Bob Gainey pulled the same trick with the Minnesota North Stars. After retiring at age 36, Gainey spent one season coaching in France and then came back as a rookie head coach and led the North Stars to the Stanley Cup finals in 1991. By 1992, he also was the team's GM.

And Granato appears to be off to a good start in his quest to learn on the job. The Avalanche went 3-1-0 in his first four games and asserted itself as a team that not only could play well offensively, but could do so while missing one of its top offensive players in Joe Sakic.

Granato has been stressing to players that it all starts with skating -- a sort of Hoosier-esque philosophy where you break things down to the very basics and then add the complicated parts, like pucks, later in the scenario. So far, the approach has worked. Alex Tanguay is finally busting out of a two-year slump, Milan Hejduk is on a roll and Steve Reinprecht has been one of the team's top players.

The fact is Granato, at age 38, can relate to his players on a level they can understand. He was in their place just two years ago, trying to skate through a trap, trying to get in on the forecheck. He understands how much pressure a player in a slump puts on himself. So instead of heaping on more expectations, he has backed off and allowed the Avalanche to work through their problems step by step.

Now, he also has a very attentive audience that's been slapped in the face by the firing of Bob Hartley -- and that definitely helps. But the Avalanche players understand what Granato is going through and are trying to help him as much as he is trying to help them.

"The guys are excited now," defenseman Rob Blake said. "Winning is contagious in all aspects of the game."

So much so that Granato is ready to pronounce the novelty of his act as "player-coach" has expired.

"We've talked about experience for a few days," he said recently. "I think it's time we move on and worry about other issues."

Hmmm, spoken like a true coaching veteran.

Falling Stars
While some teams are making a surge toward the leaders, others are falling back to the pack. The Dallas Stars have led the Western Conference for much of the season, but they no longer can claim top winning percentage or even most points.

In the midst of an 0-3-2 slump (their longest winless streak since 1999), the Stars have misplaced their scoring touch. Dallas has scored seven goals in the past five games, and three of those came in a 5-3 loss to the Devils.

After a 2-1 loss to Nashville on Thursday (their second this season and fourth straight against the Predators), first-year coach Dave Tippett said it all came down to work ethic.

"You have to be willing to pay the price to win games," Tippett said. "And to a man in there, I didn't see a lot of people who were willing to pay the price to win."

The slump is more distressing to the Stars considering Tippett viewed their current seven-game road trip as a test of the team's emotional strength. Facing key battles against old rivals like Ken Hitchcock in Philadelphia, Brett Hull in Detroit and Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner in New Jersey, the Stars have seemed flat at times. What's worse, they have not responded to the challenge of playing without Mike Modano for three games.

While Detroit is able to overcome the absence of Steve Yzerman, Colorado plays without Joe Sakic and Los Angeles survives without Jason Allison, Adam Deadmarsh or both, the Stars seem rudderless without Modano.

And that's a scary thought for a team with a $63 million payroll.

And the challenges don't get any easier. The Stars face Detroit on ESPN2 on Sunday and then travel to California for an important three-game Pacific Division trip next weekend. Right now, Dallas is 7-9-6 in road games.

Patience makes closer-to-perfect
OK, let's be serious about this for a minute. The Calgary Flames need to take their time and hire exactly the right coach who can lead this franchise for the next five years. They have already made two mistakes, and there's no way they can afford another.

Maybe the biggest problem is that management and ownership doesn't see eye to eye, and neither side is making itself look too smart right now. But if I'm team president Ken King, I think questions should be asked when the candidate I'm presented with has no NHL coaching experience.

Maybe the next coach should be Ted Nolan or Darryl Sutter or Terry Murray or Bob Hartley. But the bottom line is, all of those guys should be interviewed to see if they have interest.

While the coaching search is nearing four weeks, there's no reason to panic now. The Flames aren't making the playoffs this season (they are further out of the race at Christmas than they have been in the past seven years), so get the coach who is right for the long term.

Depth chart