It could be argued that Dallas Stars coach Dave Tippett has a chance to draw a few votes for the Jack Adams Award this season. So what was he doing stumping for St. Louis counterpart Joel Quenneville as coach of the year?

	CHIRPIN'
	"A lot of teams have power plays that make more than our whole team ... The challenge makes it fun. No one expected us to be here, but we are." -- Minnesota center Cliff Ronning, whose $21 million team will coincidentally face Dallas ($67 million), Detroit ($69 million) and St. Louis ($67 million) over the next week.
	THE NUMBER
	24 Consecutive years the St. Louis Blues have qualified for the playoffs -- the longest active streak in any major North American sport.
	WHO'S HOT
	Who would ever fear a Stumpy Duck? You should, if you have to face Anaheim's Steve Thomas. The recently-acquired veteran has found new life out of Chicago. He has four goals and two assists and is plus-6 in his six games with the Mighty Ducks, who are 3-1-1-1 in that span.
	WHO'S NOT
	Truth be told, the Predators' biggest problem in their collapse down the stretch was lack of scoring after David Legwand got hurt. However, goalie Tomas Vokoun also hasn't been able to keep up the sizzling pace that raised playoff hopes. Vokoun has a 3.78 GAA and an .867 save percentage in his last three appearances.
	THIS WEEK'S SIGN ...
	Nicklas Lidstrom needs to get his tux pressed: The Detroit defenseman has tied Dallas' Derian Hatcher for the NHL lead in plus-minus and is plus-18 better than his next closest teammate -- the biggest span in the NHL.

Bottom line, Tippett knows a good performance when he sees one.

"It's too bad that they usually give that award to somebody who has made a big difference in the standings or taken an underdog, because I think Joel has made as big a difference as any coach in the league," Tippett said. "To go through what they have gone through and to be where they are ? Wow, that says something."

Tippett will get a chance to put a dent in Quenneville's season Sunday when the Blues play in Dallas, but it's clear that no matter what happens in the award-balloting, St. Louis will be a team to be feared in the playoffs.

"Joel always does a great job of having his team prepared," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I think this has been an extremely challenging season for him, but I don't think anyone is surprised they're still right in it. He has a way of doing that."

Still, how many teams can use seven goalies, miss their captain for the entire season and still be fighting for 100 points?

Either through desperation or preparation, Quenneville and his staff have been able to squeeze strong seasons out of players like Pavol Demitra, Barret Jackman, Eric Boguniecki and Cory Stillman. In addition, smart pick-ups like Petr Cajanek and Martin Rucinsky have been optimized.

As for the goaltending?Well, one reason the Blues have been able to survive all of the injuries and inconsistencies is because Quenneville has always coached strong team defense. St. Louis has led the NHL in fewest shots on goal against for each of the past two seasons and this year ranks second behind New Jersey.

Quenneville, who won the Adams Award in 2000, would probably settle for a better playoff performance than last season, when the Blues lost to Detroit in five games. He could get it, despite a potential first-round showdown with Colorado. Because the Blues have learned something from Quenneville, who has stayed calm despite juggling about 1,465 line combinations.

"We have to be predictable in how we play," Quenneville said. "If you want to be a good team in this league, that has to be one of the basic principles."

In a year that has been anything but predictable, the Blues have been a solid bet to be good on most nights -- and that's saying something.

Next Sharks GM?
Wayne Thomas will take over for Dean Lombardi on the short-term in San Jose, and the Sharks might stay in-house when they name a permanent replacement. Sharks president Greg Jamison said he wants a new GM in place before the June 21 NHL entry draft. The best candidate might be former Sharks captain Doug Wilson, who currently serves as director of pro development.

Then again, who knows what will happen. The timing of the firing of Lombardi, who was named GM in 1996, was strange. Jamison denied that how Lombardi conducted himself at the trade deadline (unloading Owen Nolan but not moving Vincent Damphousse) had nothing to do with the decision. However, it is odd that Jamison wouldn't have allowed a new GM the opportunity to make those decisions. The direction of the franchise (sell veterans) was clear a month ago. Why then, did they also unload Lombardi, who had three years left on his contract?

Star on the mend
Stars goalie Marty Turco has had a near miraculous upturn in his outlook this week. Turco put a skate on for the first time in three and a half weeks on Tuesday and headed out to the ice to attempt minimal movement on his injured ankle. He felt great in a brief workout and then stretched his time on ice to 55 minutes Wednesday.

On Thursday, he took shots and went into the butterfly position, sparking coach Dave Tippett to say that Turco might return to game play as early as Tuesday against Vancouver.

"It's definitely the most encouraging day I've had since the injury," Turco said Thursday.

Turco has missed 17 games since spraining a ligament Feb. 11 when he played a puck behind the net against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Stars are 7-6-3-1 since Turco hurt himself. Turco currently leads the NHL in goals against average at 1.77 -- tied for Tony Esposito's mark of the lowest GAA in the modern era.

Depth chart