from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

Funny how the expected can suddenly get turned on its ear in the push for a playoff berth.

A week ago, after the trade deadline had passed and the Dallas Stars had sold off three key pieces of today for a bunch of tomorrows, they were whipped 5-2 by the Anaheim Ducks. Fair enough. The Ducks are a good team, running away with the Pacific Division and gearing up for the postseason, while the Stars had apparently turned their attention to looking at some kids and starting to think about next fall.

But since that loss a funny thing has happened to the Stars. Instead of simply playing out the string after GM Joe Nieuwendyk moved captain Brenden Morrow, Derek Roy and Jaromir Jagr in the days leading up to the April 3 deadline, the Stars have won three straight. Tuesday night, Dallas overcame the loss of netminder Kari Lehtonen early in the game to a "lower body" injury and scored four times in the third period en route to a 5-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.

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