If youre going to get a rash of injuries, I suppose you might as well get them early in the season and not at the end, when you need your players most. But yeesh, its as if a dark cloud has hovered over the Dallas Stars before the puck even dropped for the 2016-17 season.To wit:Captain and superstar forward Jamie Benn had offseason surgery to repair an injured core muscle. He played his first preseason game Tuesday night and is hoping to be up to speed in time for the regular season.Scoring sensation Tyler Seguin suffered a heel injury in Team Canadas first World Cup pre-tournament game Sept. 8. He started skating this week, and the Stars remain hopeful that he will return in time for the start of the season.Winger Ales Hemsky remains out with a groin injury he suffered while playing for the Czechs at the World Cup. The Stars are hoping hes back for the start of the season.Center Cody Eakin is out until early November because of a knee injury.Forward Mattias Janmark is out five or six months because of joint disorder in his knee.Forward Devin Shore (lower body) could be back around opening night.Forward Jason Dickinson had hip surgery in April and is out until December.For good measure, winger Valeri Nichushkin bolted to the KHL on a two-year deal last month.Uncle! However, if Benn and Seguin get in a full season or close to it, there is no reason the Stars cant contend for the Central Division title they won the past season. Still, it has been an inauspicious start, to be sure.Best new facesThe late August signing of Jiri Hudler to a one-year, $2 million deal might be one of best bargains of the summer, especially with Nichushkin gone to Russia. Pay attention, fantasy players, Hudler might very well start the season on a line with Benn and Seguin. The Czech veteran is just two years removed from a 76-point season in which he scored 31 goals. Playing with Benn and Seguin, he should certainly top the combined 46 points (16-30) he put up in 69 games with the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers?last season.Veteran defenseman Dan Hamhuis was a quality unrestricted free-agent addition. Whats funny is the Stars nearly acquired him at the trade deadline last season, but the deal with the Vancouver Canucks?fell through. Now the Stars have Hamhuis. He will be an important top-four presence and a character leader in the dressing room.Biggest unknownsHow will the blue line adjust to losing Alex Goligoski, Kris Russell and Jason Demers in the offseason? Hamhuis was added, but the Stars are banking on younger defensemen Patrik Nemeth, Jamie Oleksiak and Stephen Johns to be ready to take on bigger roles this season. That might mean the first half of the season is spent with these guys figuring things out. But long-term, the Stars have been preparing for this. Young star defenseman John Klingberg continues his growth as well.The biggest unknown of all, of course, remains in goal, where the veteran Finnish duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi produced mixed results the past season. On one hand, the two combined for 50 wins en route to a Central Division title. On the other, they combined for a .906 save percentage, which isnt good enough. The lasting image of Lehtonen getting pounded by the St. Louis Blues?early in Game 7 wont soon be forgotten. Can they rebound? Is this goaltending good enough for the Stars to get to the Stanley Cup finals? I will say this: By the March trade deadline, there will be teams worried about losing a goalie they like in the June expansion draft to Las Vegas. That could present the Stars opportunities to upgrade in goal, if indeed GM Jim Nill feels that is warranted. Right now, I believe Nill thinks Lehtonen and Niemi can do the job.Sure thingsJamie Benn won the NHL scoring title in 2014-15, with 87 points (35-52) in 82 games, and followed that by finishing second to Patrick Kane last season, with 89 points (41-48) in 82 games. Benn does it all on both sides of the puck. He is a throwback in some ways, with his intimidating style, yet he is blessed with soft hands. OK, Ive got a man crush on Benn, I will admit it.Klingberg finished fifth among all NHL defensemen with 58 points (10-48) in 76 games last season, up from the 40 points (11-29) he put up in 65 games in his rookie season. Hes only 24, and hes still getting better. Hes fun to watch and keys the transition game for the Stars.PredictionThe Stars have had a tough training camp with injuries, but they will get through it and once again entertain us with some of the most up-tempo hockey in the NHL. Fans get their moneys worth watching this club play. But is the goaltending good enough to win come playoff time? I think the Stars will battle the Nashville Predators for the division title but fall short. Second in the Central. Sneakers Cheap Online Australia . Ryan Garbutt had a goal and two assists as Dallas snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Sneakers Online Australia Store . Badenhop was 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 63 relief appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three saves and a 3. http://www.cheapaustraliasneakers.com/ . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago. Best Cheap Sneakers Australia . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. Wholesale Sneakers Australia . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. With Baylor and West Virginia both undefeated halfway through the season, there could still be playoff hopes for the Big 12 Conference.The eighth-ranked Bears and 10th-ranked Mountaineers have to keep winning.While many wrote off the Big 12s chances for a return to the playoffs after Oklahomas two nonconference losses in September, Baylor and West Virginia are among seven teams from Power Five leagues still without a loss before the first College Football Playoff rankings of this season are released next week.When West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen was asked about talking to his players about their 6-0 start, he initially answered, I can assure you I am not going to respond to a College Football Playoff question.Because there is a long way to go, with six more Saturdays of games before the four playoff teams will be determined with the final CFP rankings on Dec. 4.Those final rankings will come a day after Baylor and West Virginia play in a regular-season finale that could become a de facto Big 12 championship game. It could also determine if one of them gets in the playoff, though there is no guaranteed spot for the winner.The Big 12 is reinstating its actual title game next season, and that will at least provide league teams a 13th data point for the playoff selection committee to consider like the other Power Five conferences already have.When Ohio State won the Big Ten championship game 59-0 two years ago, the Buckeyes ended up the fourth playoff team ahead of Big 12 co-champions Baylor and TCU, and went on to win the national championship.SOONER FACTOROklahomas quest for its 10th Big 12 title could impact the leagues CFP chances, but it still remains unlikely that the two-loss Sooners can get back into playoff contention.The 16th-ranked Sooners (5-2, 4-0 Big 12), coming off a a href(equals)https://apnews.com/63d95f5753554b5f8711e...tor-brotherwild 66-59 win and allowing a school-record 854 total yards/a at Texas Tech, play consecutive games in November against Baylor and West Virginia, and losses by either one of those teams will hurt their chances.Oklahoma last year was 14th in the initial CFP rankings, and 13th at that point in the AP poll. While it is possible that the Sooners could be near those same positions next week, assuming they beat Kansas at home, there hasnt yet been a two-loss playoff team.ddddddddddddIt also hurts the Sooners that Houston and Ohio State, the non-conference teams they lost to, have since lost.The Cougars are even unranked after losing two of three. The sixth-ranked Buckeyes are coming off a loss to Penn State, though they still have a chance to bolster their playoff case with games left against No. 2 Michigan and No. 7 Nebraska.DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS, RIGHT?West Virginia has a href(equals)https://apnews.com/afc74a9d7749424487501...ts-strengthswon its last two games by holding high-scoring Texas Tech and TCU to a combined 27 points/a.A week after its 48-17 home loss to the Mountaineers, Texas Tech piled up 854 total yards in a 66-59 loss to Oklahoma.The Mountaineers play Saturday at Oklahoma State, which is still in Big 12 title contention, and also have games against Kansas and Texas before the Sooners visit Morgantown on Nov. 19. WVU then goes to Iowa State before the finale against Baylor.We have goals ahead of us, and we are not anywhere close to being in a position to meet any of them, Holgorsen said, without being specific.BAYLORS TOUGH STRETCHThe Bears are the only FBS team to be 6-0 for the fourth consecutive season, but they havent really been tested yet.Oklahoma State is the only team with a winning record that Baylor has played, and the Cowboys had a turnover late when it looked like they were able to take the lead.The other five teams the Bears have played so far have a combined 7-28 record. That includes a 5-16 mark by their non-conference opponents, a very negative factor for the CFP committee. (Their remaining six opponents are a combined 25-16).Baylor plays four of its last six games away from home, including the Nov. 12 trip to Oklahoma between home games against TCU and Kansas State. The Bears play Texas Tech at the Dallas Cowboys NFL stadium before going to Morgantown.--AP College football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org ' ' '