Dallas Stars vs. Nashville Predators Preview
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars will look to get their first regular season win of the year tonight as travel to Bridgestone Arena to take on division rival the Nashville Predators. This is the first of five meetings between the Stars and Predators, with the Predators holding the 3-2 home ice advantage. You can see the game on Fox Sports Southwest or listen to it on 1310 AM/96.7 FM starting at 7:00 p.m. CST.
Records and Scores:
The Dallas Stars will go into tonight’s game with a record 0f 0-0-1 after coming off of a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on opening night at the American Airlines Center. If you were a Stars fan and did not watch the game, you would have been ecstatic that the Stars stole a point from one of the Stanley Cup favorites. If you did watch the game, though, you would have asked why the Stars did not walk away with two. Though the Dallas Stars outshot and outplayed the Blackhawks in almost every category, they were not able to hold their 2-1 lead in the third period and were forced to take it to extra minutes. They will look to play out the full 60 minutes tonight and walk away with their first win of the 2014-2015 campaign.
The Nashville Predators started their season off on the right foot, beating the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in Nashville on Thursday night. This marked head coach Peter Laviolette’s first win with the Predators. They are now 1-0-0 and will play the second game of a three game homestand tonight versus the Stars.
Last meeting:
The Dallas Stars avoided a late-game collapse when they last met with the Nashville Predators on April 8, 2014. The Stars gave up a late third period goal to help the Predators tie it at two and the game eventually bled over into a shootout, where Vernon Fiddler’s magical tripping shootout goal tied it up and Tyler Seguin delivered the game-winner one shot later. This game was crucial to the Stars playoff chances while the Predators were merely trying to play eliminator after already being knocked out a few days before.
Storylines:
New faces debuting tonight for the Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars made a beautiful effort against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, and dominated both the first and second periods. The third period they decided to play a little too much defense and paid for it, giving away the game-tying goal and being forced to play overtime and a shootout. Many, including Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville, believed the Dallas Stars should have won that game. But it’s no reason to hang their heads. If they can play as well as they did Thursday in each one of their games, they will be more than set down the road.
There will be some changes in tonight’s lineup. Erik Cole, who was scratched from the first game due to an issue with tardiness earlier in the week, will reclaim his spot on the second line tonight, leaving Patrick Eaves to be the healthy scratch. Jamie Oleksiak will sub in for Kevin Connauton in the defensive ranks and Anders Lindback will make his debut as a Dallas Star tonight in place of Kari Lehtonen who did not seem to have a full grip on himself Thursday.
Nashville Predators look like a brand new team
After letting up an early goal to the Senators, the Predators roared back and scored three straight in the third period, with goals coming from Craig Smith, Predators captain Shea Weber, and former Dallas Star Eric Nystrom. Another former Dallas Star Alex Chiasson scored the final goal for the Senators. Nashville played the game a lot like Dallas, controlling most of the stat categories but falling behind early. They outshot Ottawa 37-20 and were firing on every cylinder from the get-go. This is a completely different Nashville team than we have seen in the past. The old Predators were addicted to a defensive strategy and offense whenever it needed to happen. An ultimate reunion will happen tonight, as the Dallas Stars face off against former teammates Derek Roy, Eric Nystrom, Mike Ribeiro, and James Neal.
Injury Report:
Sergei Gonchar remains on injured reserve with the Dallas Stars for at least two more weeks with a fracture in his ankle suffered during the Stars final preseason matchup. Jamie Oleksiak will take over for Kevin Connauton who took over for Gonchar on Thursday night. Rich Peverley remains on the non-injured reserve.
Matt Cullen remains sidelined with an upper body injury and Mike Fisher is out with an injury to his Achilles. Viktor Stalberg remains benched with a lower-body injury.
Projected line combinations:
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Valeri Nichushkin
Erik Cole – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt
Shaw Horcoff – Vernon Fiddler – Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Brenden Dillon
Patrik Nemeth – Jamie Oleksiak
Anders Lindback
Kari Lehtonen
Nashville Predators
Rene Bourque – Mike Ribeiro – James Neal
Filip Forsberg – Derek Roy – Craig Smith
Colin Wilson – Calle Jarnkrok – Olli Jokinen
Taylor Beck – Paul Gaustad – Eric Nystrom
Roman Josi- Shea Weber
Seth Jones – Anton Volchenkov
Ryan Ellis – Mattias Ekholm
Pekka Rinne
Carter Hutton
Final Score Prediction:
The Dallas Stars will still feel the longing from game one and will be determined to play the full 60 and get their first win. I like the Stars winning, 4-2, over the Nashville Predators, with Anders Lindback shining in his first performance in green, stopping 30-32.
Leave your comments and questions below, and as always, thanks for reading! Go Stars.