Dallas Stars vs. Vancouver Canucks Preview
We’re five games into the 2014-2015 Dallas Stars regular season and there have been times of great success and others of equally great disappointment. Dallas has seen leads evaporate and scored in the dying seconds of the third period to clinch a victory, but there hasn’t been any real consistency.
Records and Scores
The Stars (2-1-2) will look for that consistency and their first home victory after dropping the last two in a shootout and overtime respectfully. Dallas had leads in both of those games, but couldn’t hold onto them to secure the two points, and tonight they will aim to avoid that trend.
The Canucks, however, are 3-1-0 through their first four of games this season and are coming off a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, 4-2. The team itself has been in rebuild after losing in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals; since then, they’ve changed coaches twice, traded away both of their elite goaltenders, and almost entirely revamped the team’s structure.
Story lines:
Battle of the System
The recent change behind the bench is the replacement of highly controversial head coach John Tortorella with former Texas Stars Head Coach Willie Desjardins. He led the Texas Stars to their First Calder Cup Championship in history last season and was hired shortly after by Canucks’ GM Jim Benning.
Last season, both Dallas Stars Head Coach Lindy Ruff and Desjardins employed nearly identical systems, so tonight will show which team can either be more successful in the system’s execution or better exploit the opponent’s weaknesses.
Special Teams
Converting on special teams is essential in this league; however, it’s been an area in which Dallas has struggled as of late. They’ve been better recently at gaining the line and getting opportunities, but with the amount of offensive talent in the line-up their success rate should be much higher.
Vancouver hasn’t been particularly successful with the man advantage either, but you can never discount the amount of talent and uncanny abilities of twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin. That is why it is crucial for the Stars to avoid taking penalties tonight.
Dallas Defensive Injury Woes
Defensive breakdowns have caused leads to evaporate in recent games for the Stars and in light of the regular season-ending injury to Patrik Nemeth Dallas could have more of those issues. Either Jamie Oleksiak or recent call up Jyrki Jokipakka will take the ice for the first time this season and adjusting to the speed of the NHL has proven time and time again to be difficult for young defensemen.
The Stars defense has already had its fair share of injuries this season with two of the six regular defensemen out, so a much less experienced blue line will take the ice tonight.
Bottom Line
If the Stars can feed off the crowd’s energy, utilize their speed and avoid penalties they should be successful. Dallas will also need a solid performance in net from expected starter Kari Lehtonen, who has had issues with inconsistency thus far this season and has yet to look entirely himself.
Injury Report
Dallas forwards Rich Peverley (heart) and Valeri Nichushkin (groin) are on IR, while defenseman Sergei Gonchar (ankle) has yet to skate since his injury earlier this season. Stars’ defenseman Patrik Nemeth will be out for the remainder of the regular season with an arm laceration he sustained in the last game against the Flyers.
For Vancouver, center Bo Horvat (upper body) and defenseman Ryan Stanton (lower body) will not play.
Expected Line-ups
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Jason Spezza – Tyler Seguin
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt
Curtis McKenzie – Vernon Fiddler – Ales Hemsky
Erik Cole – Shawn Horcoff – Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Brenden Dillon
Kevin Connauton – Jamie Oleksiak
Kari Lehtonen
Scratches: Jyrki Jokipakka and Patrick Eaves
Vancouver Canucks
Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Radim Vrbata
Chris Higgins – Nick Bonino – Alexandre Burrows
Shawn Matthias – Brad Richardson – Zack Kassian
Derek Dorsett – Linden Vey – Jannik Hansen
Dan Hamhuis– Kevin Bieksa
Alexander Edler – Christopher Tanev
Luca Sbisa – Yannick Weber
Eddie Lack/Ryan Miller
Prediction
Dallas will be focused on getting their first home win of the season and that will drive their game. I predict that they will have a strong start, but have to kill off penalties toward the end of the game in order to win 3-2 in regulation.
Where to Watch
The puck drops at the American Airlines Center at 7:30PM (CT). The game is going to be on Fox Sports Southwest or you can listen to the live radio broadcast via 1310 the Ticket. The Dallas Stars twitter (@Dallasstars) also tweet live feeds of the game.
Be sure to cheek back after the game for analysis!