Edmonton Oilers @ Dallas Stars – Game Preview

The Dallas Stars have won two of their last three at home and will look to make it three tonight when they take on the Edmonton Oilers. This will be the first of three meetings between the two teams, with the next two coming in December and March, both in Edmonton, Alberta. The game will be broadcast Fox Sports – Southwest (FSSW), and you can also listen to it on 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 PM CST at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Records and Scores

The Dallas Stars sit with a record of 8-9-4 at the moment, good enough for sixth place in the gritty Central Division. They have found a way to win their last two and look like they could be turning things around, but they still have a lot of ground to cover before reentering the playoff picture. Their most recent contest ended up as a win, beating the Los Angeles Kings 5-4 on Saturday for the third game of the homestand. The Stars started off red hot, and fell back in the third, part of why they squeaked out a win that should have been much more convincing. They will look to win three straight tonight when they take on the Oilers.

The Edmonton Oilers have seen much, much better days. After starting out the season at 6-8-1, they have lost their last six, bringing their record to a horrendous 6-13-2. They sit last place in the Pacific Division, and are a long-winded 14 points away from a playoff spot. Their most recent performance was Saturday when they were thwarted by the Blackhawks, 7-1. They will look to get back on track tonight before their season is completely derailed.

Storylines

The Dallas Stars need to figure 60 minutes out

The Stars have won their last two, mainly at the expense of luck and spurted efforts. They still have not figured out what it means to compete for 60 minutes and win a game through pure, consistent energy. They acknowledge their mistakes, too. “I think we sat back a little too much in the third, and those guys (Kings) were good near the end,” Dallas Stars captain Jamie Ben said. “But, like I said, our goalie played great and our defense did a great job. We’re fortunate enough to be done with it.” The Stars can pull off wins as it is, with their high-powered offense and quick-thinking defense, along with their savvy goaltending. But it would be much easier to not take the risk of losing and bag the game early. “I think we can win the rest of them, but we have to be better,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “It’s really hard to stand here and talk about how we played so well for the first almost 40 minutes. We’ve got some guys who have to grab moments in the game and change it. That shift at the end of the second period was pretty disappointing when we take the 5-2 lead and have the momentum. It was a disappointing part of the game for me and I think that led to the disappointing type of third period we had. It’s great to win two games, we won’t continue to win if that’s the way we’re going to operate. We’ve seen it too many times.”

The Oilers have no answers for anything right now

The Edmonton Oilers just have not been able to answer the call for wins. Over the last five games, they have been outscored 20-9 and are 0-4-1. The defense and goaltending have been horrific, giving away four goals per game over the span. The offense has been just as bad, scoring less than two goals on average over the span.Neither goalie is above .900 in the save percentage category. Answering the call is a necessity for the team at the moment, who had no injured players over the entire five game span. The Oilers have faced a long struggle over the past few years, and just cannot seem to put together a promising, well-rounded group. Led by Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, two forwards with extreme promise, they will attempt to best the Stars tonight and get back on the winning path.

Injury report

The Dallas Stars will be missing D Patrik Nemeth (arm laceration) and F Valeri Nichushkin (hip) for extended amounts of time. F Ryan Garbutt has missed the past week, but will likely be back in the lineup tonight.

The Edmonton Oilers will be missing F Benoit Pouliot due to a broken foot suffered against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

Projected lines

Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Tyler Seguin

Antoine Roussel – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky

Travis Moen – Vernon Fiddler – Patrick Eaves

Curtis McKenzie (later reassigned to AHL) – Shawn Horcoff – Erik Cole

Extras: Ryan Garbutt-Colton Sceviour

Trevor Daley – Jason Demers

Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg

Jyrki Jokipakka – Jamie Oleksiak

Extra: Jordie Benn

Kari Lehtonen

Anders Lindback

Edmonton Oilers

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins- Jordan Eberle

David Perron – Mark Arcobello – Teddy Purcell

Jesse Joensuu – Leon Draisaitl – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Steven Pinizzotto

Extra: Luke Gazdic

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Martin Marincin – Mark Fayne

Keith Aulie – Justin Schultz

Extra: Nikita Nikitin

Ben Scrivens

Viktor Fasth

Prediction

The first assumption by many will likely be that the Dallas Stars will win in a routing victory that utterly demoralizes the Edmonton Oilers. But, let’s not get THAT out of hand. I have the Dallas Stars learning from their 60-minute mistakes for the most part, and downing the Oilers 4-1. Lehtonen proves he is a brick wall once again, stopping 30 of 31. Anything could happen though, so make sure to tune in and watch the game! Go Stars.